WITNESS

Right now in the faraway lands of Russia and the Ukraine, events are unfolding that will make problems for those areas and the rest of the world as well.  From where we live, it would be ridiculously presumptuous for us to comment on what we think should, or should not, happen.  We have far too much to be concerned about right on our own home turf.

But it occurred to me that one wonderful way the rest of the world could help these troubled areas while things are escalating, would be to invoke the old Amish method of witnessing.  I remember so vividly the wonderful Harrison Ford film, ‘Witness’, when, at the end, the villain was determined to remove witnesses to his crimes, and the witnesses were vulnerable, and a group of nearby Amish farmers simply appeared, with no intent to interfere or to participate, to simply witness what might happen.  It was an incredibly powerful scene.  What more powerful weapon than for someone to say, “I see you.”

So wouldn’t it be possibly wonderful if all or most of the most powerful countries in the world each sent one or two representatives to a gathering, say at the city of Kiev, not to take sides, not to interfere, but simply to witness events, so that if another country decided to seriously invade that country, they would be there, just be there.

There is just so much strife and misery and suffering in this world, and what I would really love to witness, from my faraway vantage point, is more outcome of peace, of communication, of understanding.  And wouldn’t it be possibly wonderful if solutions could be found and violence and anger could be avoided, and futures could be built, without outside interference, by the simple means of polite witness?