2:00am
Sunday, 6/12/16
It has been a long day of errands and preparation for my impending trip to Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. I jumped into bed to finally end my day and get some sleep. I lie there and think about how nice it is to be back home in my bed. I lament the fact that I will have but just a few days to enjoy home before I am off again. After a few minutes of tossing and turning, I finally drift off to sleep.
At the same time in a nightclub a few miles away, a very different scene is unfolding. Forty-nine people have just been shot and killed with another fifty three injured. The sounds of sirens and the cries of victims and first responders fill the air. This is all the work of a single man. A tragedy has just hit my community.
Over the last few weeks, I have been learning about the histories of Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in anticipation of my trip. If I have learned just one thing about them, it is that these countries are no strangers to tragedy and bloodshed. Both have endured many hardships that would break the best of us. So why was it so hard to see them for what they were?
It seems so easy to dismiss these things as more historical events, to dismiss the deaths in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina as mere statistics. These are things that have happened in far-off places some time ago. I am visiting these places and learning about them, but these events and people have nothing to do with me. These were thoughts that may have creeped in at some point or another. Looking at these things in this way is so very easy until a tragedy strikes home.
While the magnitude was different, the pain is the same. The pain in Belgrade, the pain in Sarajevo, and the pain in Orlando are no different. As I travel to Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, I hope that they can forgive me for neglecting their pain. Theirs is as real as mine. I hope that in my travels in these places I am able to learn more about what happened and how they have begun to heal their wounds. These countries saw terrible things and persisted through them. My hope is that Orlando can carry on as well.
An Orlando Memorial
Srebrenica Genocide Memorial (Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina)