...little things die.

When we stroll down a side walk or a country lane little living organisms are dying under our feet. We hardly notice. Bugs are splattered over our windshields and hoods. We swat flies and set mousetraps (you all see where this is going?).

Mudcatters may pay a little closer attention to this carnage. Jains and Hindus may even take careful precautions to protect said life. But they can't protect the microscopic organisms that exist below our threshold of awareness. And some we actively root out before they "get" us. I'm thinking of disease vectors now.

Governments are big things. And when big things move, little things die. Compared to governments, individual human beings are the litle things and sometoimes we get underfoot or caught in the machinery of State. We make noise. We try to inform "Someone" about what may be happening to us but in the grand scheme of things, we count for little and are usually just run over. In a democracy we try to unite our voices to raise the level of protection and we do have some degree of success in that direction.

But like the useful little cells in our bodies, we are expendable---up to a point. I marvel how governments wrangle with each other...and people die. Sometimes they fight and then more people die. Even when doing beneficient works people die from various causes associated with the endeavor. How aware should a nation be of its members? How aware can it be? How aware can it afford to be?

Sometimes we, as a nation, become aware that a world neighbor, like Darfur in the Sudan has something really wrong with it. It's killing a LOT of people. What do we do as a concerned nation? As a righteous and noble nation? Remember, IF WE MOVE, little things, little people will die; some of our own and undoubtedly some of those who we seek to help. Did we pick the right side to help in Bosnia? in Mogadishu? Tokyo? Berlin? Iraq?

No matter what we do, some people will die as a direct cause of any acton or inaction we take or omit. You may want to comment on this. I don't know. It was just a little meditation I had when I reflected on the removal of a great source of death and needless killing be the expedient of the death of Saddam Hussein and the role our nation took in that process. Regardless of your political orientation, being the head-of-state is, or should be an awesome responsibility. Who really wants that and why? Governments are dangerous behemoths that crush little things to death whether that is their intention or not.