All photos courtesy of Unsplash
The Eagles, an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1971, are one of the world's best-selling bands of all time, having sold more than 200 million records. One of their songs, "Hole in the World" begins like this:
There's a hole in the world tonight.
There's a cloud of fear and sorrow.
There's a hole in the world tonight.
Don't let there be a hole in the world tomorrow.
Even if we are optimists and constantly look for the best, it does seem, at least at times, that there is a hole in the world. We live in a day of almost unrestrained violence. Children can be snatched from homes and killed at school. Bombs and missiles are exploded in public places. There is war in Ukraine, Gaza and many other less publicized places. No community, no race, no nation is immune to, nor protected from a growing culture of violence. It is as if there is a hole in the world. Now, more than ever, we need to learn a different way, for the path we are following leads to a dark and dangerous wilderness.
I like the way of Azim Khamisa and Ples Felix, two men who experienced first hand a cloud of fear and sorrow. One deadly evening in 1995, 14-year-old Tony Hicks shot and killed a 20-year-old college student and pizza deliveryman in San Diego, California. Tony and several other gang members ordered pizza and, when it was delivered, Tony was told by his gang to shoot the young man, Tariq Khamisa, who delivered the food.
