CROSSVILLE —
We live in a difficult, destructive, discouraging time. We have enough "natural" problems with forest fires and tornadoes without having to endure the horrible senseless numbers of deaths by bullets and bombs.
Amidst our agony are there any examples of hope? I have one for your reflection.
It is hard to imagine a bleaker place than Bosnia in 1992. Ethnic tensions, centuries old, had flared again. Protestant Serbs, Orthodox Croats, and Sunni Muslims battled for political control. Detention camps specializing in torture arose everywhere as each group tried to contain the others. Neighborhoods that had been integrated for years became ground zero for ethnic cleansing. A history of bitterness long thought gone raged again. It was a bloody, seemingly hopeless, time.
Vedran Smailovic was a Bosinian born in 1956 in Sarajevo. He became a professional cellist who played in the Sarajevo Opera Theater. Describing 1992 and that period of war, Smailovic said Sarajevo was "the capital of hell." The Opera Theater was in ruins. The economy was in shambles. The prospect of ever reuniting the country dwindled day by day.
Then, at four in the afternoon on May 22, 1992, a long line of starving people were shelled as they waited in front of the only bakery left in Sarajevo. Twenty-two people died.
The next day, as more hungry people lined up again to beg for bread, Vedran Smailovic, dressed in the black suit and tie in which he had played every night until the Opera Theater was incinerated, arrived carrying his cello and a chair.
Smailovic sat down in the middle of the rubble and, surrounded by the debris of war, the stench of death and the despair of those still living, he began to play Albinoni's "Adagio." And, no matter rhe continuing danger, he came back to the same place for 21 days after that to do the same thing, to honor each life that had been lost in the bakery line.
Today there is, in the spot where Smailiovic sat, a monunument of a man in a chair playing a cello. The monument is to his refusal to surrender to evil. It is to the hope that beauty and joy can rise up and be reborn in the midst of a living hell. It is about being open to the God of surprising newness. It is about living the resurrection in our time.
• • •
This column is sponsored by Cumberland Countians for Peace and Justice and dedicated by the local writers to the theme that the lion and the lamb can and must learn to live together and grow in their relationship toward one another to ensure a better world. Opinions expressed in “Lion and the Lamb” columns are not necessarily those of the Crossville Chronicle publisher, editor or staff. For more information, contact Ted Braun, editor, at 277-5135.
Opinion
Lion and the Lamb: Music in the middle of rubble
- Opinion
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LION AND THE LAMB: More than meets the eye
It was a quiet Saturday afternoon, and my wife Sheral suggested I join her on a shopping trip. In Crossville Sheral went inside a store and I stayed outside looking at the bargain specials. My mind was in neutral, so I almost missed the little boy’s question. He was about seven or eight, evidently had just seen his first Amish family, and they had seemed very strange to him.
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WE THE PEOPLE: No time to govern
Bob Dole’s tribute to George McGovern at the time of his death last year was both beautiful and touching. Speaking of the friendship they shared and the work they did together during their time in the Senate and later in retirement, Dole said McGovern “was one of the finest public servants I ever had the privilege to know.” He went on to say that they knew what they had in common was far more important than their different political philosophies.
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TIDBITS: Be wary of home improvement shows
Sometimes I think home improvement stores need a screening tool of some sort, perhaps some kind of licensing or reference check. For example, before one can walk in and buy that handy dandy table saw, they need three people to vouch that they aren’t likely to cut off a bodily appendage.
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STUMPTALK: Obama’s Benghazi betrayal
“Betrayal” is an ugly word. “To fail or desert especially in a time of need.” Those who pay attention to the actions of Obama are justified in saying we have been betrayed. Think about the IRS and DOJ debacles. Clearly our ambassador and his staff at the Benghazi consulate were betrayed, deserted in their time of mortal need. Obama allowed them to be murdered.
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Lion and the Lamb: When schools go beyond the three Rs
The three Rs, reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic, have always been at the foundation of education in Cumberland County. Recently, however, a fourth R has been added — religion. In permission was granted representatives of The Gideons International to distribute Bibles to fifth-graders in the Brown Elementary School in Crossville, and this took place April 11.
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We the People: Your vote — use it or lose it
A powerful faction within the Republican Party is determined to downsize our federal government. They want to reshape programs that originated to protect common folks like us.
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Stumptalk: The elephant in the room
I recently saw video footage of the president surrounded by the heads of all the services; they had assembled to address the continuing and scandalous problem of sexual harassment in the armed forces. The elephant in the room, of course, was young women in the military serving in close quarters with young men.
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We the People: Reality check, anyone?
Harry Truman had a birthday anniversary in early May. Harry was proud of being from the “show me” state. Republicans who aspire to stop all progress and set the clock back should take a lesson from Truman. He did something besides complain and obstruct progress.
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The Lion and the Lamb: The devil and the IRS
National news these past several weeks has focused on a scandal in the Internal Revenue Service. IRS agents have been targeting Tea Party and other conservative groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status. As this story developed over the past several weeks, however, it has become apparent that the IRS problem is much greater than the complaints raised by the Tea Party.
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Tidbits: What's in a name?
Being born in the time before routine ultrasounds, my parents thought I was going to be a boy. I'm not sure if mom was carrying high or low, or if the wedding ring on a string went one way or the other, or what other old wives tale was used to determine I would be a he rather than a she, but that's what they thought and that's how they prepared.
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