sometimes a picture...

I've decided to start a new tag called "sometimes a picture" and it will be made up of pictures that are very moving. The ones that capture some essence of the human experience. The ones that make me visibly shudder when I see them...

The first is the front page picture in the NYT's this morning
Ali Yussef/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Its a picture of some kids celebrating in the streets after the Iraqi national team beat South Korea to advance to the Asian Cup Championship Match.

Sports is often the hobgoblin of the left. The Marxist contention that its an opiate of the masses. And it can be... such as in this image. The existence the kids in this picture have to wake up to every morning is beyond my comprehension. But the joy in their eyes is just as real--for just a moment a football match alleviated the suffering. My complicity in their suffering makes pause. But the eyes and smiles in this picture push me to take all the emotion I feel and try every day to channel it not towards anger at the orchestrator's of my complicity as a US citizen; but towards my capacity to help be a participant in pragmatic and constructive changes in the future.