The End of 2012 Piece I Could Not Bring Myself to Publish At The Time

Death. This year has to end in death. 
What else? It was supposed to be the End of Days and for many it was, more than any other year that I can remember. 

More than I would ever care to see again, but I know that I probably will. My losses, heavy as they were, are light in the light of the day. 

Where war and genocide continue unabated around the world. Where murderers have easy access to combat weapons. Where losses of Native youth to murder, suicide, violence, accidental death and chronic illness are beyond comprehension. 

It begins with poverty and displacement. According to the United Nations, First Nations children in western countries live in Third World Conditions with an estimated 80% of urban children under the age of 6 living in poverty. The number of Aboriginal children involved with the child welfare system across Canada rose by 71.5% between 1995 and 2001.

The one time light upon the hill has twisted out of control just as the tornadoes that set upon them like monster wasps. A crazed man with weapons of mass destruction kills 20 children aged 5-6 and half a dozen adults. In the days to follow, sales spike for the guns used in the slaughter. This is why America is the scariest country in the world. Self-defense is constitutional. Self-destruction is gospel.  

Yet our suffering pales. In Syria, it is estimated that the nearly two year old civil war has claimed almost 50,000 lives. At year's end the UN - Arab Leagure envoy Lakdar Brahimi told reporters, "If nearly 50,000 people have been killed in about two years, do not expect just 25,000 people to die next year - maybe 100,000 will die." Bodies are piled and burned, piled and burned. Is this where the Arab Spring dies and the dreams of democracy in the Middle East?

Dec. 21, 2012 came and passed with a fizzle. It was not the end. It is perhaps the beginning of a new dawn as many Mayan would say to anyone that would listen.

My mother shushed talk of End of Days, "when your time is over that's your End of Days." She found the talk offensive. Offensive to the life we have. Offensive to the day we have today.

It is time that the people who have been predicting Apocalypse are silent and silenced for their disrespect of the life they have and the life around us. For the real life losses that we must endure.

There is a tomorrow.