I just had a chance to read the accounts from the hostage crisis in Russia. As a father myself, I can only imagine the pain and sorrow of the parents and relatives of those touched by this tragedy. Yes, the Russians have treated the Chechens brutally since the days of Stalin, but nothing can justify the deliberate targeting of small children. In fact the incident brought to mind this passage from Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov:
l must suffer to pay for the eternal harmony, what have children to do with it, tell me, please? It's beyond all comprehension why they should suffer, and why they should pay for the harmony. Why should they, too, furnish material to enrich the soil for the harmony of the future? I understand solidarity in sin among men. I understand solidarity in retribution, too; but there can be no such solidarity with children. And if it is really true that they must share responsibility for all their fathers' crimes, such a truth is not of this world and is beyond my comprehension.
Monday, September 06, 2004
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