Benediction

One of my students emailed this to me yesterday after hearing of the assassination:

Benizar Bhutto was "just a real woman" with the heart of a lion. She
loved the principles of democracy and human rights as much as she
loved her people. She studied at Harvard. She knew what these words
mean because she saw us living these principles. It is better to
light a candle than to curse the darkness. The men in her country
who do not value these principles killed her; because they have
power. Is compassion without action simply indulgence? When the men
in this country with power cease fighting to defend democracy and
human rights, then we will suffer Benizar's fate. Except we will
only be "just real women" with the hearts of mice. Are there so many
countries in this world where democracy and human rights prevail that
we can afford to watch one be still-born? The mother was killed;
perhaps the child will survive. Freedom or Freedumb?

Feel free to reprint it and pass it on. I'm going to email it to all
my women friends.
Written 12/29. 2007/ Lynne Haines