LIisten to the rhythm of the falling shell

Hear it make the rubble dance,

Turning life into a scorching hell,

Go quickly, there may be no second chance.

So much for the four day cease-fire. The relentless airstrikes are again targeting children and women and civilians and the daily massacre gets worse. The Israel’s prime minister has said it is not going to stop. Is there not any voice of sanity left on this planet? No one finds any comfort in the death of children, which ever country they belong to and the death of an Israeli child by alleged rocket fire is hurtful.

But the Hamas have denied they fired these initial missiles and there is no evidence to show that they did. Ergo ,the fragile ceasefire collapsed in a dusty heap and all that is left is the sound of guns. But now, the retaliatory fire has intensified and over 600 rockets have entered Israel causing a barrage into Palestinian territory.

The Israeli assault, ironically, has many Israelis living in areas near the Palestinian territory turned into refugees. Many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are killed on a daily basis. It is like you wake up in the morning if you sleep at all and you give thanks if you see the sun go down. More than 2,100 people, mostly civilians, have lost their lives and over 10,600 have been injured.

Ukraine. Syria. CAR. Nigeria. India and Pakistan. Iraq. South Sudan. Mali. Who comes next?

What is the end result of this mad spiral? Who is the winner, where is the retribution, what is the color of a badge of courage soaked in human blood?

It is said that every generation leaves a legacy for its children. What legacy will there be if there are no children.

I mentioned a voice of sanity. One person with the charisma and the spirit to stand up in front of instant media and call for a global moratorium on conflict. To say for the next ten days or ten weeks or ten months the world will spike its guns and cordite will no longer be the fragrance (stench) of the year.

That voice of sanity has to be neutral, forged in a crucible of peace and justice, believing that all men and women are born equal, ready to stand up and speak for the huge majority that wants nothing more than to take care of its family and pay its bills and get through its day with a nod to the neighbors and a little grace and dignity to paint its walls.

Why is it so difficult to do. In this century there have not even been ten days of total peace on earth. There are currently 35 plus hot spots in the world. If you add insurgencies and internecine conflicts the number rises exponentially. Children are the single largest casualty.

The UN sees 1,000 deaths in battle in a year as the classification for a war zone. Many of these wars are as old as half a century but still stay unresolved.

The Voice of Sanity needs to know this and to know that half a billion people are under fire at any given time. That is one in 12 human beings going to sleep with the sound of mortar fire every night.

Why is it so difficult to find one person in over 6 billion people who can say, enough, like enough of the savagery, let’s stop it all right here.

We need a leader of that stature, someone who tasks himself or herself with the responsibility of telling the world that we will implode if we do not stop hatred, if we do not give up violence, that there is no pride or honor in mutilation.

When will come such a person and is he there waiting in the wings for the right time. The right time has come … we are running out of it.