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News: Murder in Sri Lanka!

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Sad to hear of another of the apparently continuous news of bloodshed. This time against Catholic Churches in the Island of Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon. This is where there have been historical animosities between Buddhist and Hindu factions, but now the target are Christians.

636


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Sad it should happen to innocents merely expressing their devotion to their faith!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Let me reassure you that as terrible as the event is, murder has decreased continuously since the 14th Century and apart from the awful blips in the 19th Century major world wars we are gradually more civilized, poverty and starvation are shrinking, most youth are literate and we are better at being human than ever before in our history!

Why do we think otherwise?

News is biased towards the terrible and cruel, the shocks and betrayals.

But actually our societies are more compassionate, empathetic and supportive to the average “non-privileged” person!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Sri Lanka points to Islamist militants in Easter attacks that killed at least 290
Sri Lankan officials believe an Islamist militant group known as National Thowheed Jamath was behind the Easter morning attacks that killed at least 290 people and wounded another 500. Authorities took 24 people into custody in connection with the bombings.

Read in The Wall Street Journal: https://apple.news/Abo7WzncFTqSitmOfekkAJg


Shared from Apple News
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
The sad thing is this act of terror is so futile. It doesn’t alter the fact that folk today look for love and compassion. It will not change the plus and minuses of vibrant life in Sri Lanka for more than a blip of sadness.

This is a Pyrrhic victory since although the murders achieve its goal of terror, it has no ultimate effect on Christians, worldwide.

Asher
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Asher,

Why do we think otherwise?

"We" all at most times think in terms of a small time window, perhaps our own lifespan, often shorter. And within that, we are horrified, not so much by a temporally-local increase in something outrageous, but by the outrage itself.

I'm quite aware, broadly, of the improvement in medicine (the profession as well as the substance) over the centuries, but more poignant to me is why there is no primary care physician in Alamogordo that can diagnose a common cold.

I recognize that, owing to the work of Salk and many others, poliomyelitis has been all but eradicated, and am outraged that through the work of Wakefield and others, measles again reaches toward epidemic status.

The three lead horsemen of the Apocalypse were actually Greed, Stupidity, and Meanness, and they gallop on.

Now, I will watch and listen to Thomas Heywood play "War March of the Priests" (Mendelssohn, from the incidental music to "Athalie") on the Klais organ at Himmerod Abbey, Germany, while his adorable wife, Simone, turns the pages and works the presets. Organ for three hands and two feet. Arrangement with a very complex pedal part.

Then I will feel better.

Best regards,

Doug
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Asher,

Here is the Heywood:


The machine (or the recording) is a little muddy.

Now here is the young Dutch prodigy, Gert van Hoef (age here about 25)


His gravid stop assistant (Thomas in the oven) is his adorable wife, Marjolein.

Is this all wondrous or what!

Best regards,

Doug
 

Tom dinning

Registrant*
It’s possibly reassuring for some to make a statement about the nature of humans and the futility of their pursuit from the comfort of their centrally air conditioned home in the suburbs of a relatively peaceful city.
Well, that’s done! Now for some Mendelssohn and a cupcake.

Personally, I’d prefer to ignore the rest of humanity and play some Mehldau. It’s the closest thing to a modern organ I’d come to in my collection.

 
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