Koray,
I appreciate your bringing our attention to the hunger strike in the Turkish
prisons. Although the strike was news in this country, I think that it is
too easy to think of it as something far away. It is unsettling to realize
how hardened or indifferent one can become to people dying. It is not easy
to see how someone's death in another country has anything to do with
oneself, let alone that there is anything that one should feel a
responsibility for doing. The news is full of stories of people dying for
no good reason other than that they were at the wrong place at the wrong
time (e.g., they got on a certain airliner or visit a certain park at a
fateful time). So what is new about one more death?
I think that what should have caught our attention more was that these
people were choosing death, because they believed in something that was more
important to them than themselves. Unfortunately, that these people might
die was more newsworthy than what they were dying for. It is the issue of
what these people were willing to die for that you return our attention to.
I cannot think of a more profound statement of the belief that life is not
worth living, unless certain conditions are recognized and granted, than to
sacrifice one's life for these beliefs.
Perhaps this is one of the drawbacks of our postmodern worldview; there
seems to be little space for those dimensions that give depth and height to
human existence, and without such dimensions how can one be truly affected
and appreciate the actions of the Turkish prisoners?
John Sproule
Knoxville, TN
I appreciate your bringing our attention to the hunger strike in the Turkish
prisons. Although the strike was news in this country, I think that it is
too easy to think of it as something far away. It is unsettling to realize
how hardened or indifferent one can become to people dying. It is not easy
to see how someone's death in another country has anything to do with
oneself, let alone that there is anything that one should feel a
responsibility for doing. The news is full of stories of people dying for
no good reason other than that they were at the wrong place at the wrong
time (e.g., they got on a certain airliner or visit a certain park at a
fateful time). So what is new about one more death?
I think that what should have caught our attention more was that these
people were choosing death, because they believed in something that was more
important to them than themselves. Unfortunately, that these people might
die was more newsworthy than what they were dying for. It is the issue of
what these people were willing to die for that you return our attention to.
I cannot think of a more profound statement of the belief that life is not
worth living, unless certain conditions are recognized and granted, than to
sacrifice one's life for these beliefs.
Perhaps this is one of the drawbacks of our postmodern worldview; there
seems to be little space for those dimensions that give depth and height to
human existence, and without such dimensions how can one be truly affected
and appreciate the actions of the Turkish prisoners?
John Sproule
Knoxville, TN