Thursday 19 October, 2006

Violence

I haven't posted this week because I've been sad. One of the students I've been working with at Monash University was beaten, almost to death, in the city last Friday night. He was a very beautiful, vibrant and engaging young man and now his life lies in the balance. His parents are keeping things private so I don't feel able to say more than that but it's one of those shocking, senseless things that makes it hard to listen to the news, or move through the world, in the same way. Perhaps we all - certainly I do - find ways to keep a wall between us and the hate and violence in the world and then suddenly that wall disappears.

A few years ago another young man I taught was attacked seriously, though he recovered. Both these attacks have left me with a sense of how vulnerable young men are as they are entering adulthood and the senseless violence they are subjected to - usually by each other. It's just heartbreaking.

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