MIDEAST STRIFE AHS IMPACT RIGHT HERE TOO

Folks from Southeast Missouri have been surprised from time to time, while visiting some far-off place, to read or hear some news about a tragedy back home: a tornado or a flood or a bizarre murder. Seeing news about our hometown when we are thousands of miles away puts a strange perspective on what otherwise would be fairly routine news.

Imagine, if you will, being a long way from home and reading in a newspaper that your own house has burned down. Most of us would be in a panic to telephone for information.

Southeast Missourians are fortunate, because they don't worry about going to a foreign land and reading about war breaking out in Cape Girardeau or Dexter or New Madrid. Other newsworthy things happen in our neck of the woods, but war isn't one of them.

But just imagine what it must be like for those in Southeast Missouri whose home is in the Middle East. What is it like to be flooded with news reports that warlike conditions exist in your Palestinian hometown or your Israeli city?

That's exactly the predicament of quite a few residents of our area who have family and friends in the middle of the current Mideast unrest.

Sometimes it is difficult for us here in the middle of America to make much of a connection with the goings-on in troubled areas where fighting and bloodshed have been a way of life for generations.

But when the strife has an impact on someone we know, the perspective can change dramatically.

Too often, our comprehension of world events is limited to the extent that what happens halfway around the globe affects our pocketbooks or our access to consumer goods. It is too easy for us to not think about world strife in terms of human lives and suffering.

As we continue to watch the current Mideast situation unfold, we would do well to keep in mind that this is not some remote skirmish that has no effect on our lives or those around us. Indeed, the biggest impact might be on our neighbors, and we aren't even aware of it.

It is also too easy to take sides in times like these. Let's remember that ancient struggles for identity and a homeland to call your own aren't going to be settled quickly or easily. In the meantime, all of us can make an effort to learn and understand more about the situation.