Shooting of Qu'ran shows a need for better understanding

It's going to be the hot news of the Sunday news cycle, this latest incident where an American marksman and his buddies desecrated the Qu'ran with a slur and bullets on a shooting range.

As I read the story, I felt that it cried out for better understanding and compassion.  It was obvious that both were missing from the perpetrators of this event.  

Compassion and understanding are such basic premises, but they much be nurtured, they must be built.

By and large, if we have contact with people, we gain an understanding for who they are, what makes them tick, and that understanding helps us to have compassion for them, in whatever it is they are faced with in life.

-The Chinese earthquake holds much more importance for those of us who have friends or family affected by the event.

-The storm in Myanmar creates a catch in the throat of those of us who have a connection with that land and its people.

-The Boxing Day Tsunami will still hold the interest and focus of those of us who have a close personal connection with the affected lands and peoples.

It's that connection that creates the empathy.  The connection with the person's humanity that generates the compassion.

So how do we create that connection, that empathy?

Remember back to High School for a second.  Most everyone had an exchange student or two at their school.  You can probably remember their name, the country they were from, and something interesting or funny they said or did.

If something happens in the country where they were from, we perk our ears up a little more--take a little more interest, read the story with more care.  Perhaps even donate some time or money to a cause that would positively impact the situation, whatever it was.

If you were some of the lucky few to have hosted an exchange
student as you were growing up, then you have an even closer bond.  That person might be as close to you as a brother or sister (or son or daughter), of maybe a cousin or aunt.  Whatever the case may be, if something bad happens over there, we get on the phone right quick, to find out if they are OK or if there is anything we can do to help.

The common ground here is the connection created by living with (or in) another culture.  Those students who come and live in the US for a year not only pollinate so many of these relationships with friendship, a smile and understanding, but they bring home the same things: an understanding of America as a land of people much like them, fellow humans, trying to do the best they can.

This group of people here on DKos are special--we all have a burning interest in politics and doing what's right for our country (and state and city).  In that vein, I beg of all of you to take a look at hosting a student from a foreign country in your home. I recommend AFS Intercultural, but most reputable organizations will do a fine job.

It will create a lifelong friendship with a person whom you might never have met.  As that person interacts with their schoolmates and your neighbors, they will start to change their perceptions of the outside world--it will put a face to a culture, a smile to a religion and a name to a country.

You can  be that voice in the room that helps to change that room.  Everyone who has close interaction with the student will have views of the world which will be changed forever, and for the better.

Maybe in a future world, that soldier will never dream of putting a Qu'ran on a firing range because he had gone to school with a energetic boy from Egypt, who told stories of Ramadan and lanterns to his classmates, and of his religion, Islam.

I ask of you to give something of yourself to help make this world smaller.  Your return will be tremendous.  

Who knows?  

You just might change the world.