Soweto, and hope

I’m in Maryland visiting a friend. In Silver Spring, there’s a film festival in progress called “Silverdocs,” devoted to documentaries. At a large outdoor screen in a park last night, a retrospective on the Soweto uprising in South Africa 30 years ago was shown.

Much more interesting, though, was watching the kids playing together in the park. While their parents watched the movie about horrific struggles between blacks and whites and the terrible toll of racism, black and white kids took turns playing ball and tag, without a care in the world for this thing called race.

May the same come to be for Israeli and Palestinian kids. And Shi’ite and Sunni kids. And Armenian and Turkish kids. All kids. And may they not lose it as they grow up.