Our thoughts with all our French brethren

As this is a worldwide forum and I do know there are some here from France, just wanted to say our thoughts are very much with you.

I started this thread with the hopes we could just express our sympathy and caring for the people, not get into the political side of things. While I fully understand many have strong views, as do I, that's not the purpose of this thread. It's simply to say "we're thinking of the people of Paris and surrounding areas."

Yes, Brian, you are biased. So is 60 minutes. So is Carl. So am I. But can we simply leave that for other times and other places. We're not going to solve the world's problems here on a yacht forum nor is this the place.

Unfortunately violence and war seem to be part of human nature and have throughout history. We know it's wrong. Every religion in it's true nature says it's wrong. Seems simple, but apparently isn't. I'm saddened tremendously by the reality of man's inhumanity toward man.

Milow, you are very correct. We do it in all areas. We show condolences over El Faro, yet worldwide there are sinkings and lives lost regularly. The lives lost daily through war, violence and terrorism is a huge, shameful number. How can one even look at the horrors this group has committed in their own homeland and not be pained terribly.

We do need to think of the world. Fact is the closer it is to hitting home the more it gets our attention but that by no means makes those lives more important than others. Most in the US didn't get concerned about terrorists until 9/11, yet they were worldwide.

My primary news source is online so I do see what is taking place worldwide. I pull up CNN/World/Middle East or Africa and sometimes feel ashamed to be part of my species. We're certainly not as advanced as we like to think. Just one thing that absolutely rips me apart is to know the number of females being raped every day in that area. We get upset if we read of one rape locally. Yet there are thousands taking place at all ages. Yes, Subway Jared merits our condemnation but what he's done is nothing compared to what it happening daily elsewhere that we don't seem to get as horrified by. I have a hard time even talking about these things. There's so much going on and I have so very little power to help the people so in need.

If we stop noticing then that's very bad. Now, in my case, I just cannot deal with it on a constant or even daily basis. When I see or read some of these things it really takes a lot out of me. So, I think some of it is us protecting ourselves. We all have to find a balance between knowledge and concern vs obsession. I happen to be married to someone expert at keeping me in balance.