Bleeding Edge

Red Crescent, Red Cross, and all its variants across the world, help save lives each and every day of the week since the days of the Battle of Solferino.

Today marks 160 years (1863 – 2023), since the Founding of the Red Cross.

Mind you, that is160 years of helping people afflicted with wounds of war, internal conflict, civil wars, genocides, earthquakes, racism, hate & discrimination and wanton violence — or as we say internally, its been One Hundred and Sixty years (160 years) of fighting without guns, but with loving kindness and some precious medicines — always on the right side of History & the only side we seek to protect; Humanity…

#Humanity

As a proud long term volunteer (almost forever…) — I can attest to the fact that I have witnessed countless times the tears, the visible relief, and the eyes of children & adults alike, full of Gratitude & Hope.

This is only reward that the altruistic volunteers of the Red Crescent and the Red Cross are given by all the victimized people, injured and uninjured, fatally wounded, in body or in mind, frozen still or shell shocked or maybe just shaken-up.

And that glance of gratitude towards the white coats of Red Cross Doctors, Nurses and Public Health physicians, are the thing that keeps all of us from deserting the ranks of the white coats whenever we see the carnage and horror of the dead & dying, and are asked to triage the living…

I feel the same tears welling up in my eyes, when I speak in public about my humbling experiences of assisting other Human Beings struck by catastrophic tragedy.

These are the things that motivate me to assist all the victims of this recent earthquake in Turkey — because no doubt, they feel a sense of Hope when they see the Red Cross people show up to help mend the woulds, carry the dead and dying, and in all ways assist, and even selflessly and unarmed — defend and protect the victims of war, violence, ethnic cleansing, genocide, fires, earthquakes, tsunamis, seismic climate change, random hate, displacement, criminal acts and wanton systemic racism, in all the countries of our World.

The Red Cross I know protects everybody from any walk of life and heals all the deep wounds we find, assisting Humanity to survive first and then given time & peace to grow healthier, children allowed to mature naturally, and not grow up overnight as I have seen kids as young as ten years old — having aged prematurely with white hair, because of the horrible things they had seen or were subjected to, and experienced, in these vast & awful human refuge, concentration camps, that exist in all the war zones today and spring-up wherever Evil touches down on this earth…

Yet, the Red Cross volunteers rush in there to help all those children, adults, elderly and all other survivors, to see another day, and keep breathing in the face of adversity, as they navigate the wreckage of their lives.

And I know what they are going through, because I’ve lived through these experiences myself and know how easily those lives we hastily put back together, when we struggle to protect all our patients in order to allow them to regain strength to be able to be with their loved ones, as we guide them, and transport them, inside the Refugee and IDP camps all over this God Forsaken Earth of ours — can all be taken away as it happened in front of my own eyes in Tulsa and Srebrenica UN camps, when all the evacuees were murdered in cold blood, while the Dutch UN battalion turned over to their killers, not protecting a single Muslim person from the frenetic zeal for blood the Serb Christians unleashed against unarmed, malnourished and plain naked innocent civilians.

Yes, indeed. It is unfortunate yet TRUE, that genocides happen today all across the world.

That is why this earth that has become the Field of Horrors, instead of the Field of Dreams we were led to believe by our Seniors, Tutors, & Teachers, when we were starry eyed doves, thirsting for Knowledge, Loving Kindness & GOOD embrace, (simple hugs) — wherever we could find them…

Yours,

Dr Churchill

PS:

And let us not forget Clara Barton and a circle of her acquaintances who founded the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C. on May 21, 1881, because Clara Barton heard of then nascent Red Cross and Red Crescent network, while visiting Europe following the Civil War, and was inspired by the Humanitarian Businessman Henry Dunant, who asked her to start the American Red Cross and she accepted the Challenge, and went on to great lengths working hard for 50 years to start and grow the American Red Cross, and to help all the people in need on this side of the Atlantic…

Today the American Red Cross works internationally and is arguably the best Non Profit Benevolent Humanitarian Organization on the face of this Earth.

We are all Americans giving and empathic people sympathetic to the plight of others, compassionate for all of our neighbors living on this Earth, and that is why I make a Grand Plea herewith, to all the Doctors, all the Hospital Administrators and all the Nurses who read this — to find and source Field Hospital sterilized surgery toolkits al the necessary accessories, anesthetics and tools, along with sutures, bandages and sterilized one-time packed Field Surgery units for immediate shipment to Turkey and Syria because we need to assist the victims of the Earthquakes and all the heavily traumatized people in its aftermath.

Thank You