For Komal

I'm tired. Maybe even a little cranky.



I didn't want to blog today.



But I've been mulling this over all afternoon and I can't not say something.



Tonight is not about Africa.
It's about Komal.



Yesterday my dear friend from India, who does some amazing work over there, emailed me about a 9 year old girl with advanced Tuberculosis that was threatening to take her life. He asked me to pray. Today he sent me this:



"I am grieved to share that Komal's father... did not let us take Komal to another hospital and she died in her home today."



Why? Because she's just a girl. A burden in her social strata. A dowry to be gathered. One less son. A mere girl.



Senseless.



My friend is torn. He's racked with the heartbreak of grief. He wants to help improve the situation but he's angry too. He's trying not to be but who could blame him? He, like me, is struggling to understand a social system that motivates a father to simply look the other way as his little girl dies. That normalizes such a response. All because she's just a girl.



I can't wrap my head around that. Try as I may, I cannot. My Dad would walk through fire for me or my sister. He would do WHATEVER was necessary. Yet Komal's father simply said, "No."



"No" to her treatment.



"No" to her life.



Just "No."



How does one reconcile that?



I have no answers.



May we figure it out. And soon.



For Komal and the unknown thousands or millions like her.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry