Friday, May 5, 2017

Which Reminds Me

Shortly after the Soccer War, El Salvador, having declared itself the winner, staged a victory parade which, as it happened, was going along Roosevelt Street, which was just outside our back door. Did we walk a short block from our back door to watch the parade, you were asking? Well, yes, actually we did. We may even have a photo of that somewhere, soldiers riding on tanks brandishing machine guns. What were you expecting from some clueless American tourist? That we would just not notice what was going on around us?

Of course we know that Sharon probably has a completely different idea of the Soccer War, herself having lived in Honduras for many years as the child of missionaries to Honduras before she got married and became a missionary to El Salvador. After the war, El Salvador had to absorb many refugees who had been expelled from Honduras due to their being emigrants from El Salvador.

Personally, I don't see why I should be forced to take sides with either country in such a political matter. We are missionaries, not political emissaries. We are supposed to remain sort of neutral in these matters to some extent. And anyway, Honduras was never that special to me that I would bother to study that so deeply. Whatever the international courts decide, that is probably how things will be, and yet I do think that I heard Salvadorans asking for some relief from the severity of some more recent political repercussions, but I really don't know very much. I wasn't paying attention to that. I really can't speak to that issue.