We had yet to learn these things and implement survival tactics, which was what it came down to.
This sentence from the book appears on the last page of chapter four. It comes after Ishmael his brother, and friends risk they're lives retruning to Mattru Jong. After walking miles, nearly getting killed by the rebels and almost losing his brother, the money they retrieved was useless.The uselessness was not limited to the money but the fact that the group was still living in the same place. That after seeing so much death and destruction being hungry and losing his family, they still believed it would all go away.
I have often wondered why we cann't let go. Why we cann't implement survival tactics. How we haven't learned that things are just things and life is what's important. There is an old saying "that as long as there is life, there is hope". Some people don't hope. We run around in circles not being able to save oursleves from what we own. Seeing danger and running back into a burning house to save pictures, or packing bags for a trip to the gas chamber. This situation is as old as time, just ask Lot's wife. No matter how little it is or how bad it was, it's still ours.
While reading A Long Way Gone I became frustrated with the people. Knowing what would happen and still not leaving or fighting. It's hard to understand especially for Americans, we have difficuity relating to war at home. None of us can remember being seperated from family. The closest we've come to homeland violence was 911 and hurricane Katrina. Many Americans wouldn't know how to escape or like Ishmael, where too.
Letting go moving into the unknown, is what this country is built on. We've forgotted how to move pass what we know, to make what may be better. We've forgotten that our antecessors did just that, escaped. some by choice, others like mine by force.
