Last week, I took out my phone as I was waiting for the Campus Connector to read the news. As I normally do, I saw depressing stories about all sorts of domestic issues and international crises. 

 

However, after seeing that the United States had bombed the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, in an effort to keep the Taliban from advancing, I felt genuinely pained. As an aspiring doctor, this was an assault to my conscience. 

 

Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders in English, is an incredibly well-respected organization that attempts to provide emergency responses to medical crises internationally. These doctors go overseas and face much lower wages to work in troubled parts of the world and help people who need doctors the most. 

 

This is an organization that I dream of joining almost every day — now it has become nothing more than an instance of “collateral damage” in the U.S. military involvement in Kunduz. 

 

The only response I can muster to give to such an event is grief. There are no words to describe the gravity of the lives lost. These were innocent people who were trying to change the world. Organizations like Doctors Without Borders are vital to bridging the gaps in development where governments can’t act. 

 

My thoughts and condolences go out to the families affected by this saddening attack. My hope is that Doctors Without Borders can continue its operations in troubled parts of the world. It’s my hope that governments can work to ensure that hospitals are safe zones. But, in times when war runs rampant, it becomes a struggle to do more than hope.