While Paris was bleeding

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This too was going on: 43 killed and hundreds wounded as two suicide bombers rock Beirut. ISIS claims responsibility. Not what Lebanon needs right now as the country reels from political instability and the weight of 1.5 million refugees who have fled from neighboring Syria. In southern Afghanistan, rarely an oasis of peace, seven people from an ethnic minority - including a child - are decapitated by Islamic militants with ties to ISIS. A mass grave containing the bodies of 78 women has been uncovered in Iraq. These were the women from recently liberated Sinjar who weren't young enough to be used as sex slaves by ISIS jihadists. Meanwhile, in deepest darkest Africa, observers worry that Burundi might descend into a Rwandan-style genocide. It's only a decade since the end of a civil war which claimed 300,000 lives, and while the current squabbles between Hutu and Tutsi are minor - only a few hundred have died - the signs aren't good. A little to the north, the world's newest country - South Sudan - teeters on the brink of oblivion. Two years of civil war have left thousands dead, millions displaced, and the rest at risk of starvation. Then there are crises in the Central African Republic and the DR of Congo. There is Boko Haram in Nigeria and al-Shabaab in Somalia and Kenya. There are drug wars and child soldiers and millions enslaved. And all of this happens while the world mourns for Paris. Don't get me wrong. What happened there was evil and a tragedy, but please, let's have a little perspective. When we look toward France, we see OUR values and OUR way of life come under threat,and that's what ultimately matters. Our sympathy and prayers may in fact be saying more about our own self-interests than they are about the suffering of strangers. I know this is a hard idea to stomach, but we must not confuse our concern for Paris with a concern for all of humanity. Most of us really don't care that much.