Columnists
To peace
Do not let the wrath of angry men tear us apart.
Do not let words and acts of hatred distract us from peace. Do not let fear and propaganda detract from our love.
There will always be those who, with the earnestness and the passion of their convictions, will attempt to destroy us. They will do so because they are certain that we, as a whole, are evil. And some amongst us will respond with the earnest and passionate conviction that they, as the other, are evil, too.
But this is wrong-headed. It’s all wrong.
There is no other. There are only human beings, each with passions and convictions, and sometimes those ideas and ideals become twisted up in misunderstanding and anger and become something dangerous. Volatile. Deadly.
Like a hurricane forming or tectonic shifts, they will culminate in something terrible and destructive. This, we have no control over. But what we do have control over is how we react.
On Friday evening, a coordinated attack terrorized the people of Paris. It was carried out by people who, by living the lives of a disenfranchised minority, found enough hatred in their hearts to cause the damage they inflicted. This damage is not just the casualties in Paris. It’s also the psyches of the world.
In the age of social media, news travels fast. Before most people went to bed on Friday night, they had already heard what happened.
Many voiced their fears, yet again, of welcoming refugees from Syria. The Islamic State, which is active in that country, had claimed responsibility for the attack in Paris. Those who voiced their fears were afraid the people who had run from Syria might bring extremist views to western countries.
And by Saturday, news of harassment and vandalism started to sprout. In Peterborough, a mosque called Masjid al Salaam, or Mosque of Peace, was severely damaged when someone threw a Molotov cocktail through a window.
But above the harassment and the worry and the arson, there was another reaction that should make us all hopeful.
The community in Peterborough, in just a weekend, managed to raise enough money to fix the damage to the mosque. Local churches and synagogues offered their spaces for worship.
In Paris, a conversation between a little boy and his father was recorded. The little boy’s fear of terrible men with guns was quieted when his father told him the flowers and candles left at a memorial were more powerful. The boy’s takeaway was that the flowers and candles will protect them.
And they will. Because love is stronger than hate.
We have control over how we react. When Syrian refugees, or anyone who we might see as other, come to the places we call home, we can choose to treat them with love and respect.
The terrorists in Paris were disenfranchised and radicalized in Europe. They were treated as other and responded that way. Don’t let their wrath do its job. Let’s stay together.
Comments (0)