I have been feeling rather depressed about the recent terrorist attacks in several places of the world. It pains me to think of all the families affected, the lives lost, the children that will grow without parents.
This affects me at a deep emotional level and I can’t shake it off easily and “just move on”.
I look at my kids and I wonder what will their life be in 20 or 30 years’ time.
I am worried for them because it seems that there are many in the world (not just the terrorists) that believe that violence is a solution for the problem, for any problem. People want to go to war to avenge these savage acts. People want to hit someone because they overtook them on the highway. People want to start a fight because someone looked at their girlfriend with lustful eyes…
Whether it’s violence with guns/explosives, violence by disciplining a child with some form of physical punishment or anything in between, there is a common thread – there is the presence of fear.
In fact, fear is the motivator and the outcome. People inflicting the violence are afraid of being disrespected, of being mocked, of not being heard or obeyed. The people on the receiving end are afraid for their lives. And that is true whether it’s an adult in the middle of a terrorist attack or a child knowing their angry parent is going to smack them.
I love the phrase from Martin Luther King Jr that goes “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that”.
I know it’s difficult to think of responding in a civilised and forgiving manner to these acts of fortuitous violence. The people perpetrating these attacks clearly have no concern for the value of human lives. But if we act violently in return, we become like them. It doesn’t matter who threw the first stone.
I’d like to think that there is hope and that the majority of the world population wants peaceful resolutions to situations of conflict. I’m not going to dwell on the politics and big multinational corporations’ economical/financial interests behind keeping such conflicts going.
I am merely focused on what the majority of the world’s citizens want for the future of the planet, for the future of our children.
I venture the hypothesis that if we start at the most basic level, in our small circle of influence – when raising our children, if we teach them that violence is never a solution, that out of anger and fear there can be no resulting peace, that the only way to peace is for each of us to choose non-violent solutions to problems (from the smallest to the biggest), then will we see real change.
Only when a new generation of children go forth into adulthood with a mindset of peace, of unity, of respect for our fellow humans as the most basically entrenched values, will we see lasting peace on a worldwide scale.
I hope I will be here to see it. But if I’m not, I pray that my children will.