Humanity, we have a problem.
Humanity, humanity, do you read?
I believe we’re on a slippery slope that we may never recover from.
I can’t imagine the horror that people experienced in Paris. I was just there with my fiancé this past summer. The lights of the Eiffel Tower danced as we drank some warm champagne we bought from a street vendor. We left this romantic sight to go on the fastest three hour tour in the most romantic city in the world.
In a city where terrorists displayed their hate, I found a place to fall in-love with. It was intoxicating. Not the warm champagne but the city, the history, and the playful vibe of all the people we encountered.
This reflection is overwhelming. Where is the romance I found? Where is any regard for humanity?
I am reeling inside from the amount of hate and lack of respect for life in this world. I understand how we got here but I don’t understand the connection and drive to hate the things we don’t understand and most importantly the people who are doing different things than we are.
What happened to letting people live? If they’re not harming another soul than why hurt them?
Is it fear of the unknown so people hate because it’s easier than trying to learn and understand others? I believe a strong element of understanding others is empathy. Without empathy we cannot begin to fathom the life others live, in our country and the world at large.
So how can we give input to anything that we don’t try to understand?
Conversations, hope, and a miracle.
In our attempts to connect with each other and with the universe around us we travel to see new things, speak to others to connect, date or marry to have a companion, listen to leaders for guidance (sometimes spiritual and others its political) but we do all of this to find our group to engage with people whom tend to be like-minded. We seek this because we’re built to have the desire and need for human (and humane) connection.
I asked this question earlier today and it has stayed on my mind all day, in any war or attack which comes first, the terrorists or soldier?
Before you get in a tizzy over that question take a step back and see it from the view we have as Americans and attempt to see the oppositions view as us being the terrorists to their lives for the world as they know it, not how we know it. Sure there is a great majority of people in the countries where the citizens agree with us but there is also a huge population where they disagree with our presence in their country and in the world. Just like there are people here in the United States that disagree with our approach to combat the people we view as terrorists, as the enemy to all things we hold as value.
Can we all agree to not attack each other and just coexist?
It truly doesn’t bother me if you believe in a different God than I do. It’s your personal choice. If your God looks like the Little Mermaid’s dad with the voice of Morgan Freeman which is what I imagine when I think of God, then that’s all on you. Whatever you have to do to get by in life is fine. I’m not against it, not in the least as long as your actions don’t negatively impact my life and the life of others then you don’t impact me and I don’t care how you live.
I believe a great majority of violent acts that affect the masses make us flashback to 9/11 mentally and rightfully so. It’s a horrific memory that gave each of us a case of PTSD that we’re still recovering from. Then our allies and our soldiers are dying because of the actions of terrorists and we naturally assimilate this as an echo from that day. It could possibly be the reason for attacks and defense, however how can we win?
We must define what winning looks like. What’s our definition of success with our influence and presence in other countries? How can we all agree to live and let live? Where does this invisible line exist? Have we crossed it? If so, how can we ever recover and is there ever going to be an end?
These are all questions I don’t know the answers to which is frightening because I don’t know how to wrap my mind around any of this. I can’t. I can’t understand attacking someone else. Call me a hippie or naive but I just can’t let those thoughts in my mind because it brings conclusions that are not happy to my life nor humanity.
I believe this is the way a lot of people think, or at least the people I speak to about these acts of terrorism, acts of defense, and acts of hate against humanity. We avoid it because we’re afraid. We’re afraid we can’t stop any of it so block it out.
What’s the answer? What do we do from here? We can’t keep looking back because it prevents us from living in the present and the future is too intense to imagine if we can’t fix it.
Humanity, tell me what to do. Tell us what to do. It’s a problem and we’re all a part of it; the good, and the bad. We’re all here. We all must fix it, but how?
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