The wars won't stop till we have a 'we-they' mentality. The hate won't stop as long as we are pointing fingers at each other.
I admire Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence as a means to put one's point across.
A beautiful story that I want to share is shown in the movie 'Gandhi'.
A man whose small child was killed in riots came to Gandhi and said they killed my son, now I am going to kill them. Gandhiji said - I'd suggest that you find from them a child like yours whose parents have been killed in the riots. Bring him up like you would have, your child.
Now, that to me is the way people should be thinking today.
It's a choice all of us are making every day.
Some of us are going to be feeding our kids by selling wars, arms and ammunition. And some of us are going to earn our daily bread by going to the front lines - not to fight but to rescue the wounded and provide relief to the refugees.
Some of us are going to stand up and say - I don't just want to help the war-affected, I want to STOP the war, any war that is unjust, that murders innocent people.
I wish there are lots of us who want to do that.
Coming back to where I started, wars will not stop till we stop pointing fingers at each other.
We need to reach across to people like us around the world, to establish personal relations, to have cultural exchanges, student exchanges, tours and visits - let the soldiers on either side see where their bombs have fallen and how many children have been blown to bits just thanks to a few triggers they clicked from the cockpit.
We need to stop seeing each other as East, West, Muslim, Christian - we need to see each other as human beings, as sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, or if one is a Darwinist, then as products of a common gene pool.
Then, things will change and borders will melt.
To make this happen, we have our thoughts, we have our words, we have the internet. That's enough material to begin with...
God bless us all humans, and give us the wisdom to come through all of this together - as one race and nation. Amen.
farrukh
