Forty-nine young men and women.
Dead.
The reason? A madman shot and murdered them with no feeling or remorse. He systematically killed innocent people before police were able to put an end to the rampage.
Our first reaction is to fight back. We did that after 9/11 and where did that get us? In a never-ending war in the Middle East and terrorists still vowing revenge on us.
Sure we killed Saddam Hussein, but another radical stepped up to take his place. When that one’s gone, another will take his place. The list of angry, bitter, hate-filled assassins ready and willing to kill Americans is endless.
So we decide to search for reasons to peacefully end the situation. In a war with radical terrorists, to back away and do nothing is to show cowardice and weakness.
More than public perception, Americans don’t want to back away from a fight. We were reared with mythical heroes like Batman and Indiana Jones who fought back and got even. They didn’t cower and they always won.
There’s no easy answer nor is there a short-term answer to ending terrorism. We have to look at where these terrorists are learning to hate, and that’s in the home. It’s where our core value system is formed. Children reared in homes where parents live compassionate lives, help their neighbors and always strive to make the world a better place usually turn out to be that type of adult.
Children who grow up in homes where hate and intolerance are taught as a direct order from God are almost impossible to reteach. First of all, God is always right. Secondly, Mom and Dad are always right.
Each generation decides to change the way their parents think, and mine was no different. I grew up in the 1960s. That was a tumultuous time when young people balked at what their elders taught them – Negroes were property who didn’t need an education, drink from different water fountains and stay poor.
Minority parents taught their children that an education was their way out. Some preached violence but most taught to patiently and stubbornly stand up for what’s right.
Many white kids listened to what black leaders were saying. They rode the buses with people of color and stood up to their parents.
The young generation consistently chipped away at the belief that minorities were sub-standard Americans. They pushed to change the way someone of a different culture, color or faith was viewed in America.
Blacks and whites went to school together, and young children learned that a person is more than the color of their skin and more than the higher power they worshipped. They discovered friendship crossed cultural and racial boundaries and that they had more in common than they thought.
They all dreamed of a better life. They all made wishes on shooting stars and they all grew to understand that the only way change happens is when it starts within people’s hearts and grows from there.
The talk of getting even and showing power and dominance grows louder and louder, and it’s no wonder why candidates who scream for erecting fences along our borders, isolating ourselves from the world and attacking others first are popular.
But the words of Mahatma Gandhi still ring true – “an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”
Let’s hope we can continue to search for peace while we can still see.
This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.