World must try to find peaceful solution
How could this happen? Why would anyone want this to happen? How could anyone hate so much as to make it happen? But the one question that is rising above all others in my mind is, 'Don't these people get it?'
I'm not talking about the terrorists, or the people who believe that human life is not worth as much as this thing they believe in. I'm talking about the people who are calling for vengeance, about the people who are talking of 'school-yard justice'. They think they can eradicate terrorism by eradicating the terrorists.
Don't they understand that it is the culture of violence that has brought us to this terrible point? Wasn't it [India's former political and spritual leader] Mahatma Gandhi who said: 'An eye for an eye makes us all blind'? Do these people think that if we ratchet up the body count the survivors of our 'retaliatory justice' will say: 'Okay, we're even now'? Isn't it clear that we can't eliminate all potential terrorists without eliminating everyone with the conviction to die for what they believe in?
Let me make this clear. In no way do I support or condone what happened last week. It is a heinous act that goes almost beyond words. But the answer is not more violence. It is the time as a nation and a world to change the way things have been. It is time to find a new course. Finding a peaceful solution may sound naive and simplistic. I assure you it is not. Nothing will challenge us as citizens of the world as this will.
But it must be clear that, unless we simply want to pile up more bodies, and I think last week has created more than enough, then there must be no other choice.
CINDY BAYNE
Lamma
