Thinking Allowed.......

The War on Violence: Think about It

Like the "war on drugs," that president Reagan declared two or more decades
ago, our president has declared a "war on violence." Like that previous war
that continues with no end in sight, this war will continue as well. We can’
t stop drugs using the warfare Vision, can we stop massive acts of violence
in the same vision? Think about it.

I began this essay with the above Oxymoronic title to indicate to
ourselves how harrowing and irrational such a Journey into the depths of
Hell will be. Violence against violence can serve no one in this case. It
won’t stop violence any more than Reagan’s "war on drugs" stopped drug use.
Why not? Because the Enemy is not just someone "out there" on the other side
of the world as we presently believe. The Enemy can be found in our own
Thoughts and fears.

It just may be that bin Laden really did not orchestrate the devastation
against our life, liberty, and pursuit of material gains that we believe
bring Happiness. Don’t get me wrong here, and don’t misunderstand me.
Whether bin Laden is a "war criminal" or not I leave in the hands of world
jurisprudence. He may be as bad as we Think him to be. But there is a deeper
issue here.

Think about it before you begin to lash out against any who ask you to.
Pause and think, and then think the "unthinkable" that even now Peace is the
answer and action based on bringing Peace and well-being to all of our
Neighbors, even if they harbor hatred against us, may be the only weapon we
really have.

Many of you have not seen how the other and greater half of us really
live in this world. I have seen much of it and I can tell you that we in the
"Western" part of the world are living our lives out of Balance with the
rest of the world. That imbalance of material wealth, that few of us
worldwide enjoy, causes more than misery to others; it takes away their will
to live and makes them subject to a Vision that life in Heaven at the side
of some God of their fantasy will be much better than this Life. And they
are most likely correct, no matter what comes to them in the Afterlife.
Think about it.

Think about how desperate your Life would need to become
before you would consider such an action as taking your own Life and in that
action punishing as many people as you can by taking their lives with you.
Now Imagine that while this Thought of suicide is unthinkable to you, that
there are, perhaps numbering in the thousands and maybe even higher, people
who think this every day of their lives, as their waking day begins and as
it ends at night falling to sleep.

These people live everywhere there is a deep poverty of Spirit. They
live in America, England, France, Israel, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan,
Africa, China, Tibet, and many more countries. So what can we do about it?
Can we "route them out" meanwhile leave the environments that bred them
intact? How can we help?

I admit I have no quick answer; I feel as helpless as many of you do.
Yet, I feel in my Heart that we need to change the way we Think and Feel
about what Life is really about, I mean your Life, and that perhaps this
nightmare of disaster has been provided for us to wake us up to a new Vision
of ourselves and of our Neighbors.

Think about this. There is one Soul here living through each one of us
and what happens to any of us affects all of us. Think about it, those
others out there are all YOU. They are not just your brothers and sisters,
mothers and fathers, cousins and strangers, but YOU. Think with Compassion.
Don’t make the mistake of believing that those who commit suicidal acts of
violence are crazy, mad, or insane. Do not think of them as "terrorists."
Think of them as people. Think of them as YOU in the lowest despair you can
Imagine.

Ask those who we have entrusted to govern us to also engage in extending
the hand of help to others right now, even in Afghanistan and in Pakistan.
We are prepared to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to go to war. Can
we find some way to SPEND HALF of that, to begin with, to "go to Peace."
Please think about it—with your Hearts and Minds not with your guts and
muscle.


Best Wishes,

Fred Alan Wolf, Ph.D.
Have Brains / Will Travel
San Francisco
email fawolf@ix.netcom.com

http://home.ix.netcom.com/~fawolf