PARIS ATTACKS WERE AN ‘ACT OF WAR’ BY ISIS, HOLLANDE SAYS; TOLL IS 127 New York Times headline.
Friday brought the horrendous news from Paris, people with legitimate grievances and nowhere to turn lashing viciously out in the direction of their not exactly well-meaning oppressors, massacring innocents in retaliation for the endless massacring of their own innocents in endless cycles of inhumanity. Mike Moore
ISIS isn’t necessarily evil. It is made up of people doing what they think is best for their community. Violence is not the answer, though. candidate Dan Kimmel’s tweet that resulted in his withdrawal from the campaign.
The other day I parked in a garage that didn’t take credit cards and I didn’t have enough change to rent a parking stall so I went to the restaurant, where I was to meet Michele, to get some change. On the way to the restaurant, I passed a guy, impeccably turned out in a brown suit, giving away The Watchtower. He was standing in the sun, sweating slightly, on a corner and as I was standing next to him, waiting for the light to change. I noticed how everybody looked away and I felt slightly embarrassed for him. On the way back to the parking garage, I ended up waiting across the street watching him again and watching people ignore him, or actively look away, while he offered his magazine with an open smile.
On my trip back to the restaurant, I ended up next to him again and I struck up a short conversation by telling him that, although I did not share his beliefs, I admired his devotion, his willingness to stand there in the sun (although, I didn’t mention being ignored to him even though that was a major reason for my admiration). He gave me the one answer I didn’t expect, he said Oh, I enjoy it, it comforts people and they need comfort with the terrorists and everything. His enjoying it never occurred to me. The whole time I saw him, nobody else even looked in his direction and it seemed like an unenjoyable, thankless job to me, but it wasn’t for him. For the guy with The Watchtower, standing there brought a sense of Mission, of Worthwhileness. It brought Meaning to his life.
About two years ago. I read that over 200,000 people volunteered to go on a one way trip to Mars with a Dutch nonprofit, Mars One – one way! – never to feel the warmth of our earth again. People want meaning in their life and some people are willing to do very difficult, uncomfortable, dangerous, things to feel needed and to feel their life is worthwhile.
Some people hand out The Watchtower, some people volunteer to go to Mars, and some people – more than some really, alot, and I was one of them – join the Army to put meaning into their life. And some people join the other Army for the same reason. Last Friday, some of those people who had joined the other Army, on an informal basis at least, killed 128 innocent people in Paris. It was a loathsome act and senseless in terms of any rational goal. Now France is striking back, like a hurt child, killing more innocent people in an effort to punish ISIS.
We keep trying to make These People Evil and some of them probably are, but most of These People, along with most of the French, and most of eveyone, are as innocent as the French concert goers.