One human family.

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“The most divisive belief is ‘us versus them’. The most uniting belief is that humanity is one family.” Deepk Chopra

I do not have the words. I put my fingers to keyboard searching for understanding and the words evaporate. I sit in meditation and my mind will not rest. It leaps from thought to thought scurrying about in search of answers it cannot find in my restless, agitated state of being. I want to write about the sadness I feel. I want to write about my  sorrow that yet again, violence is the path we humans take to destroy our humanity.

And I am at a loss.

I read the news reports. I read the comments. I read the words we use to describe those who committed these acts and I fear once again we will never find the path to unity, to being a planet existing in harmony and peace.

We look across the ocean and see the turmoil and grieve the losses and state we must unite and fight the terror, we must kill the terrorists and my heart grows heavy.

We are one humanity. One planet. One humankind.

It is not them who have perpetrated these acts. It is all of us.

It is not them we are vowing to kill. It is all of us.

According to  Mass Shooting Tracker, in the US there have been 325 mass shootings in 2015 resulting in 304 deaths. In 2014, 337 mass shootings killing 383 people.

What is happening is wrong. What is happening is terrifying. What is happening is deadly.

The perpetrators are still human. They are still us. They are not subhumans. Animals. Cretins. Or whatever words we spew out to quell the anger burning from within. They are us and in our refusal to see that we are them, that we share this human condition, no matter how massively distorted we see it to be, we are contributing to the divisiveness that is killing our humanity.

We have been contributing to this divisiveness for centuries.

In one article, a man from the Southern US talked about the Klu Klux Klan and the terror they invoked throughout the South. Where was the outrage of the country then, asked the person being interviewed.

When I was in my early teens and we lived in France, ‘the Algerian crisis’ was in full swing. In the woods, behind the apartment building we lived in, there were ruins of Roman aquaducts. ‘The Algerians’ lived in the ruins. We were cautioned not to go there alone. They might rise up out of the ruins and harm us. In a section of the city there were tenements that housed, ‘the Algerians’. They were French citizens but they were considered second class, ‘the other’, undeserving of common decencies extended to the rest of society.

Where was the outrage then?

 

There is no us and them in humanity. There is only us. All of us. One planet. One humankind. One human family. What we do to one, we do to all.

I cannot stop the flow of hatred. I cannot stop the boiling over of anger.

I can stop them coming from me. I can stop them being my contribution.

And so this becomes my prayer today.

Let me not contribute anger to what has happened. Let me not contribute hatred.

Let me only contribute my humanity for it is in our humanity that we are most similar. It is in our blood that we flow the same.

 

12 thoughts on “One human family.”

  2. Anger has its place, does it not?

    Hatred of things we find unconscionable has its place, does it not?

    The question – is not so much whether we anger or express hatred – but rather what we do about it. Do we sit on our collective hands? Are the French right, are the Americans right? Was Harper right? Or will Trudeau be?

    In the whirl of politics, media and military – the huge outcry of joy at the death of Osama Bin Laden, as if his death would actually extinguish a movement of angry people whose actions were rooted in hatred. I’ve yet to see anyone on the large public stage explain Al Queda’s beliefs, wants etc. Or the Taliban. Or ISIS. These groups seem, to be ignored, dismissed, marginalized – until suddenly they are a horrid force, a scourge to be eliminated. I have to wonder how similar these groups are, and question how different they are from IRA, Hezbollah, Bader Meinhoff, Reg Bridgade, Khmer Roughe, SLA, etc. It seems every decade or two these phenomena recur. Are the all so different? I have to wonder – through our governments, through the UN and other ‘unifying forces’ if we cannot as humans find a was to ask each other what we love/hate and issues, about each other – and find some resolve. It is hard to fathom that the most intelligent civilization we brilliant humans have risen to must somehow mindlessly produce murder and mayhem to resolve (but mostly not resolve) issues/differences of religion, territory, tolerance and ages-old grudges of cultures. Is it really just about ideology, money and land? Is it deeper? Can we understand it? I question whether we try very hard to do that.

    A deeper question might be, is it human nature to fight/war vs. be peaceful? Is it about abundance v. scarcity, sickness v. health, wealth v. poverty, race v. race, faith v. faith?

    I can understand anger, and hate – but when I erupt in anger or feel hatred, I know what I am angry about. I know what I hate. In this global fear-mongering media-frenzy and political posturing, do we, do they, really know why everyone we are against are angry, do we really know why those who hate or our way of life are hateful? I don’t think we do. I question whether anyone is trying very hard to find out ..

    My two cents,

    Mark

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    • Very powerful words Mark — and yes, anger is there. It is how I express it that makes the difference. And so true, I do not know what ISIS wants. I do not know what drives them — and I wonder who does. Great thoughts to ponder. Thanks!

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  4. Louise, Thank you for your thougts. theY ISIS as a creation made out of our fear, our anger and our hatred. When something or some person is left outside of love then darkeness engulfs them
    When we marginalise and judge people we are doing this. When we see others as less than they become that and in the end they have nothing to lose. Hence suicide!!!!!
    When we point one finger we have 3 pointing back at ourself.
    When we can become peace then peace will be reflected in the world.
    Andrea

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  5. Sometimes we think what is the world coming too, but these things are not new they are just more commonly known off mass killings have happened since the start of time, I hope there will come a time when they are unheard of but when that time will be I do not know I doubt it will happen in my lifetime though

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