365 Day Journal Challenge

Day 1 - Mumbai

Express your sentiments on this tragic terrorists attack.

Day 1
Mumbai

Having met Dr. Taher online, and having a person in mind who lives in that area made this tragedy seem much more personal.  After 9-11, I think America is more able now to relate to what happened in Mumbai.  It sickens me that a small group of people led by a huge network of terrorists seem to think that the way to change the world is to terrorize it and the way to win hearts and souls is to break them.  It makes absolutely no sense to me.  In America, during the 60's, it was thought that demonstrating and getting the public's attention by standing in the street, burning flags, marching, protesting, etc was the way to start change.  And in many ways, it did wake things up a bit.  It started the process.  But then, these same protestors got an education and got jobs in places that actually could make changes in the government the democratic way, the way that actually changes laws, not just through getting the public angry. 
Terrorists, to me, seem like angry children who had no sense of control in their lives and grasped onto a belief system that made them feel important and gave them a mission.  Having a mission seems better than begging in the street and dying a martyr is better than dying of malnutrition or random violence in the streets.  A family can be proud of one who martyrs themselves for the religion but not if one dies committing a petty crime.  So, things were so bad that being a suicide bomber is a step up.  OR someone in some country did something to these people or their relatives or their neighborhood to poison them against whatever country they are targeting.  I understand also that some are joining the enemy to protect their families.  I assume some folks in the SS during the 40's may have bought Hitlers views completely and some perhaps joined to be on the "winning side" to protect their people from being harmed by those soldiers.  Who knows?  I'm just saying that if the environment around a person is inhospitable or unhealthy, preserving dignity might mean joining a terrorist organization.  These things don't happen in a vaccuum.  They are symptoms of a greater disease.  Disillusionment, lack of hope, no feeling of ownership in their government, no sense of responsibility (or no opportunity take responsibility) for their lives.  These things are economic, cultural, etc. and are usually caused by one group lording their power over another and the powerless banding together to get retribution.  Sadly enough, this same "powerless community" can also stand beside each other and help each other through the hard times while trying to make things better for their children.  This could go both ways.  The same energy in the right direction could build a country, not tear it down.  Those tempted toward terrorism could also pursue training in the areas they excel and ;put it to honorable use (although honorable is subjective as these folks do feel honored to die for their cause).  Being a social worker, I see kids who are so against drugs find themselves broke, with no education, no skills, and no family support.  They get tempted to do one drug sell to make enough money to keep from being evicted, then they try it, then next thing they know, their home blows up from meth manufacturing or they end up committing a crime to get another fix.  This stuff doesn't happen overnight.  But it does happen.  Take this same family, upset with the "system" after my agency has taken their kids and food stamps rejects their case b/c they won't keep a job then some guy gets them all excited about a plan to do something extreme to a group of people he thinks is the cause of his worries.  Tada! A terrorist is born.  This is only a tiny portion of folks but you look at a country that has had war in its backyard for centuries with a high turnover of leaders and you get generations after generations of people who feel anger against another country or group and you have a whole generation of people who are not doped up by accident, they are intoxicated with conviction and the need to change the deplorable conditions they find themselves and their families in. 

I have no respect for these folks because they have taken a conviction for change that could have been used constructively and they have used it to destroy, scare, maim, demoralize, and otherwise put down a group of people and all that serves to do is make the groups that are the victims even more convicted to survive.  The terrorists defeat their own purpose.  If they want to die for their beliefs, they can sit in a wide open field and blow themselves up but they don't have the right to take people with them.  So, what I'm getting at is this.  Education, and freedom (though not the freedom to kill others to make your point) and some basic care for a group of people.  THis shouldn't be so hard but it sure seems to be.

It also upsets me that religions (including my own) seem to think that you can force someone to see your point and kill if they don't.  Is that really what the prophets really said when they spoke of their Creator to their people.  Is is possible that this is the same "Higher Power" seen through different cultures?  Why can't we live and let live?  So what if one man is Hindu and another is Muslim and another is Christian and another a Jew and a fifth is no particular faith at all.  Don't we think we just might have something to learn from each other and killing each other is like burning books, history, and every chance to find out what the other is thinking.  It's hard to talk to a dead man. 

I hope the religions shared by many of the victims of the Mumbai terror can alllow for the grief without inciting them to retaliate.  Someone somehow has to be the first to lay down the sword and educate a people how to change things without blood.  But this is going to take alot of tolerance and dialogue and it won't be easy to lay down a vendetta passed down from centuries of parent-child training.  Someone will have to say, "it stops with me".  I won't keep this fight up.  Lets find another way.

Okay, all done now.  thank you for the chance to rant.  Sorry to you folks who actually read this and their eyes crossed from lack of commas.  This is a journal, not a political statement so please understand I'm not defending the terrorists, but if we can't understand what turns a person into one, how are we going to stop the cycle of terror?  It starts with us. Now. and with our kids and how we train them to see their world. 

SWPoet
.  These two things




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