Dear editor:
I recently went to a movie, "American Sniper," about war hero Chris Kyle. While you are watching the movie you get an actual taste for the hell that war is. And we can empathize with the many veterans who come back, if they are lucky enough to come back, to a world that no longer seems real. And we can understand how they can't fit in, scarred with injuries and memories that no one should have to withstand. This is the sad state of affairs of wars and the world today. It makes us all sad and makes us think there must be a better way.
And weren't we given a better way? Instead of our war on terrorism, sending troops overseas to kill and be killed, to hate and be hated, to maim and be maimed, couldn't we do a complete about-face and make an effort to be Princes of Peace? A true Peace Corps? Would we not do better to "turn the other cheek" and send messages of love and compassion as the best moral teacher in world history, Jesus, might suggest? "Love your enemy." Wouldn't being armed with love be the best moral paradigm to exemplify what we are about? And might this compassion once again catch on and touch the world as it did with Jesus?
If you want a second coming of the philosophy of Jesus, I'm afraid it is up to you to bring it about and practice what you preach. No doubt, the world would be stunned and need to readjust. But it may be that the true pulse of world's humanity, of the brotherhood that we surely are, would be exposed. And might peace and love rekindle the world with hope? Why not give peace a chance? What is possible? For certain, what we have done and are doing isn't working.
Forget religious dogma. It is time for humanity to wake up, recognize our brotherhood, and accept the fact that God's work is truly our own. Do you want to exemplify a world of hate or a world of love?
And if it be, people still want to kill our Princes of Peace, wouldn't it be more noble to die trying to treat others as we would like them to treat us. Isn't that the "Golden Rule" people of all faiths have learned? Easy to learn. But we must live it. For when you are at peace, the world is at peace.
Mahatma Gandhi (a Hindu) has given us thoughts which resonate with our higher levels of consciousness. Here are some poignant quotes:
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."
"An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind."
"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."
"When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator."
"Where there is love there is life."
Bill Wiedmann
Hot Springs
Editorial on 01/30/2015