Make Love, Not War

In a sad twist of irony for Friday the 13th, the theme of inhumanity threaded its way through my day.

It began with a conversation with a Vietnam veteran. I was thanking him for his service and he responded with tragic tales of the non-welcome home he and thousands of other soldiers received. He said they were called names, yelled at, spit on... basically disrespected in every way.

"When I got home, I burned everything I had related to the war. My uniform, everything. We did not want people to know we had served in Vietnam. They hated us," he said. "And now they come home from Iraq and everyone's a hero. It should always have been that way."

I agree. And I always find it hard to digest the fact that people can hate. I mean really hate – to the level they don't care if they hurt someone, even strangers, emotionally or physically. They have no qualms about declaring their opinion through acts of cruelty. Senseless acts of cruelty.

Yes, "hate crimes" have been around forever.

Later in the morning, a friend of mine who was looking through newspapers on files at the library, shared a photo with a comment, "Birth day front page news – refugees in the Middle East; controversial police actions, terrorists. The more things change the more they stay the same..."

I told him "Those of us born in 1968 were obviously sent to bring joy to the world!" 

If we did accomplish that, it was short-lived and not far-reaching. Those were chaotic times marked with violence, assassinations, world unrest.  

Fast forward 47 years and we wonder what has changed.

Every time I hear of a beating, a shooting, a suicide bombing, anything like that, I just want to cry. Again? Why? Where is all this hatred coming from?

I should say, I am defining "hate" as extreme selfishness combined with a lack of humanity. People wanting their voices to be heard and not caring about the consequences. Not giving value to human life.

As the world watches the tragedy in France unfold, we are asking ourselves all of that again. And yet we still don't have answers.

But we do have that moment where we forget about our own problems and pause to pray for someone else. We may even think about them beyond a moment, beyond a day. We do that because we are human and we have a heart. We care. We want peace. And we value it.

And we value love.

Sending LOVE to our Germany "family" members and praying today's senseless acts of terrorism do not cross the border!