We will match your capacity to inflict suffering with our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with Soul Force. We will not hate you, but we cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws. But we will soon wear you down with our capacity to suffer. And in winning our freedom we will so appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win yours in the process.
Martin Luther King Jr
Still at work, trying to absorb the death of Hermetic, I learned about the tragedy at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I heard my co-workers talking in the next cubicle about how we should nuke the hell out of whoever did it. I got mad, I left work without telling anyone. I ran to my car. I went home and beat the hell out of my pillow. I cried. I thought of my friend who works in the pentagon, but I knew it would be useless to try and call. I listened to our nations leaders talk about swift and harsh punishment for those who are responsible. I cried again.
I hold my pain in my heart. I smother it with compassion and love. Pain is inevitable in life. Suffering is not. Underneath all this tragedy, there is an unstoppable force of life. Even in the wake of this disaster, you can see the beatiful miracles of life. People coming together to mourn. Rescue workers risking their lives for others. Community and religious leaders holding my city together. It is beautiful.
Today, I bring peace to myself in order to promote peace in our world. The government speaks of peace through force and retaliation, but you cannot bring peace through violence. It comes from within. We can all become angry at those who did this horrible deed. We can hunt them down, we can hurt them, we can call them names and punish them to ease our pain. But all we are doing is burying our pain. Whoever did this, I forgive them. I cannot condone or understand why they have done this, but I can accept it and forgive them. I cannot in good conscience speak of peace if I harbor anger and hatred inside me.
Today, I embrace humanity.