What We Stand On

War is born from hatred, fear, and lies—and war breeds hatred, fear, and lies, a downward spiral that usually only pauses from exhaustion or ends in annihilation. Every act one side takes is viewed with suspicion by the other; the smallest slight becomes justification for revenge, and the act of vengeance is in turn avenged, round and round and round. But the truth is that there are no sides. There’s no “us” and “them”—there’s just us. People are people; our blood is all the same color; to kill someone is to kill our brother or sister, our kin, a part of ourselves. And all people have something divine within them. To kill another is to destroy a holy creation, to spit in the eye of God.