Tuesday, November 30, 2004

An Old War

Terrorism. The kinda word that chills right to the bone. Terrorism: "The systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion." Terrorism. Alive in the Middle East, alive in the graffiti threats of street gangs, alive in the homes of battered wives.

Terrorism. Maybe starts as a playground bully. Grows into a Racist or Sexist or religious Extremist. Feeds off of the fear of others. A parasite, thriving on weakness. Terrorists are weak.

It is weak to sacrifice your life and not face the consequences of the evil you've done, the families you've tortured, not look into their tear-streaked cheeks. To murder or brainwash, employ blasphemy and weaponry, and torture innocents in the name of God. It is weak also to throw a brick into an Arab-American's window. To leave a poor tip for a waiter with brown skin and broken English. To judge a religion based on a few idiots. To judge...

Terrorism is Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein of this century. It is also Hitler of the last. It is today's beheadings and yesterday's concentration camps. It is Africans selling their own people into slavery. Plantation foremen raping slaves and then working their offspring. The Old World of the Native Americans robbed when the English settled their New World. It is Cortes' invasion, erasing an entire civilization. The Jewish Pharisees toward Jesus. It is Egyptians over Hebrews until Moses and the Exodus.

Terrorism has always been alive. How do you kill something of Satan? How do you stop evil? How do you keep a healthy spirit when you're surrounded by so much hatred? How do you win the war on terror? A war that is as old as the Serpent.

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