by Ernie McCray
With the tragedy
at the mosque
still on my mind
I’ve been thinking
of a wonderful book
I just finished,
“The Future is Peace,”
written by Aziz Abu Sarah,
a Palestinian,
and Maoz Inon,
an Israeli,
who, rather than focusing on their ethnicities,
choose to view themselves
as human beings
who are trying to cultivate
a culture of peace
in a world that would
expect them to be enemies
taking into consideration
that both of them
have lost family to the conflict
between their people.
But they choose love,
peace,
and reconciliation
and their story
resonated with me
deeply,
especially a passage
that highlighted
that there
is a mirror between
Israel and Palestine
wherein each side
reflects their own rage
back at themselves,
a mirror that must be broken
so that
the opposing parties
can look one another in the eye
to humanize each other
and even more importantly
come to recognize
the humanity
in all concerned
and the book declares that
“The first step on the path to peace
is listening to the other side’s story.”
I can’t help but agree
although such an act
in our global society
would be so hard
to bring to fruition
but Aziz and Maoz
stress that in the listening
there can evolve
cooperation between people based
on equality and respect,
that shared purpose
can overcome inherited suspicion,
and that peace is not only something
to talk about –
it is something to build,
day by day,
through real friendships
and equal partnerships.
Oh, it seems
that in a world
where establishing such common ground
is pursued
there wouldn’t be much of a likelihood
of two teenage boys
being so absolutely hateful and intolerant
of their fellow human beings
and different perspectives
that they would set out to take their lives
and their own lives.
With all I’ve said
I hope this tragedy
awakens San Diegans
to the reality
that we have a duty
to use this tragedy
as a catalyst
for making our city better
when it comes to human relations
and along such lines
Taha Hassane, the Director of the Islamic Center,
says:
“All of us are responsible
for spreading
the culture of tolerance,
the culture of love.”
Ameen
and as a start
we must
take such sentiment
to heart.
