I've been reflecting recently on the tragic terrorist attacks in Paris, Beirut and Baghdad and realizing that while media and our surroundings work to convince us that today is more dangerous than yesterday, people all over the world have always lived in challenging times. When I feel sadness at the islamophobia and fear that's arose in the past weeks, I've been reminded of the importance of youth, of new ideas, of inter-faith dialogue and communication and not allowing fear to take control. I like these words spoken by Robert F. Kennedy in South Africa in 1966, I think they ring true today:
"Everywhere new technology and communications bring men and nations closer together, the concerns of one inevitably becoming the concerns of all. And our new closeness is stripping away the false masks, the illusion of difference which is at the root of injustice and hate and war. Only earthbound man still clings to the dark and poisoning superstition that his world is bounded by the nearest hill, his universe ended at river shore, his common humanity enclosed in the tight circle of those who share his town and views and the color of his skin.It is your job, the task of the young people of this world, to strip the last remnants of that ancient, cruel belief from the civilization of man."
Concord, NH a few January's ago.
