An Open Letter to a Terrorist

An Open Letter to a Terrorist
by C. A. Laverty



Can you remember being a child of innocence?

Do you recall having dreams for yourself?

Can you remember loving your parents, your siblings, your grandparents, your friends...

...Yourself?

Do you recall the first time you felt your God within you?

Can you still truly feel Him?

He is not within you if all you can feel is anger and hate.

What is within you is anger and hate, and those alone.

How is it that you can believe now that senseless violence and killing will guide and deliver you to a place of peace... in any realm?

If this earthly world is obliterated, along with you and all the innocents who did not have a chance to live their lives toward grace, how will that grant you the gifts you seem to fully expect?

Your True God does not ask this of you.

If you reach deep within and listen closely, you will find what He has always asked of you...

Only you truly know what that is, but we all know what that is not, if not in our present minds, at least, deep inside the hearts of our souls.

Hate is what it is not.

Hate may fill you with false strength and courage, but it will never, ever lead you on a path to peace.

Murder and suicide, no matter what ideology in which you may wrap them, are the work of evil, and no more.

As mere children, we know these things to be true and are profoundly affected by events in our lives which mirror these truths.

Do you not ever feel true and wondrous joy in anything but killing or dying?

Do you not ever feel even a hint of compassion for your fellow men and women on this great Earth?

Does nothing penetrate the armor of loathing and lust for death you wear heavily upon your human form?

Nothing?

Have you felt love recently? True, real, soulful love - the kind that touches gently the softest parts of your heart and makes you want to live just to love?

Does love even exist within the days of your world?

Hateful love, or the love of hating, does not count. It is empty and soulless, bringing only sadness and fear, and as always follows closely behind, more hate.

Hate empties us. It does not fill us. Only love fills us. Only love.

I want to understand what you are fighting for.

If you and all of your fellow fighters will die in this war and go on to a nirvana I do not understand, then who will actually be left behind to enjoy the spoils?

Your family and former friends?

The very same people who will be mourning you and losing their joy in life because they lost you and now have to deal with the things you have done to them and to the rest of the world?

Or will you take them, and all of us, with you?

Life is a gift not lightly given back.

And joy is not to be found in taking it from others; only pain will be found in the end.

Please think hard about what you are doing: to the world, to your family, to those others who love you, and to yourself...

Will your God really love and welcome you for these deeds?

Will your loved ones be able to forgive you and themselves once these atrocities are all perpetrated?

When residing in your nirvana, will your soul be able to forgive you for what you have done?

Will your God?

How will peace ever be derived from violence???

Mere Earthly history alone has shown that this cannot be done.

Residing with evil in any realm brings only pain, and regret travels easily with us wherever we go.

If you have ever felt any guilt or pain or regret and wondered if evil has touched you with its cold, scaly hands, please step back for a moment within your soul and try to see the larger picture of your actions upon all of us who are merely trying to live our own lives just as you once were... before you were taught to hate so fully and completely...

The rest of the entire world is not evil.

We are all just people, like you, trying to figure out why we are here and what our purpose in life is to be...

We are trying every day not to lose our minds attempting to understand the complexities - the sadnesses, the losses, and the reasons for them, along with the joys and the simple pleasures afforded if we are paying attention - of this life we have been given.
We are simply human beings, being human beings, doing what human beings do: groping our way through days of challenges and joys, ebbs and flows, loves and losses, laughs and tears.

We just want to live.

Didn’t you, once?


Sincerely,
-the rest of the world


Copyright 2005 Christine A. Laverty