Who Are The Terrorists in 2016?

I remember with  vivid clarity how I felt on the morning of 9/11/01 as I worked to serve the Clover Park High School Community and we struggled to understand the terrorists who attacked our nation that morning. I remember seeing the images of the planes striking the Twin Towers and trying to understand...who were the terrorists? What would/could we do? What would be different? I remember visiting classrooms that day, mostly filled with kids whose parents served in our Army and Air Force and wondering how their lives would change? How many of their parents would be deployed in response? How many moms and dads of the kids I loved would lose their lives in response to the acts that rocked the United States?
Terrorists, as they were defined on that day were al-Qaeda. The world engaged and Americans rallied to make our country safe and "bring justice" for those who perished that day.

I've tried to grow my mind and understand more, the world around me since then...I work to devour the world's news from multiple sources and perspectives. I've struggled to understand our drone strikes in Yemen. How do we as a nation justify the thousands of innocent lives taken with our national finger on the trigger?  A family and community wedding that turns into a mass funeral..is that a justified action?
I continue to be impacted by the pictures that help to tell the stories of the world-wide actions that define us as a human race. This week was no different. The young Syrian boy, Omran Daqneesh, whose home was bombed by Russian airstrikes is most certainly struggling to understand as a 5-year old, why his home is destroyed and why his older brother died this morning.


Who are the terrorists in 2016? Have we as a world community become so desensitized that we don't even ask the question? Do we listen to our brand of nationalistic media and "trust" that their truth is THE truth? Have we been seduced to believe that just because someone looks differently than us, prays in a different way, or wears a different head covering that they are somehow the enemy? Do we ever look in the mirror and question our own motives, actions, support...am I part of the problem?

My prayer is that there will be a new breed of leader in our world...people who demand the respect of all human life. I can imagine a world where every child is valued. What if a moral transformation happened that superseded religion, nation, gender, race, socio-economics...what if we just decided that LIFE, all life, is just too precious to waste?


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