Terror and Terrorism

We have had several incidents of terrorism by a number of religious and national groups in Japan, Israel, and even here in America over last few years.

Acts of terrorism are not merely the work of cowards, as our president called them, they are the work of incompetent bunglers, for they do more harm to their cause than all of their enemies put together -- they Create MORE enemies! These so called "strategists" would do well to remember the words of the ancient strategist, Sun Tsu: "The greatest general wins the war without fighting a single battle!" And turns enemies into valuable allies. Instead of acting as strategists, these bunglers lead their people away from improving their lives, driving them to lower the standards of decency that identify civilized peoples of any group.

If you would make the public aware of your cause, do it by doing good deeds, not evil ones, that the people may speak kindly of you. Good public opinion is FAR more effective than all the acts of terrorism any organization can muster! We see from history, that it is only when organizations turn away from terrorism, that they being to make real progress in improving their lives. If we look at history, I think that we will find that those terrorist that survive, eventually learn to turn to the peace table to better their lot in life.

These bunglers dabbling in terror should understand that the easiest road for any disadvantaged minority to gain their share of the world's wealth, lies not through terrorism, but through the creation of their own wealth. We in America, Japan, and other Great Nations, created our own wealth. We built our homes, manufactured our possessions, grew foodstuffs, created art works, and traded all these things with others across the world for the things we didn't make. We became wealthy by the sweat of our own brow, and shared that wealth through commerce, as man has since the trans-European commerce of arrowheads began in the stone age.

(Not to say that it was alway fair, equitable, etc.; but we are making strides to make it more so all the time. Many deeds which were acceptable practice in the 1920's are not acceptable today! Satisfaction or your money back is a relatively recent development not yet shared by much of the world! But slowly, much of the world is beginning to see that business, the kind of repeat business needed for long term success in a world where word travels quickly, is based on some degree of trust.)

We must remember that we live in an incredibly open society which needs our active support to remain open. We have achieved the level of prosperity because we are an open society, because we are free to pursue our own goals, and via trade, enlist others in the pursuit of our goals. Over and over, history has shown that Freedom and Commerce lead to wealth and contentment.

We, you and I must do what we can to keep this society free and open to our everyday actions and to our respective faiths and beliefs. We do not want to emulate Israel, where armed soldiers patrol the streets and most families have at least one family member in the military reserves. Nor do we want to go back to our own dark days of McCarthy witch hunts.

It is up to us, you and I, to treat others decently that we be treated decently, and they be inspired to treat others decently.