Reflections on Life and Faith,
by David Keating

But the Fighting Will continue

June 17, 2006

     As I began this week's column, which is written a week or so ahead of publication, the news was awash with comments on the death of a militant leader in Iraq. What struck me most was that the speeches by heads of state and the communiqués from the militants all had one thing in common – a vow that the fighting will continue.

     Here are a couple of other things that struck me. In the length of time it took the two bombs to fall from the sky, dozens of children died around the world because they didn't have enough to eat.

     But the fighting will continue.

     For the cost of the two bombs that were dropped to kill one man and his entourage, five thousand children could have been vaccinated against a range of diseases that shouldn't kill them but do.

     But the fighting will continue.

     I wonder what would have happened if, instead of two bombs, that warplane had dropped a note that said "We could have killed, but we kinda got tied up giving five thousand kids medicine instead. Maybe next time."

     Canadians have had a sobering experience in the arrest of a number of people allegedly plotting to commit terrorist acts. How did some of our citizens react? By becoming terrorists. They vandalized buildings and harassed people who had no more relationship to the accused than I do to Tony Blair. We just both happen to have the same ancestry. The goal of terrorism, however, has been accomplished. Three tons of unexploded fertilizer has sown a hardy crop. Distrust and fear has been fed and cultivated.

     And the fighting will continue.

     Star Trek tackled the absurdities of racial tension in the US forty years ago. Two aliens, whose only difference was that one had black skin on the left side of his body, while the other was black on the right, were locked in mortal combat. At the end of the episode their world is dead, destroyed by the unwillingness of its people to see past the superficial.

     A simplistic analogy? A heavy handed moral? Certainly. But the point is as relevant now as it was then. Perhaps more so as we see ourselves more and more in a global context.

If we continue to allow our differences to define us, they will very likely be the end of us.

     Because the fighting will continue.

     No one would argue that human beings are competitive. A bumper sticker popular a few years ago read "He who dies with the most toys wins."

     One theory holds that conflicts, personal and international, arise out of that competitiveness. Our desire to have what everyone else has plus a little more leads us to do almost anything to get it.

     However, there's another school of thought. It says that conflict starts as a lack of self-esteem. In order to feel good about ourselves, we have to believe that our possessions, our country, our race, and yes, our religious beliefs are better than anyone else's.

     I wonder. Couldn't we feel just as good about ourselves by feeding those who have no food, healing those who have no doctors, extending the hand of friendship to the friendless? Perhaps we could try measuring our success by how many people we help, rather than by how many we beat.

     The media certainly needs to let us know about crime and disaster, but maybe "five thousand children saved" is worth more coverage than "one terrorist killed."

     Until we believe that God loves all, even those who disagree with us, and that we can have unity in diversity,

David Keating