THE CARAVAN Volume 9, Issue 7, July 2010


WHY DO WE DO THE THINGS WE DO TO EACH OTHER?

Humans are the only species on this earth that will destroy another species simply because we don’t like them or simply for the fun of it. You may have heard that some animals in a local petting zoo were killed recently by persons unknown. These people spent the night torturing the animals, wreaking havoc on the zoo and leaving with a baby goat that is still unaccounted for. No one can understand how something like this could happen.

The News Media is inundated with atrocities committed by one group of humans on another group of humans or on animals. Is it easier to justify this type of cruelty based on the fact that we can see our targets as less human than we are?

I met two women from Uganda who are looking for asylum in Canada. Uganda passed a law that says anyone who is suspected of being a homosexual will be arrested and put to death. As well, anyone who knows that a friend or relative is a homosexual must turn that person into the authorities or they will be put in jail for harbouring a homosexual. My heart went out to these two women, who you could see are very much in love. They left their country and their families because someone sees them as being less than human.

It makes me wonder what exists deep in our beings that could cause us to do such harm and destruction. I can’t and don’t want to believe that we are innately cruel and vicious creatures bent on destroying anything we see as less than us. Are we born this way or are we trained to be this way?

I believe hate and prejudice are learned behaviours. If we want this to stop we have to change the world one person at a time and that begins with how we think, what we say and how we act, especially in front of our children. If they see only unconditional, non-judgemental love then that is how they will act and react to the world around them.

Before you think that the other person or creature is worthy of destruction, think about how you would feel if they did the same to you. Before you say the words of hate, think about how you would feel if those words were said to you. Before you strike someone or something a nasty blow, think about giving yourself the same nasty blow.

I hope we can come together and change the way we act and think about those who are different from us. I hope that peace and compassion will be our legacy, not hate and violence.

Peace…

Ted



MOM’S TWO CENTS
By Jordin Williamson

WHY DO SOME BREED HATE AND SOME BREED LOVE?

When your baby is born, you have such high hopes for that little person. You hope for them to have a life of love, laughter and success. You hope that you will be able to guide them down the right paths that will help them achieve all the wonderful things that life can bring. But, at any point do you see their future full of hate, destruction and despair?

Once they start to grow and become influenced by the world around them, do you continue to guide them with those same hopes or do you guide them by your opinions, experiences and prejudices?

If only we all had “The Manual” that told us, step by step, what to teach our children and what they need to know to be truly successful in life. That manual would have us teach them kindness, not our judgements of others. It would have us teach them right and wrong not our distorted perceptions of right and wrong. It would especially have us teach them to do unto others as they would want others to do unto them; and not the popular rule of “do as I say not as I do”. Because the truth is that our children absorb everything they see, the good and especially the bad.

As adults we are given the gift of raising these children to make the world a better place but how can we achieve that when some raise their children to hate, destroy and judge others. Some families are so full of anger. But you don’t start out that way. You have to be taught to hate. You have to be taught to destroy. And you have to be taught to see others as less than you; less worthy, less valuable. And it is usually those families that demand respect from others but don’t give it.

Many parents do teach their children love, respect and empathy. We start with them…one family at a time. And our hope is the more families that start out that way will continue that way and will raise their children with love, not hate.


Quote of the Month
By Brodi Mouradian

"We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future." – Franklin D. Roosevelt


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