Monday, May 2, 2011

Mixed Emotions

"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

Martin Luther King Jr.

I don't for a minute condone the acts of 9/11. I live outside of Washington, D.C. I will never forget the horror of that day. I just can't see how our nation dancing in the streets over a death is any better than other nations doing the same. I am very torn over this. I have a terrible feeling that more violence is yet to come. I also have a glimmer of hope, maybe it is the first grade teacher in me. I do think that the young people around the world are looking for better answers, better lives. Look at Egypt. We are not born hating. We are not born knowing that one race or culture is different from another. I see this first hand daily. I have a class of children from nine different countries, they speak seven different languages, they are followers of at least four different religions, yet they are united in one common goal: to play and to outwit the woman (that would be me) who tries to keep them from playing all day long:) They don't see color. That is why I choose to raise my children here. Caroline and Lily really don't see color or religion. All they see is friend/not friend, mean person/kind person. Maybe that is the way our future is headed. I doubt it, soon enough some dumb adult will come along and teach them all that they are different. Their belief system is the only right way and by default all others are wrong. As these thoughts weigh on my head, I go about my comfortably normal life. I argue with Caroline about homework, I cook dinner, I con Lily into eating "one more bite," I do laundry, I play spider solitaire, and I go to bed with this thought "I am so blessed, I am so blessed."

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