Wake Up to the Real Enemy is Hatred Itself
The entire week has been full of the news of the death of Osama Bin Laden. Despite my own daily intention of avoiding the mainstream news, which is full of negativity, I have been less than successful in achieving this aim over the last few days. Every public place I have visited seems to have had a news channel showing more discussion on the subject or a newspaper with pictures and headlines on the issue.
The sad thing is the apparent joy over the death of another human being. Never before have I witnessed so many people being happy in the news that someone has been killed.
I don’t condone the events of 9th September 2001 or the subsequent, or indeed preceding acts of violence around the world in the name of al-Qaeda, or any “terrorist” organization. However, I have to question the validity of killing someone else in the name of revenge. How can one act of violence be justified when another is seen to be an atrocity? Does it not amount to the same thing?
This hatred of others because they are on “the other side of the fence” has been the source of so much despair, sadness and pointless loss of life in so many places around the world in all history. Yet, we never see a real resolution to it all. As time moves on, the enemy just becomes a different face, from a different part of the world, and all because we are told that now is the time to hate another specific individual or another sector of our global community.
In recent history alone, I think of conflicts such as the wars in Korea and Vietnam, the conflicts of Northern Ireland and the Falklands, the Gulf war, Bosnia, Afghanistan and of course, the “war on terrorism”. When and where will it all end?
Who’s to say that we are right and they are wrong? And who is “we” anyway?
The real enemy is hatred itself.
When we strive to hurt someone else because of our own beliefs we simply create more negativity in our own lives. The hurt we want to inflict, whether it be physical or emotional pain, can never release us from the stress and anxiety of the process of wanting to inflict that pain in the first place. Have you ever actually felt any better because you created hurt for someone else?
Hatred eats us up. It consumes our energy and creates cynicism and sadness. There can never be any good that comes from hurting others.
Imagine a world where people just accepted everyone else for being who they are. A world in which we respect other opinions and beliefs as simply being ok. A world where there are no borders and constrictions on travel. A world where we simply help each other for no other reason than we just can.
Does it really make any difference whether we call our spiritual connection God, Allah, Vishnu, Jehovah, Buddha, Ahura Mazda, Izanagi & Izanami, Lao-Tse or any of the many many other “gods” or “teachers” of religion? Does it really make any difference whether the borders to one country are here and another there? We don’t own this planet of ours, we simply reside here for the time being, so we have no real right to any of it anyway.
There are very few certainties in life. We come into this world with nothing and we will leave it with nothing, except the legacy of what difference we made to the lives we touch. Doesn’t it make more sense to leave hatred behind and be a global community of people who support, inspire and help each other in a positive way?
I invite you to Wake Up to the Real Enemy is Hatred Itself. Make a commitment to help and support someone this week just because you can and with no other intention than to make someone else feel good.
Enjoy. 
