Multiple times the world has been terrorized by a force of darkness. It is this example I wield, the one of darkness, because people aren’t the enemy. It is the idea of the collective mass that is the enemy. If you kill the idea, the subjective moral of the people will soon follow. The idea portrayed on September 11, 2001, when thousands of lives were taken in an instant. Wives weeping for their lost husbands, husbands broken holding onto the memories of their lost wives. Families torn to shreds at the feet of a burning, smoldering building. Children who never got to grow up and live a dream, lovers who kissed that same morning and didn’t stay long enough. The same idea paved the beautiful streets of Paris with blood not too long ago. The death toll rose by the second as people hoped for their lives. Imagine, for one second… You’re a parent, and your teenage child has taken a couple of her friends to go to a concert. They’re having the times of their lives, and you’re happy. You switch the television on. You hear sirens. You heart matches the pace of the gunshots you hear from a distance. And all you can think about is your sweet baby girl, cuddled in her crib after the exhausting first day of her life. You couldn’t take your eyes off of her, out of some deep fear that she wouldn’t survive without you doing so. That same fear is realized now as you look, horrified, at your television screen. It repeats: attack, attack, attack, terror, attack. Your daughter will not come home tonight. The idea of anger, fear, even hatred, boiling through your veins.
What we must remember as a collective force of humanity is that we must remain united. We must continue to help and support our fellow people. Love is the best weapon against evil, and we seldom use it. We must also remember that the pure evil that terrorizes us, is exactly what it sounds like. They are terrorists, it is their one goal, to terrorize. We must refuse to be afraid, we must repair our wounds and continue to love. It is our only hope in this dark hour, our only spark of light. To love those who need us, and refuse the control of our lives through fear.