Dear Editor:
All over the world there are millions of people who believe in some form of higher power or entity.
Part of what they believe is that there is some form of continuity beyond the limits of this life that we experience and that death is not the end, but merely a transition in the form of our existence into something else.
I have not had the opportunity nor the inclination to study the beliefs of all of these ideas, concepts, beliefs or religions, but I am pretty sure that the vast majority of them follow one simple pretext; “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Unfortunately, there are a great number of evil people who ignore that basic truth and choose some other defining concept to follow, while declaring that they are followers of their faith.
For instance, those who firmly believe in the axiom “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”
That seems to give them in their warped minds moral authority to lie, cheat, steal, and even kill or even make war on whole groups of people who are for the most part no different than us.
They use misinformation and fear to convince us that this is acceptable, but it is not.
If someone does wrong, it behooves us to capture that person and in a court of law prove that they have done wrong and then decide, if found guilty, what to do with them in the form of punishment, retribution or rehabilitation.
We have no right to send a drone out to assassinate that person or drop a plane load of bombs on an area where we think they might be even though we know that there are numerous innocents that will be injured or killed too.
If there is a large number of people doing wrong and it is not practical to capture them and try them all, we still have a responsibility to use force to end their wrongful actions, but that does not give us the right to use such force as would destroy the lives of large numbers of innocents who are merely seeking to find a way to survive.
The killing and destruction that has become common practice by America and its allies in countries all over the world for decades is unacceptable and must be stopped.
We the citizens in these countries which are committing these atrocities are as guilty as the evil people in powerful positions who order this destruction if we do nothing to stop them.
Our guilt will not leave us at death, but be carried on to a higher judgment where doing nothing to stop evil is as evil as participating in it.
We must put an end to this and to say there is nothing we can do is not an acceptable excuse for not trying. Don’t let fear, apathy or inadequacy make you one of the guilty parties to this outrage.
You and I will be judged along with the people in power who make these things happen.
I, for one, fear the consequences both on this plane of existence and on the next of not doing all I can to stop the massive murder that our so-called leaders have been guilty of causing.
They could not do it without our implicit agreement.
Thank you.
Ron Craven
Osoyoos, B.C.
