Can we forgive and move forward?

I read the article in today’s paper that over 235 were killed in a crowded mosque with rocket propelled grenades. Sounds like the beginning of a high impact action fiction movie. But it is not, this is reality. A very, very sad reality.

A few years back I was asked to play the role of a newscaster announcing world peace. That was fiction and as each one of these terror attacks take place it moves further and further away from any type of reality.

There is no way that the terror attacks can be forgiven but we must find a way to move forward.

When the idea of a speakers bureau came to mind my goal was and is to show others that with real determination success is possible. It may not be exactly what you thought when you started, I am an example of that, but a new success reality can always be achieved.

Can we find some way to achieve a peaceful existence in this world? Yes, but it will take all of us working together. Now that I said that, I know that is unrealistic. Never will it be 100%. We will never have 100% of the world’s population living in harmony. In business we may not have 100% of everyone working with us, but the 20% is not determined to undermine our efforts.

These terrorists are determined to destroy open societies, freedoms by all and a feeling of safety no matter where we are. That is gone and a terrible loss by humanity.

I do expect that we will eliminate these terrorists that want to cause extreme harm. Extreme measures seem to be needed to do this along with a cooperation among many nations. Maybe this, at some point, will bring us together in a manner that we did not originally expect to see. A different success that was imagined after World War 1, then II and now this ongoing war on terror.

The golden question is how and why did this situation begin? With the actionable question. what can we do to improve our current state of affairs?

A brilliant answer is beyond me. Hopefully someone can share insights into this that will make a difference.

What we can do is start to see what we have in common. What values do religions share? What goals do countries share? Locally, what goals do we share with our neighbors?

The voice of the 80% and my guess is that this number is higher is not loud enough. What if we started by eating at restaurants from different parts of the world? We can do that and probably do and share how nice the owners are. Sit down with someone who follows a different religion and discuss the fact that we wish to embrace the goodness in all. Someone from a different anything and talk about the shared aspirations we have.

Can we forgive and move forward? Yes, at least from a personal and local level we can. That action is up to you. How you do it does not matter. Why you do it does.

Just like protecting the environment for future generations I would like to protect our freedoms and feelings of safety for them also.

It would be a shame if we had to live by not trusting strangers, having to go through metal and explosive detectors every time we enter a public location or a place of worship.

If you pray at all pray that we can embrace our differences and celebrate what is good in each of us. Forgive when you can and move forward always.