Dear Terrorist, you lose
I’m really hoping this reaches you.
I’m praying that the global social media network does what it often does so very well: connect people who would otherwise not cross paths.
So if by chance these words happen to be in front of you right now, it will give me great joy to know you’ve received them because I really need to share this news with you.
You can’t win.
Yes, I can imagine at certain times you might begin to believe the lie that you have the upper hand. In the middle of the fresh carnage this is understandable. I confess that in the madness of the moment I sometimes feel that way too. For a second the shock and sadness and loss of life overwhelm me. I briefly allow fear to have the run of my heart and I yield to the chaos, but I always come to my senses and find a peace that once again slows my pulse and steadies my knees.
That’s because almost immediately upon detention of that which you design, straight in the face of that abject horror, something else kicks in—the defiant heartbeat of humanity.
It’s that beautiful force that propels people into harms way to help strangers, that moves them to the fray to care for others with regard for itself, that finds affinity in another simply because they are hurting—and responds.
This humanity is courage you’ll never know.
It is character you can’t comprehend.
It’s compassion that is counterintuitive to you.
It’s love that is foreign to your heart.
This is why you will always ultimately fail.
Always.
Every time you seem to succeed no matter how terrifying the immediate result of your efforts, there is always a coming response from good people which you can’t control or anticipate or destroy. It is not one that meets force with force or hatred with hatred or bloodshed with bloodshed. This would be playing your game.
No, we are a very different army coming against you; a strident show of strength that transcends race or religion or homeland or native tongue.
What we come with is something that cannot be killed or destroyed or chased into the darkness. We come armed with Hope.
And our shared Hope is that glorious Phoenix that will always rise from the toxic, corrosive ashes of the greatest terror you can inflict—and that’s got to really piss you off: to know that the worst you can ever do to us isn’t ever going to be enough.
I’m sorry but this is just that way it is. You are in a losing battle. There isn’t enough ammo and there aren’t enough bombs to change this equation: Love is greater than fear.
Yes, we mourn deeply for those who you steal from us, and we grieve the senselessness and the waste and those we love who are taken far too soon. But we refuse to allow this tremendous grief to become kindling for the kind of hatred you wish to ignite in us toward one another. It will only fuel our resolve to be people of peace.
I don’t expect these words to alter your heart, as much as I wish that could be true. I’m not really sharing them for you at all. I’m sharing them for myself, and for every single member of my global family to remind us all that we are stronger than you.
You see, one of the greatest truths in the history of this planet is that cowards with bombs are never a match for good people with working hearts.
I’m sorry to break it to you, but these are simply the facts.
Terror is never the final answer.
It may speak first and loudly, but Love always gets the last, beautiful word.
You will never, ever win.
We who love—have already won.
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