After most of the United States population was awoken with the news of the terrorist attack early Tuesday morning in Brussels, Belgium, a familiar feeling returned. We felt it after the attack on Paris -- anger, confusion, sadness and loss. We think about how someone could do this, and we watch on the news the horrific scenes of people clinging to their loved ones. We get so angered at this radical terrorist group, and rightfully so. We look to politicians to do something, but all they do is say horrible things and threaten the group that so selfishly took the lives of innocent people.
With the mixed array of emotions, there is no denying that people want to express their anger. But people begin to blame groups of people, and they cast their hatred in places where it does not belong. In doing this, we are alienating people and bringing hatred and negativity into our everyday lives, which is exactly what these terrorist groups aim to do.
They want to divide us, and make us angry and hateful so we make rash decisions. But here is where we can stop this, and where we can stand up to these groups. We can promote peace, and we come together, not just as an individual nation, but we come together to promote amity between nations. We can blame people and we can send threats to these groups and give them exactly what they want, or we can do the exact opposite.
After these attacks, we live in fear where even going to the grocery store is daunting, because we do not know what can happen. But we should not have to live like this while a terrorist group thrives off of our terror and succeeds with what they want. Scrolling through Facebook, there are already thousands of pictures in support of Belgium, and the Eiffel Tower lit up in black, yellow, and red. But it doesn’t end there. We can’t just pray for Paris or Brussels; we have to pray for peace. We cannot give these groups the satisfaction that they want or reciprocate the hate, but rather, promote the peace that we deserve.
Politicians have spread their rhetoric that we need to blame others or we need to “build a wall,” but these are not solutions. There is no way to make sense of such a horrifying attack, and feeling angry with the fact that there are people so evil that they can take hundreds of innocent lives without any mercy is a natural reaction. Together we, and most importantly the people we look to in times like these, need to promote peace and come together as a country, rather than push people out who we feel don’t belong.
There is no amount of peace that will allow us to forget the loss of so many loved ones from such an unforgiving attack, but we can love through it and pray that there will soon come a time where we can live without fear.
