There was a very thoughtful post in Anu's mailing today - I wrote to its writer asking permission to re-post it here and she replied thusly:
"Certainly. I wish I could say more, but I am suffering from a head injury just now, and each letter is very hard. I grieve at the innocent who will suffer or die. I believe that every person of good will must take a stand against violence, else it will continue indefintely."
This is what Jacqueline had overcome her personal problems to share:
From: Jacqueline Kiffe Subject: a murder here of an Indian national
With all my degrees in mathematics and the sciences, the vast majority of my classmates were of foreign origin. Indeed, if not for them, many classes could not have been offered. The Indians I knew were not violent people any more than Hindu is a violent religion. Anger will come later, but I cried when I read of the murder of an innocent Indian in a nearby city. This is not emotionalism; I grew up in a terrible, violent home, and sometimes the only thing that kept me on track was the understanding that if I became like those evil people, that they would have won, finally and completely. If we allow ourselves either to take out our feelings of rage and helplessness on people on our soil who look foreign (and may very well be American-born) or even to just stand by idly while others do so, we are no better than the terrorists or those who harbor them. They will have won the war and not just the battle.
None of this is meant to diminish the horror of what happened Tuesday, but the worst possible scenario is for us to become the terrorists on our on soil, or to harbor them or condone them by our refusal to take a stand, just because they look like "us" and the victims do not. If people come here for safety or freedom, it behooves us to welcome them and not to contribute to the river of innocent blood, else we become what we hate.
Hear, hear. I am reminded of an ancient Chinese proverb that suggests 'If you seek vengeance, prepare two graves.'
