Who is the enemy that declared war on us by this horrific loss of life?

This is not Pearl harbor or even "Remember the Alamo!" or even "Remember the Maine!"Perhaps if we can see that these recent horrific acts are also expressing a deep suffering, we might be able to get beneath the anger, the desire for revenge that is swift and as deadly as possible, we can realize that we truly are a part of an interdependent web of life, then so are the perpetrators of this hatred and violence. The suffering will keep rising until the world sits down together and truly listens to one another. We must hear and understand the terrible message that people are willing to be suicide bombers. that for some group of people death is preferred over life. Yes, we must work to stop terrorism, but the violence in the Middle East has shown that revenge begets more revenge.

I think that the real enemy is hatred, intolerance, greed, and yes, religion, though of course I mean a perversion of religion. My heart goes out to my Moslem brothers and sisters in this country and over the world who are not responsible for this killing, who have already been attacked, beaten, and had to close religious web sites because of the hate mail. Islam is not the enemy, nor does the Koran sanction this terrible tragedy. Hatred is the enemy and intolerance, and so many of us so-called religious people are guilty of that. It sometimes seems that religion is the problem rather than the solution, especially when we want everyone to be OUR certain kind of religion. Are the loving teachings of Jesus responsible for the insanity in Northern Ireland, where two supposedly Christian groups are still killing each other, even innocent children?

What kind of horror is someone living through to think that suicide bombing is preferred over living? In times like this the true courage is to love one another and preach peace and tolerance, to stop claiming that only we have the true God. The true God is love; religious intolerance is not true religion. We are part of the enemy; there is no "them" and us any longer. It's all "us." The world got even smaller yesterday. A horrific message of hate and intolerance was sent; for God's sake and for the worldıs, let us not return that same message thinking it will help!

Shalom and Saleem Alechim(peace in Hebrew and Arabic),
Rev. Arthur G, Severance
First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Antonio