Saturday Musings - Choose Life

Each morning Roselyn and I wake up to the beautiful sounds of a family of magpies warbling their very unique song in our garden. The mother and father hunt out worms for the juvenile that tags along behind them constantly needing to be fed. It’s a beautiful sight to see a family enjoying life and living in peace.

I then contrast this to the mayhem and destruction in Syria, Paris, Lebanon and now Mali. My heart goes out to the families and friends that lost loved ones in any of the terrorist incidents. I was so inspired by the story of a Parisian husband that had lost his wife and in his grief he made the decision to not rise up in hatred against his wife's killers. What an inspiration to be admired and also aspire to.

So why is it that so much terror against innocents is being justified as the answer to improving the lives of the perpetrators? How is it that death has triumphed over life as the solution to happiness?

There’s only one answer and the butler, Alfred, in the Batman franchise of movies summed it up by saying, “Some people just want to see the world burn.”

Yes, there are parts of the world that are burning and a small group of people rejoicing in the fact. Slaughtering people and treating the preciousness of life as something to be carelessly disposed of is a crime….but more than that, it’s a sickness and a disease.

When I look at the madness that is driving the hatred and carnage and I can’t help but feel sorry for the perpetrators. To be living with such a tortured mind that taking the life of another is the only salve for their insanity must be a horrible place to be.

I used to get angry at terrorists but I don’t anymore. I view them as incredibly sick individuals that need our help. For some of them they need to be shown that love will triumph over hate and that there is a better way of life not death.

For others, sadly, to stop the infection spreading they need to be excised from humanity and ushered into where they believe they will be happy. We shouldn’t rejoice and treat it as revenge but do so with a heavy heart that a fellow human has become so deranged that the only solution is to cauterise humanities wound.

To me the answer is really simple to a complex problem. An ultimatum needs to be given by the world against those infected, choose love over hate and life over death. If you genuinely do so we will embrace you and help you and your families. If you don’t turn from your ways then you leave us no choice but to remove you from existence – the people of the world have spoken.

The overwhelming majority of people just want to have a good family, friends and enjoy life to its fullest. We need to stop highlighting on our televisions the 0.001% of people that don’t want this. Starve them of the media oxygen that fans the flames of hatred and focus a lot more on the magpies in the garden.

Yes, this article is simplistic….but love often is. Have a great weekend!

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Michael Gilmour has been in business for over 32 years and has both a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science and an MBA. He was the former vice-chairman of the Internet Industry Association in Australia and is in demand as a speaker at Internet conferences the world over. He has also recently published his first science fiction book, Battleframe.

Michael is passionate about working with online entrepreneurs to help them navigate their new ventures around the many pitfalls that all businesses face. Due to demands on his time, Michael may be contacted by clicking here for limited consulting assignments.