Mahatma Gandhi once said, “An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind”. It is universally true that revenge makes men blind, poison that drives a man into doing untold horrors.
The domestic act of terrorism that happened in the holy shrine of the Sikh temple left many Indian communities dumb founded. I remember watching the news for several hours in the confusion of what had happened; the house phone was in a constant ring. Countless people were left in shock and in question; numerous questions were responded to while some were unanswerable. The next couple of days were spent in silence for those who passed away and many prayed for their souls to rest in peace.
The rumored cause for the incident was that the shooter had supposedly responded to the 9/11 attack by firing ragingly at innocents civilians who he thought were involved in the incident. When the fact was that the people involved were form a completely different race. How does an Islamic compare to a Sikh? What is or can be considered as a terrorist?
A terrorist is nothing more than a stereotype. Just because you have a long beard and where a turban does not mean that you have any association with being a terrorist. Many don’t realize that the turban on a Sikh’s head and a beard on their faces show the devotion to god and the giving of themselves to Him. Not every Islamic is a terrorist because of his race, a terrorist can be anyone, from any race, or from any part of the world.
The true hero is the one that takes the valiant act of pushing revenge aside and looking toward the positives and that anger for constructive reinforcement toward resolving the problem and trying to prevent it from happening again. Such as instead of seeking revenge, the Indian communities all across the nation came together to their local temples to have a ceremonial lighting to honor the one that had lost their lives and to pray and thank the noble police officer that risked his life to stop the shooter. In addition, there were also events which were meant to educate the populace about the Sikh religion and money was donated to those families who lost a family member in that cataclysmic event. In many of the eyes, there was a temptation of forgetting the incident and moving on as tears went through everyone’s eyes. In many of the citizens eyes were tears of sorrow and sympathy, the anger was replaced with relief of getting through this tragic incident.