What makes us human is our ability to mourn people we’ve never met. - Alex Calderon
There is a clear line between humanity and savagery. You do not need to be a superhuman being to be able to empathize and mourn for people you have never met, but you must have given up your humanity to perpetrate such atrocities as that of New York City, Madrid, London, Brussels, Ankara, San Bernardino, Paris, Magdeburg, or the deadly attack on the Nova music festival in Israel.
Between 1979 and April 2024, 66,872 terrorist attacks were perpetrated by islamists around the world killing almost 250,000 people and wounding countless more.
In the aftermath of any of these attacks an unbearable pain, fear, frustration and anger might have overshadowed our ability to function, but it did not take away our ability to feel compassion for those who suffered. No amount of cowardly violence could ever take our humanity away.
Instead of sending hatred to those who hate us, send love to those affected by terrorist attacks. Offer help and support to those who need it. Now more than ever...
Dominique Allmon
In a slightly different form, this article was first published on my Ahamkara Blog in 2016, right after the attack in Belgium.
Image by magnific
Terror statistics by Fondation pour L'Innovation Politique