Roots of terrorism
Pope John Paul II said terrorism is and always will be a show of inhumane ferocity that, precisely for this reason, will never be able to solve conflicts among human beings. Only reason and love are valid means of surpassing and resolving disputes between people.
No injustice, no frustration, no philosophy nor religion can justify such an aberration as terrorism.
The recent chain of blind violence we are witnessing around the world is the result of scandalous injustices and imbalances that create conditions favoring an uncontrollable explosion of a desire for revenge. When fundamental rights are violated, it is easy to fall prey to temptations of hatred and violence.
Nonetheless, we must keep in check our base impulses and together work to build a global culture of solidarity that restores hope in the future among the young.
I am thinking not only of the obvious economic scandals that need our attention, but of the various governmental laws which, under the guise of justice, violate the fundamental rights of individuals like the unborn and the elderly through abortion, genetic manipulation and euthanasia, and which need to be corrected.
Such laws do not lead to freedom, but rather, are catalysts for aggression, and work to assault our moral sensibilities leading us, subtly unaware, into corruption. To claim, for example, the right to abortion and to recognize that right in law means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance: that of absolute power over and against others.
Many are shocked at the recent massacre of innocent children in Russia, but few seem concerned that millions more children -- the most innocent of the innocent -- are being killed lawfully each day through abortion in ordinary hospitals and clinics around the globe, and in the most gruesome manner.
This is because today, in many people's consciences, the perception of the gravity of abortion has progressively become obscured. The acceptance of abortion in the popular psyche, in behavior and even in law itself, is a telling sign of an extremely dangerous crisis of morality, which is becoming more and more incapable of distinguishing between good and evil -- even when the fundamental right to life is at stake.
Terrorism is not only to be found in places like New York, Spain, Iraq, Israel and Russia, but in our own hometowns and in our families. This, ultimately, is where terrorism begins and where it must be curtailed.
PAUL KOKOSKI Ontario, Canada Note: This article was dated before the latest bomb that exploded in front of the Australian Embassy in Kuningan Jakarta on September 11, 2004. (Editor)