We are in one world

Half way across the world I saw the carnage of the bombings and even though I knew no one who was hurt or killed it saddened me. No one has a right to kill and injure innocent people in the name of religion or political beliefs. This is one world now!

With computers, televisions, travel and mass communication, it truly is one world. It is not the secluded and separatist world of our fathers and grandfathers, it is a world of opportunity. This new world offers us the chance to raise the standards of education and raise the basic standards of living. We have the opportunity to grow and progress to new heights. We can not grow and prosper if we continue to hate people because they have a different religion or are of a different race or ethnic background.

We can not hate because someone does not agree with us or because of a long ago history of events. We must learn to adapt, to change, to compromise, to learn, to work for the betterment of all mankind. We must cast off our paranoia about other people and realize that we are all brothers.

Many religions can co-exist peaceably, many people with many different languages and races and ethnic backgrounds can live and learn together if their goals are to live an honest, peaceable hardworking life. We can not allow an element of extremism to blackmail our society and turn brother against brother and put us back into the stone age.

Many races, many cultures, many languages, many religions, give us many solutions to problems, and many hands to help with the work, many minds to educate, many dreams to change our world for the better.

We can not be silent but must speak out and demand that justice prevail, if not for ourselves, for our children and their children.

JAY RUDDWICK, Arborgreen, U.S.