Are we all the same or are we all different?

I believe that, as human beings, our minds, our souls, and our hearts are all filled with the same basic things. We have a need for companionship and love. We have a need for a stable life, with rules we understand and ways to consider ourselves succeessful. We would like to have pleasant distractions for our minds and bodies.

At the same time, our different surroundings, or our perspective, causes us to interpret things in different ways from our fellow man. The media and our leaders use our perspective and their grasp of knowledge to guide us down the road they want us to take, sometimes in overbearing ways.

There are many people in the world who are opposed to “Westernization.” I guess we should feel proud to have invented a society so radical that even looking in its direction on a map would cast a shadow over all that is good and righteous.

It would do well for us to remember that we have brought this on ourselves. We have been militant. We have been bossy. We have insulted proprieties, and we have murdered. Certainly we are not alone in this. All societies throughout the course of history have commited atrocities. The bigger the society, the bigger the crimes. To the aggressor, and the aggressors change all the time, it doesn’t matter who did what to whom. It is merely convenient to be able to say, “They did it first.”

Society must move forward. Compromises must be reached. It is a painful and scary process. Imagine how you would feel right now if you lived in Syria and had to leave the farm your grandfather founded to run from people who want to change all the rules, and not in your favor.

For us the problem is a different one. Terrorists have been around for as long as hate has been around. As weapons become smaller and more dangerous, and the world allows us to travel and our cultures to clash, it is inevitable that the fight will come closer to home. Is the answer to keep us separated, like unruly children in a daycare? It might work, but no one learns anything or progresses when they’re in time out. Eventually, to grow up, we have to learn to play in the same sandbox.

In the meantime, there are some real bullies, who just want to kill and maim and destroy, and don’t care if they get killed in process. Worse, they may come to your concert hall, or your restaurant, or your sporting event, with the intention of killing you.

When they do, there is a good chance they will be able to execute their plan. Police will be on the outside, unable to help. If you are on the inside, you may have to fight back, and quickly, before you are incapacitated.

This is where the militia from the Second Amendment comes in.

The Constitution of The United States predates law enforcement. The idea of the Constitution is that we are all responsible for one another. If someone steps into your yard and tries to do you harm, you are entitled to fight back. If you choose to carry a weapon, legally, and train with that weapon, then I call upon you to honor the Constitution and be part of the militia.

If an act of terrorism or a hostage situation happens in a crowded area, and you are unfortunate enough to be there, the best thing to do is escape, but if you are part of the militia, you must be prepared to confront the attackers, so that your friends, family, and fellow citizens have a better chance of surviving.

Someday we will all have to be our brother’s keeper, and someday we will all have to get along. Until then, we are justified in defending our lives and freedom from extremists.