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Dear Dr. Mitra,

Dealing with middle class people with middle class rules is easy, simple, and very predictable for the most part. Yet, when I taught in the ghettoes of North Philadelphia, my middle class values were viewed by my lower class students as "weaknesses."

When I reverted to my non-middle class values, and my students learned that I meant what I said, I did not have any discipline problems that the other teachers had. During fights, I needed only to show up, and shout once. The fights stopped.

My martial arts demonstrations must have had some impact on those kids. The other teachers yelled, shouted, but were not "heard" by the students; these middle class teachers were not a threat to these street-wise kids who "packed" (carried guns) and knew how to run their gangs effectively with weapons I had not seen before teaching in Philadelphia. The police kept their distance too, when the gangs were "on the streets."

Our reputations as Americans are weak. We need to become tougher, more consistently, and let our reputations precede our SWAT team maneuvers.

I deleted my eight paragraphs on other examples from around the world.

They are not blood thirsty, more than bread hungry, more than asking the minimum living condition for the men, women and innocent children of the world, against $Trillions of military expenses for preempt attacks to poor countries, for their resources and oil. America MUST stop acting international gendarme/ police to invade other countries.Obama, shall and will do this stopping and behaves what we deserve to see in our elected president. I'm not defending terrorism, I con damn it by all means, but their metastatic growth in their line of action makes me think deeper, etiologic ally. We need to diagnose the cause and fight it, first, rather than the effect. Suicide killer, is not certain number to eradicate them. The root remains and grows, as history has shown and proved.World must wake up and follow the virtue of " Live & let live" rather than live and let die, as Machiavelli's.Yes, that's what we are doing, and getting what we deserve, in return. Terrorism is getting more & more adamant, stronger and more dangerous every year.Please help to Wake Up Love must replace hate and narcissism of B- CH, type disasters in the world. With love to humankind, Hadi PS: Mankind includes: homeless, the teenager suicide bomber, her hungry, mother, with no milk in her dry breast to nurse their baby,jobless father,and all the miserable people of the world. WAKE UP WORLD, AND GET RID OF REAL CRIMINALS, AS THE HEAD OF THE STATES. VIVA WOMEN, WHO ARE COMING FORWARD TO REPLACE THEM, OR OBAMA TYPE RULERS

The crisis there, as in elsewhere, is a consequence of human unconsciousness. We can create suffering for others when we are not aware of, or cannot feel, their pain. "Forgive them for they know NOT what they do", said Jesus on the Cross. When we begin to see that "They" are "We", we can stop hurting ourselves!

In each war, the opposing sides are no more than collective egos seeking specialness! The truth is that we are all made up of the same clay! "... Ke Dar Afarinesh Ze Yek Goharand." - Sa'adi.

We must not try to end up with peace, or bargain for it from a position of strength; we must begin with Peace! "We must be the change we wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi.

They fight over a piece of land not realizing that "One cannot own what one walks on." - Crazy Horse (Lakota Indian leader). But one can certainly be buried under it!

We must come to understand that "Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend." – Martin Luther King, Jr. Fortunately, our children are born with lots of love & trust in their hearts. To make a better world then, all we have to do is to refrain from teaching them hate and putting fear in their hearts.

"Go home and love your children." - said Mother Theresa during her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech when asked "What can we do to promote world peace?" That is a noble advice! And if you have no children, you could simply "Love and do as you will." - St. Augustine.

"We all remember how many religious wars were fought for a religion of love and gentleness; how many bodies were burned alive with the genuinely kind intention of saving souls from the eternal fire of hell." - Karl Raimund Popper

"Wars begin in the minds of man, and in those minds, love and compassion would have built the defenses of peace." - U Thant

With much Love,

" It takes two to quarrel, but only one to end it." - Spanish Proverb."

I am basically a peaceful person.

However, after observing over 20 years of their fundamentalist terrorist actions, that are indeed with the intent of world domination by those intolerable people I can think of nothing worse than to be subservient to those vicious animals and their Sharia law.

They seem to be able to perpetrate their terrorist bombings with anonymity and impunity.

Since their professed guide is the Qu'ran, I can think of nothing more appropriate than to do battle with the terms of the Judeo/Christian bible. "An eye for an eye."

When they blow up a bus . . . we blow up a city. It would soon end.

This solution repulses me, but I can think of nothing else that those animals would respond to favorably. They hold the terror and use it freely . . . We hold the power and fervently restrain it.

What is the best way to deal with this, is the question?

The honest answer is “I don’t know!”

I reflected on this for a long time! I guess the wisest thing I can say is that as human beings, we are such unskillful players in the game of life. That’s all! And the rest is details…….

And the problem is not that we are unskillful. The problem is that we pretend otherwise. In other words we are not acting with honesty and are not acknowledging we are such terrible, clumsy players.

If so, then the next logical step is to acknowledge this fact and start to devote some time and effort each day to this. But, for most of us, that is asking too much!

THE SICK BODY

To me our world is like a sick body that is hemorrhaging today from here, tomorrow from there. Trying to fix it here and there should not distract us from getting to the real underlying cause!

THE COURTROOM

May I share that …

on Monday 12.1.08, I was on jury duty in Van Nuys court. The young Hispanic boy, sitting there in suite and tie, clean shiny black haircut, was being tried for robbery with a gun. When the prosecutor asked us the jury some questions … I stated that my heart is not in this because I don’t see that it ultimately makes a difference…! We send them to prison. They come out the other side either same or … I didn’t finish my sentence as the kid was listening also! … The judge responded “… you have dismissed my whole career and chosen profession in life …”

For a few moments something had shifted in that courtroom. The absolute authority and certainty had given way to a moment of reflection. Everyone had stepped back for a moment and became aware of the bigger picture.

I am not saying we should not have courts, accountability and responsibility. But pretending that that should be whole pie?! Not smart!

We put 100% of the blame on a boy, put him in jail … We don’t have time to see why something is happening! No dialog, nothing. Courts do their work, governments do their thing based on short sighted self interest … and we have BLOW BACK! (goggle this) And we act surprised, why…! Fear is still the main motivator in most relationships! And we ask why…!

Awareness of our world view is a key factor, if we have an open mind! If not, we get offended and attack each other! Even the powerful words “Thou Shall Not…” have served their purpose as a compass to the future and it is time to respect and retire and to practice detachment and create again and again! Otherwise we live the past again and again and …

So perhaps we should start with

CHAPTER ONE

Acknowledging where we are and what we have.

We have, conflict; on the world political stage down to the most personal level. We have conflict and we still say an eye for an eye! Well, consider … “The sage does not try to change the world by force for he knows that force results in force….” (Tao Te Ching, verse 29)

AMAZING OPPORTUNITY

There is amazing opportunity available to us at this time!

Everything is ready for us as human beings to step up and create the world that we want exactly the way that we want it.

There is a clear shift in world awareness. The world view shift in the U. S. administration, is an unprecedented opportunity for us to cultivate and create the new world! or we can allow this window of opportunity to close and …!

DAILY PRACTICE

My 12-yr old son told me the other day “OK daddy, we’ll find it, don’t go ballistic now…!” I stopped in shock and then thanked him and reflected on how my past history is still catching up with me!

At the personal level and in groups we can practice the basics of what we preach! Just practice being some of the things we talk about and being a stand for removing fear as a motivator … and be open to what miracles just might happen …

You see, from where I stand, there is no terrorist out there! There are only scared kids doing mad things in a crazy world that WE ALL HAVE CREATED TOGETHER. And if we created this, we can create something just as unbelievable, but beautiful!

Keep the faith.

We got work to do,

India's Leaders Need to Look Closer to Home

The terrorist assault on Mumbai¢s five-star hotels was well planned, but did not require a great deal of logistic intelligence: all the targets were soft. The aim was to create mayhem by shining the spotlight on India and its problems and in that the terrorists were successful. The identity of the black-hooded group remains a mystery.

The Deccan Mujahedeen, which claimed the outrage in an e-mail press release, is certainly a new name probably chosen for this single act. But speculation is rife. A senior Indian naval officer has claimed that the attackers (who arrived in a ship, the M V Alpha) were linked to Somali pirates, implying that this was a revenge attack for the Indian Navy's successful if bloody action against pirates in the Arabian Gulf that led to heavy casualties some weeks ago.

The Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, has insisted that the terrorists were based outside the country. The Indian media has echoed this line of argument with Pakistan (via the Lashkar-e-Taiba) and al-Qaeda listed as the usual suspects.

But this is a meditated edifice of official India¢s political imagination. Its function is to deny that the terrorists could be a homegrown variety, a product of the radicalization of young Indian Muslims who have finally given up on the indigenous political system. To accept this view would imply that the country¢s political physicians need to heal themselves.

Al Qaeda, as the CIA recently made clear, is a group on the decline. It has never come close to repeating anything vaguely resembling the hits of 9/11.

Its principal leader Osama bin Laden may well be dead (he certainly did not make his trademark video intervention in this year's Presidential election in the United States) and his deputy has fallen back on threats and bravado.

What of Pakistan? The country's military is heavily involved in actions on its Northwest frontier where the spillage from the Afghan war has destabilized the region. The politicians currently in power are making repeated overtures to India. The Lashkar-e-Taiba, not usually shy of claiming its hits, has strongly denied any involvement with the Mumbai attacks.

Why should it be such a surprise if the perpetrators are themselves Indian Muslims? Its hardly a secret that there has been much anger within the poorest sections of the Muslim community against the systematic discrimination and acts of violence carried out against them of which the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in shining Gujarat was only the most blatant and the most investigated episode, supported by the Chief Minister of the State and the local state apparatuses.

Add to this the continuing sore of Kashmir which has for decades been treated as a colony by Indian troops with random arrests, torture and rape of Kashmiris an everyday occurrence. Conditions have been much worse than in Tibet, but have aroused little sympathy in the West where the defense of human rights is heavily instrumentalised.

Indian intelligence outfits are well aware of all this and they should not encourage the fantasies of their political leaders. Its best to come out and accept that there are severe problems inside the country. A billion Indians: 80 percent Hindus and 14 percent Muslims. A very large minority that cannot be ethnically cleansed without provoking a wider conflict.

None of this justifies terrorism, but it should, at the very least, force India's rulers to direct their gaze on their own country and the conditions that prevail. Economic disparities are profound. The absurd notion that the trickle-down effects of global capitalism would solve most problems can now be seen for what it always was: a fig leaf to conceal new modes of exploitation.

Tariq Ali¢s latest book, The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power is published by Scribner.

As a supporter of Aish.com, I wanted you to be among the first to watch our new video Responding to Mumbai.

Thank you for helping to make it possible.

May the Almighty help us to be inspired to turn this terrible tragedy into good.

Watch this very interesting commentary by Farid Zakaria, a journalist who knows what he is talking about.. Zakaria: Wake-up call for India