freedom fighter

I think that our culture is repressed and because people don’t have healthy outlets for their emotions, either angry or sad they snap and act out. They think that it is okay to set someone on fire. If you follow the news you already know about this, if you don’t. On Saturday night a couple of guys thought it would be a good idea to set a friend of mine on fire. They found the colour of his skin offensive. I feel like I am probably more angry than he his, I am shocked that people could even get away with doing such a thing. I know that lots of people think we live in a progressive society where you can be coloured or gay and it is okay. We really don’t, we really live in a society that talks about how accepting it is but when push comes to shove hate wins.

This is the article:

http://www.theprovince.com/Racial+hatred+possible+motive+torching+sleeping+Vancouver+police/2092186/story.html

I think that everyday of our lives we need to fight hatred and anger, we need to fight it with all the strength that we have. When I went to see the Dalai Lama talk he said that this next century should be one of peace and that peace doesn’t mean conflict. Peace means when there is conflict we choose to resolve it without violence. There will always be violence it is our reaction and response to that violence that is important. When I read, Eat, Pray, Love, the author said that ‘you should look for God like a man with his head on fire looks for water’. I think that we should do the same for my friend and for people who have been the victim of hate crimes. We should fight hatred like it is the most important thing in the world. Life is really a precious thing, all of a sudden it could be gone, as I have learned a few times this month. We need to use every breath that we have to work so that we can have a world that is safe where people can look for God and be safe. Where people can love each other and be safe, where people can sleep on a couch on the street and not worry about being set on fire.