Thinking about recent history, and the fear some "conservative" friends have shared with me sparked this thought. We were talking about how important it is to have a gun for self defense. And about how important it is that people who are associated with danger should be killed or isolated or at the very lease avoided. We discussed the refugee crisis around the world, the global economy that seems to be in struggle, and how the only way to secure one's own safety and future is to have a ready offense and an impenetrable defense. I've always been a kind of flower-child who things the world is generally good and people don't want to hurt me. But after all I have seen and the real danger that exists, I know that minimizing the danger isn't really a winning argument strategy. So instead I offer the following reason for why I disagree.
I guess I fundamentally believe that acting out of principles and ethics instead of my fears is what defines me as a person; a definition I am willing to die for. I say this because I think the only other option, other then being killing for my principles, is to always be a little more cut-throat, more animal, more savage, more willing to kill someone else to stay alive. After all the death I have been a part of, and all the beauty and wonder I have seen in this life, maintaining a pulse is not as importing as making an impact with the pulse I have. I'd rather die in a terrorist attack due to circumstances beyond my control then lived a life having never befriended and loved and cared for a Muslim or Black or Jew or Japanese because I was told they might kill me. Besides, if you want to really do your history of the most dangerous race; White people scare me the most.
I was put on this earth to be the manifestation of Gods love; not a terrified, finger-pointing, separatist trying at every turn to preserve my life at the expense of others. My life, and death, are in His hands and I believe that when I am stoned, or burned at the stake, or hung on a cross, or beheaded because the bigger stick was in the "enemy's" hand, then I join a long heritage of great men and women who we sing songs about; people who said principles first, fear be damned.
I don't make that choice for others... But this is where I draw my line.