Today, 9/11

There is great sadness today. I've felt it most of the morning and have been on the verge of tears off and on since waking. There is also a strong undercurrent of hatred, vague and poorly directed.The sadness is expected and understandable. But the hatred is wrong. So wrong. So much directed at people who have done nothing to deserve it, but simply because of a belief system that they chose to embrace. A set of beliefs that a relative handful of people perverted in order to justify acts of violence and murder, acts in total opposition to the basic tenets of those beliefs.If any of us are feeling a generalize hatred, let us stop and examine the truth behind our feelings. If one bee stings us, do we kill all the bees? As often as we have railed against acts of genocide by others, do we now consider ourselves righteous in our thoughts of it against others? And what purpose would that serve, to wipe out an entire people because of the acts of a few? And what of the next group that wrongs us? Shall we kill all the Timothys in the world? Or the Charleses? Remember, the first act is always the hardest.Hate will not beget love. Only love begets love. Let us not fall victim to blanket hatred based on labels, or to acts of injustice advocated by our own handful of misguided zealots.Instead, let us join in blessings for all those whose lives were lost as the result of violence and hatred, for those loved ones left behind to pick up the pieces and move ahead, and for those who have borne the brunt if ill directed anger and revenge. And let us pray for an increased understanding and acceptance of those who superficially appear to be so different from us, whether physically or in what we believe.None of us is all right and none of our beliefs carry all the answers. If we all believed the same, then what would be the need for all of us? Difference isn't something to be feared or hated, but to be celebrated. It is in humanity's diversity that our strengths lie.Blessings and love to all.Namaste.