Albert Einstein once said, “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
These words never seemed so truthful. He meant the world will be so decimated from the swoops of war that we will be reduced to the use of meager sticks and stones as weapons.
As the world now knows, Paris was attacked on Nov. 13 by the terrorist group known as ISIS. A total of three attacks left 129 people dead. The attacks stunned and alarmed the world.
President Barack Obama called this an attack against all humanity and the universal values we share. However, beyond the facts, there is a deeper wound that this attack had on the world.
Let’s go back to September 11, 2001, the very day the twin towers in New York were destroyed as well as the psyche of American citizens. The president of France at the time, Jacques Chirac, expressed his solidarity with America by saying, “Today we are Americans. Together we are pursuing our determined struggle against this plague which nothing ever can justify.”
When Paris was attacked, President Obama reciprocated by saying, “Today we are all French.”
The young generation needs to learn from this example of empathy. Unless the tragedy happens directly to us or those we love, we don’t seem to care. Youths have been focused on social media and conceited tendencies, rather than focusing on what’s going on with the less fortunate.
The air strikes in Syria relate to us, just as the terrorism in Lebanon and Paris do. Let us all go back to the philosophy of Jacques Chirac. We are all Syrian. We are all Lebanese. We are all French. We are all humans recovering from the catastrophic attacks that have transpired.