What would you say to your country men and women if you were a leader, and your country had been attacked by homegrown or outside terrorists?
"If one person can destroy so much with hate, imagine what so many persons can accomplish with love," was spoken by the Norwegian Speaker at a recent Parliament Memorial Service for the 77 persons killed there by a right-wing homegrown terrorist.
That nation's Premier said at the same service,"The killer has not killed our cause and right to express ourselves."
Compare this to what President Bill Clinton said in a memorial service following the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995:
“Let us let our own children know that we will stand against the forces of fear. When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it. In the face of death, let us honor life. Let us not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
What did our esteemed President George W. Bush say in a memorial after 9-11?
War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder. This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour, of our choosing.
I think we see the character of a country in the words of its leadership.
We can also see what President Barack Obama said when he spoke out at a memorial service following the deadly shootings earlier this year in Arizona:
As we discuss these issues, let each of us do so with a good dose of humility. Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let's use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy and remind ourselves of all the ways that our hopes and dreams are bound together.
True, President Bush was reacting to a presumed attack from terrorists from another country. Some would say he reacted similarly to how President Franklin Roosevelt after Pearl Harbor was attacked.
Now [war] has come and we must meet it as united Americans regardless of our attitude in the past toward the policy our Government has followed. ... Our country has been attacked by force of arms, and by force of arms we must retaliate. We must now turn every effort to building the greatest and most efficient Army, Navy and Air Force in the world
I wrote this blog to show how nations react in times of mass murders. We recite words of revenge and war following an attack from another country. However when homegrown terrorists attack, we react with words of hope and renewal of values that unite a people instead of ones that invite us to fight back.
Most people would say this only makes sense. How can you go to war against your own people, while it's very easy to make war when those killers are not from our shores or homeland.
And then there are times when even these attacks from outside may have been "prompted" by actions or nonactions of the very leaders who lead us into war after the attacks.