GOOD AND EVIL

Here is a story of human good; human endurance and human ingenuity. Just reading about it brought tears to my eyes and a sense of pride in the capacity for good that exists in us.

By contrast, here is David Pryce-Jones writing about the malevolent President of Iran:

...[T]o enlarge the quest for regional power into a clash of civilizations between so-called “Crusaders” and Islam serves no useful purpose; it is simply false, as well as counter-productive because it warns his enemies that they have no way of becoming friends. He’s able to combine belief that the Hidden Imam of the Shias is on the point of reappearing with a conspiracy theory about 9/11. Bin Laden and other Muslims take the greatest pride in it, but the Iranian president tells everyone that the United States actually destroyed its own monuments. This is on a par with his nonsense about the Nazi Holocaust, which he thinks never took place — but meanwhile he’s going to wipe Israel off the map.

Human good and human evil. As humans, we are confronted with both on a daily basis...and every single day that goes by, each and every one of us must choose which side we will support on that day. It must be a conscious and deliberate choice, because evil depends on our tuning out the rational mind and allowing it to pursue its ends.

If we are to stand for that which is good in humanity--and in ourselves, we must renew our vows every day; and take heart and pride in the little victories, like the one taking place in Chile right now. As one of the miners said when he emerged from hell: “I’ve been near God, but I’ve also been near the devil. God won.”