When Things Go Wrong

Despite winning the Scrabble battle with the Ambassador last week (there will be a rematch, however, so I'm not crowing very loudly), several events occurred this weekend that made my faith in humanity tremble and almost collapse. The most saddening was the violence in the Maghreb and in other parts of the Middle East. As we are scheduled to serve in Tunis, Tunisia, for our next post as part of the Foreign Service, it was very scary to hear reports of billowing black clouds of smoke arising from the Embassy compound where my husband is scheduled to work. Worse, the rioters, who from an online video looked like bored hooligans with nothing better to do then tear down relationships and screw over their own environment, looted and then burned down the very international school that my son Maxwell would have attended for preschool. They even took the time to try to destroy the playground. The children were sent home only four hours earlier, and many of the children were not American at all. When you start going after kids and their schools, you lose the support of the entire world.

Although I have not been physically affected by the attacks on American institutions in the Middle East, I am connected enough to the people and the places to be emotionally affected. I have a friend who recently reminded me of a question I use to say frequently to myself: "Will you be bitter or will you be better?" And so I choose not to be fearful. I choose not to seek revenge. I choose not to lump all Muslims together as terrorists or my personal enemies or anti-Americans.

My husband posted this the day of the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Tunisia:

I represented the Embassy at the opening of the first Mosque in the Marshall Islands yesterday. The Imam's sermon was on approaching God from wherever we are in life. At the end, he strongly decried the violence at U.S. Embassies around the world. Afterwards he spoke to me personally and said he was sorry about what is happening in the Middle East and Maghreb. I felt nothing but love and a sincere attempt to approach God in the mosque. During this very difficult time, I hope my fellow Americans will not mistake the hatred of some for the religion of Islam.

I choose to be better.