Remember, 'fear is root of all violence'

On the morning of Jan. 29 I sat down next to the wood stove with my coffee and read two very different perspectives on refugees.

The first was on the Inter Lake’s Perspectives page entitled “Don’t allow Syrian refugees in Montana.” It informed me that “Islam has been at war with the world...forever.” And it called on our leaders “...not [to] allow Syrian refugees into our great state.”

My second reading was from little book of daily meditations entitled  “This Day.” The Jan. 29 entry was on Dominique Pire, the Dominican Nobel Laureate who died in 1969. Pire spoke of the “Open Heart”: “Let us learn, then, once and for all, to see a human brother in each person. Let us learn, also, once and for all, to assess a man at his true value, a value which is always infinite.”

That evening I read an essay that pointed to fear as being the root of all violence. And I wondered which of my morning readings were more likely to fan the flames of violence. —Bob Muth Sr., Kalispell