Paris

For days I have been wanting to write here, to share my thoughts about the conference I'm attending in San Francisco and to tell you about the places we've visited and the food we've eaten during the gaps between sessions.  To talk about things that are light and fun and pleasurable.  But I've felt like I can't talk about lightness and trivialities until I say something to acknowledge the recent attacks on Paris.

But what can I possibly say?

This is the third attempt that I've made at writing a post, and every attempt has seemed too....earnest? Cheesy?  Ignorant?  In my attempt to write something meaningful, I've given myself an incurable case of writer's block.  And now that it's late, and given that we have tickets to Alcatraz for early tomorrow morning, I'm going to say something quick to simply get it over with.

All that I'm going to say is the one thought that enters my head every time I hear about the attack on Paris and the resultant escalation of the war in Syria:  we have to find a better way.  As the (purportedly) most intelligent species on Earth, we need to acknowledge that our endless cycles of war are failing.  We aren't making the world safer by constantly responding to violence with more violence; we're simply creating more enemies.  And destroying the lives of more innocent people, both civilian and military.

We have to find a better way.

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Because this post isn't nearly as good as I would like it to be, here are the thoughts of some other people that I think are worth sharing:

An American college professor's eight ways to defend against terror nonviolently.

SLukettG's thoughts about the need to recognize the tragedies occurring throughout the world, regardless of the skin colour of the people affected.

Feel free to share any other links that you think are interesting/relevant (as long as they aren't racist or xenophobic) in the comments.  Or tell me your thoughts about all of the horrible things that are happening in our broken world.