POV

You see a man with a gun, taking hostage a shopping mall. He demands $100,000 in 2 hours. Police storms in, takes down the guy. 5 dead bodies lying near 'em. Next day, media blasts the incident.

'Terrorist act'

'Psychopathic killer'

Hey, how bout this instead?

............................................'A true tragedy'................................................

You see, he actually had a baby sister, and she was dying. The only way she could be saved, was for her to go through an operation. Her brother's only intention was for her to live. He didn't know things would escalate to a hostage situation. He didn't know he'd hold a gun and kill 5 innocent people. He didn't plan on going this crazy.

This won't apply to every rampage or act of terrorism or act of vengeance or whatsoever there is in this world, but just hear me on this.

Our points of views matter. They determine our perception of life and of others. The media says A, you believe in A. A man says a country has nuclear power, and you believe in him. A man kills people, and you label him terrorist. Mad scientist. Evil emperor.

Hey, stop right there. Before we (yes we, I'm not that perfect either) etch in our minds these percetions, why don't we take a step back and look at the big picture. Then look at the small picture: these people's lives, what happened to them, the situations that provoked or led or forced them to commit these acts.

What we deem as evil deeds may, to the acting person, be good deeds. Deeds for his family. Deeds for his life. The other way applies. The other person then may see our reactions to be evil deeds.

The basis of Cold War.

Of course, terrorists are terrorists. Serial killers are serial killers. But don't overgeneralise. Don't stick up those racist signboards. There are those whom are innocent. Take children in the Middle East as an example. Did they plan on growing up to be suicide bombers? No...their captors wanted them to. Did they believe America was Satan, that the fight against the wretched of the world is good? No...their captors wanted them to. They were born into this mess. So now you still call them terrorists?

Let's take a step back and really look at who's the real evil. And rather than saying 'I hate you all', instead, know who's really at fault, and have the mindset of wanting to save the person who's 'supposedly' at fault.

Someone has to break the vicious cycle of action and reaction, of mindsets and perceptions. It's a staring game.

So let's be the first to smile.