In my opinion, a terrorist attack includes any violent and destructive act against another group of humans. This includes, hate crimes, school shootings, gang activity and family abuse. I include these “smaller” more personal crimes because they come from a similar mentality and the resulting damage on their victims and families are also similar. Terrorists have a cause, a cause that is political, religious and always personal.

The goal of terrorism is to force the will of others through coercive power – the power of threat and terror. They are narrow-minded, selfish humans beings who posses rigid tunnel vision and inflexibility towards those who are different then they. Intolerance and inflexibility are their most common traits which fuel their anger and hatred towards their target. Their targets are depersonalized to them and the pain that they cause to others is unimportant and irrelevant to their agenda. In fact, the more pain, horror and terror caused by their actions the better. It’s twisted logic that makes little sense because the rest of the “civilized” world operates at a different level of intelligence and evolution.  

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On Tuesday, September 11th - something unfathomable happened. The pictures on the television of the airliner smashing into the building seemed like something out of a movie. A sense of disbelief came over me as I switched from channel to channel confirming that I wasn't imagining things. I even pinched myself to see if I was still sleeping and just having a bad dream. Unfortunately, I wasn’t dreaming or seeing things – what was unfolding in front of me was real, very real.

As a result of this attack on the U.S. (and really, the rest of the world) many people are struggling with their emotions and doing a lot of soul searching - trying to make sense of the insensible, find reason in the unreasonable and logic in the illogical.  

In response to this rapid influx of mixed emotions our minds scramble to restore the balance. The body doesn't like the state of stress and confusion and so our minds search for reason, which often turns to blame. We seek a target to vent our frustration, fear and anger and often as a way to expel these feelings from our psyche, our minds focus on retribution, revenge - justice. Someone has to pay for this. We seek balance and our feeling of safety restored.

We find little comfort in the perpetrator's death when s/he is killed in action. We still have these emotions whirling around inside looking for release. Some people release these emotions by participating in volunteer work - helping the victims or taking an active role in prevention by becoming a spokesperson or a peer counsellor and so forth. 

Others vent their emotions in a more negative fashion by singling out a similar target to hate and then directing some form of violence (verbal or physical) upon that person.  The target may be general such as an entire population that shares a similar ethnic or religious background of the perpetrator, or the target may be specific, such as members of the perpetrator's family or social group. 

Where the first group finds healing in helping others, the second group finds little relief in anger and hate. It's true that without a positive intervention, violence perpetuates more violence.  In the case of the later group whose chooses to react with more violence, they become that very thing they hate. Sadly, the abused becomes the abuser – and that is a choice, not a condition.

All anger begins with emotional pain. Our unconscious turns pain into anger in efforts to mobilize the feelings into action. Once feelings are mobilized, something can be done with them.  You see, pain immobilizes us and anger becomes a driving force. Not much can change within us while we remain in a static (immobilized) state. In a positive way, anger can inspire us to make changes in our lives that move us towards resolution and away from the pain. That is the positive intent, and there always is one, behind anger. 

Where things tend to go awry is when the person gives in to the animal instinct (which also has it's own positive intent of protection) and lashes out with violence. These animal instincts are necessary when we are hurt and in immediate danger. They kick us into action so that we may keep harm away until we are able to find a safe place to go to and heal our wounds.  Even though this is a useful program to run when hurt and in danger, it is not a useful program to use when we are feeling hurt and not in further danger because the results (in the later situation) are more detrimental to us than helpful.

We need to remember that the purpose behind anger is to remove the source of pain so that we may begin to heal.  Ultimately healing involves coming to a state of acceptance in what has happened. Accepting that sometimes horrible things happen to good people and for lousy reasons. Deciding to make some positive changes in your life as a tribute to those who died, is an excellent way to begin the healing process. Other ways to begin self healing is in teaching others by word and action. Teaching them how to focus on healing the pain by seeking comfort, counselling or changing the focus from the self to others in acts of charity.

Reality is what you make it and you have a choice on how to view the world now. You could have told yourself that it is a horrible place full of hatred, terrorism and evil. Or you can marvel in the generosity and humanitarian spirit that individuals show when adversity strikes.  Witness the incredible amount of money, supplies & blood donated by organized groups, corporations and individuals in efforts to help and show support. In my mind, the amount of good that I have seen in the past week strips the power from any terrorist act.

The terrorists, ultimately were the ones who lost. Their actions were in vain as they  actions created an opposite effect. Instead of destroying America, it united the people by giving them a purpose for unity. It gave us a common enemy (terrorism) to focus on, forgetting other petty prejudices that once occupied their minds. It reminded the people to strengthen their spirit, appreciate all life and that it feels better to help than to hurt. 

To those whose lives ended so abruptly, an opportunity has been created for positive change and evolution of humanity. It’s created a resolve of making our society less violent and encouraging a movement towards strength in our refusal to allow terrorists to victimize us. Our victory is in our ability to overcome adversity and maintain an enjoyable lifestyle. It demonstrates that our spirit is free and rejoices in that freedom, showing reverence for life and thus refuses to be controlled by the acts of a few.