I AM NOT A GROUP

i am not a group. you are not a group. we are persons. individuals. responsible individuals, responsible for our actions, to ourselves and others of our kind, and every kind. i refuse to identify with any group smaller than mankind, even smaller than all life. we don't know what life is but we know it is us and it is important. it matters what we do. it matters what we think, how we view ourselves and how we view others. the only infidelity is to believe it doesn't matter. as a kind, quiet, intelligent friend once said to me, we cannot always control our emotional reactions to things but we can take responsibility for our actions in response to those feelings.

those who commit acts of violence against people viewed merely as others, strangers, symbols, an enemy, are criminals — individual criminals — and it matters not if they wear a uniform or any other symbol of belonging or identifying with a subgroup of humanity. they should be tried individually for their crimes. punishment of any self-identified group as a whole for what amount to individual crimes of some of its members, whether the group as a whole or even to a person approves those actions, is a philosophical, moral and practical error. if the surviving saudis who bombed the trade towers had been tried as criminals instead of triggering a warlike response from the US, if the people who aided and funded the criminals had been also tried as criminals in an international civil court, and no invasion or occupation, military or otherwise, had been carried out in the name of vengeance, the world, and paris in particular, would likely be a different place today.