It’s been almost three weeks since the Paris attacks and it’s taken me that long to find my courage and address it publicly. This isn’t because I’m afraid of terrorist retaliation, but because I know some of you out there will disagree with me. But if I sit in fear of what I have to lose, I fail to serve those of you that have honored me with your time every instance you chose to read my blog. I fail to live up to the standards of leadership I preach that says leaders aren’t leaders because they have followers — leaders are the ones courageous enough to think differently, feel differently, and act differently because they have a dream to inspire, to influence in a manner that gives themselves and others the courage to live into their best self.
My goal is never to get you to simply believe me, my goal is always and forever to challenge the way you think, feel and act – especially in a manner that drives you more deeply in the direction of your dreams. And yes, I mean that — even if your goals and dreams are in contradiction to my own. “We need not think alike to love alike.” I guess that’s why nearly half of my individual coaching clients have been more conservative and right-leaning than me; it’s not because they want to think like me, but because I help them discover more clearly, more honestly, more transparently, and more courageously who they truly want to become as a leader. In the end I find that most people want the same thing (extremists aside), and the only difference between me and my conservative friends and clients is the road we want to travel and how we want to travel it. We’re not that different, really.
So…here’s the thing.
After the attacks in Paris, twenty-five state governors and several Presidential candidates said they refuse to take in any refugees–and since then it’s gone even further with calls to close our borders to Muslims as a whole. Now, at the risk of coming across harshly, I have to admit this sounds pretty hypocritical to me. Aren’t these the same people who, when attacks like San Bernardino or Colorado Planned Parenthood happen, also say “You’re not going to take away my gun just because of a few bad people!” If that’s true, why would you deny help to thousands, just because of a few bad people?
This is scary stuff. I understand the reaction to try and keep danger at bay. The threat of IS is all too real, and honestly terrifying.
But imagine the terror those refugees feel.
The San Bernadino shootings prove that it’s not the refugees who are terrorists.The sad truth is that terror has already made its way into our culture, and the way to fight it is not with more fear. The way to fight it is with compassion–through standing up and letting our enemies know that they cannot change us. They cannot manipulate us into losing our empathy, our generosity, our humanity. They cannot force us to doom these helpless families because they’re playing the bully. Acting out of fear and hatred is not leadership. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Love, compassion, respect, inspiration, possibility – these should be ruling our conversations.
