It has been a traumatic time for us all. France under attack, Lebanon, Mali and now a distinct feeling of impending doom in Belgium. All eating away at our psyche, eroding our morale and putting us down.

We desperately try to find reason and solace, each in our own way. And inevitably we all come to our own personal conclusions, which vary greatly according to our own subjective judgement and sensitivities.

There is hopefully one main thing we all agree upon however. That tolerance and freedom must be resected and that imposing our beliefs on others is a ghastly and terribly undesirable thing. We all have every right to our own convictions and no amount of terror will ever change that.

Good, so hopefully we agree upon that!

But why then do we all squabble and fight and argue between ourselves simply because we take a different stance and arrive at a varying conclusion. Although our actions are infinitely benign in comparison, we still act like mini terrorists with each other simply over diverging opinions.

So many have battled away with their so called friends on social media and elsewhere, so many have fought and cursed and insulted each other, simply because they have a different take on the situation. On Facebook many have fallen out, unfriended each other and even blocked their previous friends.

And why? Because in a terrorist way, they too are unable to accept different views to theirs.

I have friends who vary from totally racist, to moderately racist, to not racist, to fully liberated global citizens who don’t even believe we should have borders, like me. And you know what, I respect all of their opinions and think that they have every right to them and also to express them.

If they went out on daily killing sprees shooting anyone slightly on the dark side and closely resembling Arabs and Indians, which incidentally would include most of the Maltese, then it would be an entirely different issue. But as I do not discriminate by skin or by religion, I will not discriminate by opinion either.

I haven’t got one atom of racism in my body, however I accept friends who simply cannot stand the sight of an Arab and would want every single one of them deported, visa and residents permit or no visa and residents permit.

What are we to do next? Avail ourselves of a clipboard with a questionnaire before we accept anyone into our circles? Who do you vote for? Wrong party sorry – out! Religious? Oh no I can’t accept that – bye! Do you believe in ghosts? Oh yuck I can’t stand that! And every other opinion we may have must be matched by everyone else in our entourage, before we start to consider them?

I love diversity, I love variance and I hate monotony. I really and truly do not want everyone else to agree with me on everything. What a dull and boring world that would be.

Similarly with religion, although I have been an atheist for over 35 years, I fully respect everyone else’s opinions and have a lot of time for those who have chosen to retain their faith. This is why I do not subscribe to the current angry atheist movement who constantly disparage religion and religious people. For me they too are taking a very religious standpoint by crusading for their own atheistic beliefs. In my world why should I even want others to be atheist? Nobody will ever give me brownie points for ex-converting people anyway.

I fully understand why religion came about and why so many people still need religion in their lives, so who am I to deny them that option? Similarly I understand that racism is in many ways a natural protective reaction based on the fear of the unknown. Well in any case these are my own theories, but of course feel free to disagree.

Since when do we expect to inhabit a planet populated only by our own clones?

Accept and respect everyone else’s opinions in the same way that you want yours to be respected.

These are the main thoughts and reflections I have come away with from the terror of recent days. Let us not add more aggression and unnecessary grief. The whole battle is about the acceptance of others remember!