World peace seems more distant

     Events like the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and the recent terrorist attack on the USS      Cole seem to guarantee that world peace will never be realized in our lifetime.
It appears that Arabs and Jews will never get along.
     Both sides have legitimate grievances, but neither side can deal with them in an appropriate manner. Both sides have resorted to violence in an effort to save face with other nations in the area.
     Such a volatile situation in an historically unstable region only threatens to bring the entire world into the conflict.
     Therein lies the problem. If people of different races and cultures cannot find a way to coexist, then our time on this earth is indeed limited.
     The people of this world have always divided into smaller groups and, in most cases, oppressed groups that were different from them. It is a scenario that has been repeated throughout history. The results have never been favorable, either.
     There have been crusades, slavery, ethnic cleansing, eradication of the Native Americans and the Holocaust.
     Someone once said, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
     That quote does not mean that if you fail a history course, you will have to take it again.
     It means our world must learn from its past mistakes or else they will continue to happen. Mistakes are learning experiences, and if nothing is learned, there is no hope for survival.
     This is what is happening now. The people on this planet have not learned to share.
     To hate someone based on the color of his or her skin or which god they worship is just plain ridiculous.
     Differences will tear us apart only if we allow them to do so.
     Having been around for centuries, many of these differences make the future look even more depressing.
     Citizens of the United States probably cannot fathom the existence of such animosity among people.
     Because our country is relatively young, it has never dealt with such centuries-old animosities. The closest historical animosity that the United States has would be the slavery issue.
     Tension still exists here because of the injustices that blacks had to endure. The tension between the Arabs and Jews is at an unbelievably high level, and it shows no signs of ending.
     The citizens and governments of the world need to learn tolerance, and they need to gain the ability to compromise. It appears that the prejudices that divide the world are fostered more by governments than by regular citizens.
     This situation is a frightening prospect since governments should represent a country’s citizens and beliefs.
     It is incomprehensible that the lack of basic civility that a person is taught as a child could be the downfall of our entire existence.
     Perhaps we need to make that lesson stronger.