I watched this video of a man called Antoine Leiris two days ago, and ever since then I can’t stop thinking about it.Attacks in Paris on Friday 13th of November, shook us all to our core and generated a wave of terror that travelled from the people in Paris to all those living in different parts of the world.I think the purpose of war and violence is to create terror. It is our fear, our hatred and our confusion, that these terrorists require in order to have power over us, because it puts us in a weak and vulnerable position where we our too afraid to even trust our friends.
In his video, Antoine Leiris responded to the death of his wife, who was killed in the attack on the Bataclan concert hall, Paris, which has made him a widower and deprived their 17 months old son of a mother’s love and comfort.Antoine addresses the terrorists directly in the video and openly states that,
“So no, I will not give you the satisfaction of hating you. You want it, but to respond to hatred with anger would be to give in to the same ignorance that made you what you are“.
Even after going through such a grief, he still had the strength to keep calm while referring to those who took away the love of his life away from him. Its easy to say be strong but it is not till you go through such a traumatic loss can you actually appreciate his courage for shooting for this video.In the video, Leiris recognizes and talks about a very important issue, of not hating those who deserve it by all means. He expresses his grief and how this attack has left him devastated and how he lost this round of the game (between the innocent and the oppressor),but he says that he will not stay like this for long. He tells them that he will love and raise his son in such a way that every day his happiness will be an achievement for him and an indication of their failure for them .He understands what others have not yet figured out or maybe our still ignorant, that perhaps, our strength lies in solidarity rather than being divided and doubting every other person we pass on the street.
Reflecting on Leiris’s words I conclude that, it is in these moments of stress and great loss that you can truly test a person and what they are made of. We all ask each other and ourselves what can we do against these terrorists, what difference can we make as a single individual of this larger society. It is in this video that I found the answer for myself; fight violence and terror with peace and patience. It is as simple as that.If we stop and respond to one’s bad deeds with a clear mind and hold our calm and our rationality, it will disturb the other person who just wants to make you suffer because we wont give him what he wants. This video sends a grave message coated with the sort of calm that can be felt before a major storm. If each and every one of us moulds are thinking and adopts Leiris’s perspective we can very well create a storm with our unified love and peace that will change the game and will give us power over those who just want to create havoc by tearing us apart.