DEAR EDITOR:

It is a Christmas morning, when we think of those who are too far to see, but close enough to love: Family and friends, and all the members of our human family. If we could only stand together, form a circle, connected by hands, but cemented with love. Unfortunately, reality dictates otherwise. Despite high levels of education, we are unconsciously still tied to our “tribal” past. Knowledge of religion, philosophy, science and technology has not changed our real human values, and “tribal” DNA. We temporarily rest for a while, when exhausted, physically, economically and morally, but then we forget, and resume our old-fashioned ways. But instead of stones, bows and arrows, we use more lethal weapons, and hope to destroy the “other” tribe, or at least bring it to its knees, under our control.

We forget that because of our technology, we are no longer separate tribes, but one human family, living on only one planet, with finite space, a “village.” When a misfortune, natural, or man-made, affects one part, it affects all parts. COVID proved it 4 years ago.

However, we constantly hear the sounds of sirens, missiles, drones and bombs destroying homes, often whole cities, leaving death of many, often innocent elderly, women, and children, and thousands, sometimes millions, of broken hearts, not just last year, last month, or yesterday, but today, on Christmas Day. There are millions without homes, without a country, with little or no food, or water, all victims of those who should know better. There will be more for tomorrow, and many Christmases to come.

All this mayhem is to gain a piece of land; for control; for dominance; for power, and for destroying the opposing “tribe,” knowing not, that all this, will be swallowed by history, and forgotten with time. But tomorrow, and after tomorrow, and for generations to come, there will be more bombing, more destruction, more deaths, and more broken hearts, as long as we are still made of tribes. The powerful are reluctant to change it. The weak cannot change it, or run away from it. Their only choice is to accept it, even if it is totally unacceptable.

Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Sadly, the first is not “Merry,” and the second is not “Happy.”

However, let us join the circle of humanity, free ourselves from our tribal bonds, and know that only when the rest of us, all over the world, feel safe, happy, and free, that we can feel safe, happy and free.

RASHID ABDU, MD

Canfield