An ocean away, the nightmares of Friday the 13th came true for a nation that shares our red, white, and blue.  ISIS’s six part attack on Paris, France left 130 dead as suicide bombings, mass shootings, and hostage-taking turned the nation from one of contentment, to a country filled with panic and distress.  

130 people.  Next to the almost 3,000 Americans lost in the 9/11 terrorism attacks, this number pales in comparison.  So why, then, do countless numbers of people consider Paris’s loss one of massive sorrow and concern?  It comes down to a ratio.

If the population of France is 66.03 million people (according to the World Bank), and 130 lives were lost in the attacks, that equates to a total loss of .0000019688% of the country’s population. In 2001, the population of the United States was 285 million (according the the United States Census Bureau).  This means .000010526% of the United States population was lost in these attacks. Now these are just numbers.  My point is that even though the U.S. lost more innocent citizens according to a ratio of millions to lives lost, it matters.  If one life is lost to ISIS, it matters.  The fact that people are taking innocent lives must come to an end.

Just two weeks earlier on October 31st, ISIS took down a Russian plane of 224 people with a suicide bomb.  The media has drawn our attention primarily to Paris’s trauma, when in reality, ISIS has not gotten “badder” with its six-part attack in France.  It has only gotten more publicity.  More attention.  Isn’t that what they want? These attacks serve one purpose for them: to draw attention to their cause and assault those nations who may threaten their ultimate goal of gaining control of the Middle East.  So why do we care in the first place? Why does America, Russia, China, France, Belgium, Egypt, and all other countries adversely affected by ISIS matter to this raging terrorist group?

Human rights violations, resources, access to the Mediterranean Sea, refugee influxes.  I could go on and on with reasons supporting nations’ concerns with the Islamic State.  But the fact of the matter is that killing civilians is unjustifiable.  Yet almost every nation is guilty of victimizing the innocent whether intentional or not.  That’s the problem with war.  What can be done?

Lives will be lost.  That fact will not change.  It’s part of our history, it’s part of our future, and as seen clearly in these recent and ongoing attacks, it’s part of our present reality.

I have no hope for world peace. Instead I have hope that from the ashes of turmoil, hate, and destruction–be it by words or weapons–the world can weld itself back together piece by piece, war by war.  Because beneath all the prejudice and discrimination, tucked under the sheets of secrecy and whispered threats, there is hope for something.  Whether it be hope for the world to find refuge in the midst of unwarranted attacks, for food on a barren table, or a warm blanket to tame the biting cold, there is hope, and there are good people in this world.  Some may be hiding behind the curtains of conformity or social normality, but they are there. And the world is growing ever more impatient for them, and for us, to change it.