Editorial March 6, 1978 Issue

When taken hostage

Nathan A. Talbot

Underlying many of the current acts of terrorism is an effort to capture public awareness, to seize the world's attention and focus it upon what some feel is an urgent cause.

Have we capitulated? Have we yielded ourselves—our awe or fears or angers—to those who are demanding our attention? Are we, in effect, permitting ourselves to be held hostage?

Freeing ourselves helps bring an answer to the larger problem of hostage taking. A lasting solution will come only by understanding God, not by mesmerically dwelling on the negative information presented by the news media. There is one Mind and that Mind is God. And man is expressive of perpetual, perfect, all-knowing Mind. Mortal mind is the fallacy of many minds—each encased in a mortal personality. It includes the lie that one or more persons can exercise control over others—harm their individual well-being. The terrorist's demand for world attention is a microcosm of the fundamental nature of mortal mind.

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