A fly buzzed around as I sat in the library. I stared at the fly, absolutely annoyed as it was distracting me from studying. The fly sat on my book, my hand, then my chair, and all along, it made that nuisance of a sound . buzz.

So, as any person who is annoyed with a fly would do: I started swatting at it. I tried once. It buzzed away. Then I tried again, and again it flew away. But then, with one strong wave of my arm, I finally killed it. Whooo! I was ecstatic. I had accomplished what I had in mind-the creature that was disturbing me was gone and would never disturb me again-how great!

Well, was it really that great?

In retrospect, I don’t know why I was so pompous-why did I think I owned the air that the fly was flying through? I was getting annoyed with the fly, but the fly was probably annoyed with the human inventions around the library. The truth is, the fly wasn’t even doing anything-it was just flying around, it was just living its life. But I had no tolerance or patience and could not live with the fly, even though it was minding its own business.

I had stopped minding my own business. I had no more right to the air than that fly had. Since I was bigger and more powerful, I felt that I was better; I felt that I had more ownership of the air . when that wasn’t true at all.

On a larger scale, this same comparison, with the fly and me, can be applied to the global community. The “I” could be Al Qaeda and the “fly” that died could be the innocent citizens of the United States. In other cases, the “I” could be the United States, and the suffering “fly” could be the innocent denizens of Iraq who are dying on a daily basis. The “I” could be the dictator of North Korea, enriching uranium and testing nuclear weapons, and the fly could be the civilians who will die when the nuclear weapons are used and tested. In these situations, the fly is not bothering anyone, yet it is still suffering because of intolerance.

There are so many situations in the global community that are parallel to such a trivial experience in the library. There is a lack of tolerance for people whom we (as in all humans) do not know well. It is so much easier to think that the “I” owns whatever it feels because it is stronger than the flies. Al Qaeda thinks it is stronger than innocent citizens, the United States thinks it is stronger than the citizens in Iraq, and North Korea thinks it is stronger than innocent citizens everywhere who can be affected by the nuclear weapons.

But, clearly this is not how it should be. Why should the “I” be able to control something while the innocent flies suffer? The idea that the “I” thinks it is superior also reveals a lack of respect for the flies. I showed a clear disrespect to the fly when I killed it, and the “I” in the global community also shows a lack of respect to the “fly”.

OK, so what does this actually mean for students like you and me? We can’t go and talk to Osama bin Laden and tell him that he should be more respectful toward the United States-that would be ludicrous. But what we can do is simply be more respectful to each other. I am not saying there is a lack of respect amongst the student body at SLU, because there isn’t; however, there can always be more respect for one another.

In this way, as we become older, and the future leaders of the United States, we will know that the first answer should not be violence, it should not be killing (and we won’t be immersed in wars that are unnecessary). This idea of nonviolence will prevail, if we have respect for everyone we know and don’t know.

Learn more about people who are different from you and learn more about people who are like you. Just don’t be like me and the fly-don’t kill something because you think you are better.

Samiksha Tarun is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences.