LIKE millions of others, Patton Oswalt, a 44-year-old stand-up comedian and California-based actor, watched in horror as the Boston Marathon bombings unfolded live on Direct Television a couple of years ago.

He subsequently penned a moving message, and posted it on his Facebook Page on the Boston Marathon bombings. His message went viral. Within hours, it was shared more than 150,000 times.

“Boston. @#&&%% horrible,” Oswalt began. “I remember, when 9/11 went down, my reaction was, ‘Well, I’ve had it with humanity.’ But I was wrong. I don’t know what’s going to be revealed to be behind all of this mayhem,” Oswalt, best known as the voice of Remy in the 2007 animated film, ‘Ratatouille’, continued.

“One human insect or a poisonous mass of broken sociopaths. But here’s what I do know. If it’s one person or a hundred people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet.

“You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out. …this is a giant planet and we’re lucky to live on it, but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they’re pointed towards darkness.

“But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We’d have eaten ourselves alive long ago.

“So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, “The good outnumbers you, and we always will.”

Certainly, the good always outnumbers the evil forces of darkness, and Guyanese need to ensure that those forces do not prevail over our national good.

However, leaders need to be cognisant that good and conscientious actions evolve from childhood with the recognition of a Heavenly Father who set the guidelines for behavioural patterns.

Aberrant behaviour ensues from lack of a moral compass, which comes from our spiritual synergies as dictated from the Holy texts of every religion (not the interpretation of the self-serving, murderous bigots) The older generation remembers attending schools where there was bible study and there were Christian prayers, but those did not cause them to abandon the religions of their foreparents, but instead inculcated into them an understanding and tolerance for the faiths of others.

As one elderly woman related: “I grew up in a Hindu household. My grandfather was a pandit, and my mother was deeply religious,not in a dogmatic way, but with a tolerance and love for humanity and the vulnerable, regardless of who they were; and I grew up with deeply religious Muslim neighbours who took me to masjid when my mother was too busy earning a living for her children to take me to mandir any more. And I grew up in a joint community where youngsters lived like family members, and any elder had the right to punish any child in the community; and I grew up to respect the religions of others, and the rights of others. And yes, I am intolerant, but only of those who hurt others; of rumour-mongers; of women who gossip about others without looking to see their own flaws; of manipulators and liars; of thieves and murderers; of rapists and especially child molesters; of those who take advantage of the vulnerable in any shape or form.
“I am uncompromising with my principles, and I live up to the standards set by my highly-principled mother, my God and my conscience; and I think there is no reason for evil, but the godlessness and greed of the perpetrators themselves, and they should be punished accordingly.

“However, I blame societies for not forcing governments and making them accountable for taking God away from children. if the loved ones of victims’ grief can serve as a catalyst, then, God forgive me, I would say these instances such as the Boston Bombing and the Columbine experience were the fateful way for the world to see the abandonment to God (and I don’t mean hypocrites dressing up to see church as social affairs and preachers using churches to fleece people) and its deleterious effect on societies across the globe.”

Unless and until world leaders see the need to unite for one common purpose — and that is to restore the Supreme Father as the teacher and adjudicator of all things — then the evil forces will eventually prevail over the good.