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Last night, we finally watched our DVD of Singing in Baghdad. Cameron and Kristina - aka Musical Missions for Peace - have traveled throughout the Middle East numerous times, bringing people together through music. They have also given hundreds of presentations all over the U.S., letting us know the wonderful and welcoming ways of our Middle Eastern neighbors.

I first saw Cameron and Kristina give their presentation at the local Unitarian Church. Then, they were kind enough to join a group of us when we brought together a group of Muslims, Unitarians, and people from "other assorted belief systems" for a barbeque. They are real people who are living their truth and making a difference.

Our government and media have done us and the world a great disservice by constantly portraying people from the middle east as "Muslim Fundamentalists", "terrorists", and "Islamic jihadists". Yeah, there are certainly people who fit into those categories (if you like putting labels on people), but we have "Christian Fundamentalists", "terrorists", and a government that kills, overthrows, sanctions, or whatever it wants to do to maintain power and control also. The everyday people all over the world just want to live their lives. We give too much power to the few who wish to do harm, when we could be spending our time learning to love our brothers and sisters more deeply.

Watching the people in Baghdad gather around Cameron and Kristina to sing and dance, I saw a light in their eyes, an aliveness that I don't see here much. And we think that we have it all.

"For a nonviolent person, the whole world is one family. He will thus fear none, nor will others fear him." - Mahatma Gandhi