"Nothing will bring you peace but yourself. Nothing will bring you peace but the triumph of principles."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

When I was fourteen I first read these words with which Emerson concludes his essay, "Self-Reliance". When I was fourteen I did not believe them. I believed that god would accomplish peace, both internally and externally. I now know that more true words have never been written. Peace, yourself and the triumph of principles are inextricably correlated. Subtract one and you have none of them.

If you witness suffering and you do nothing to alleviate it, you will not have peace in that the only basis of all valid principles has been denigrated. Compassion behooves the alleviation of suffering.

I live in Burnaby where I have had several occassions where it has been necessary to call on the police to assist in fairly serious situations. The RCMP members have gone out of their way in order to ensure the best possible outcome of these potentially dangerous occurances. If those members had not come to my assistance, I would have been forced to act on my own; a less than satisfactory happenstance.