Let Cooler Heads Prevail

I have a lot on my mind, I just was in a lesson on persecution and it really made me think, not just about what was said in the class but also about movies I've seen and about things that have happened.
On Friday night I saw the movie Slumdog Millionaire, I've heard a lot about the movie since it came out. It was a very hard movie to watch, the 'slumdog' has a very hard life and many terrible things happened to him. One of the scenes that stuck out to me the most was when a mob of Indians, presumably Hindus, came and attacked the slumdog's family and others because they were Muslim, their mother was killed trying to protect them, people and things were set on fire. It's horrible to think that people can do such things to each other, unfortunatly such goings on are not unusual.
A year or so ago a man came to speak at a fourm at BYU, I cannot remember his name, but if you have seen the movie Hotel Rwanda, it is about what happened to this man and others in violence between Tootsies and Hutus. It was an amazing story the man told of a group of people who were trying to take refuge in the man's hotel. I do not remember as many details as I'm sure I ought to, but I do remember how calmly the man told his story, I don't recall any anger or bitterness, or wish for vengence.
The movie La Vita e' Bella (Life is Beautiful), has rightfully become very acclaimed. The movie is the story of a Jewish man who's family is taken to a concentration camp in World War II and how the man hides the awful truth from his son by making it a game that they are playing. It's very touching to see how the horrer of the situation is ignored and defied.
In the beginings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, church memebers were very much persecuted for their beliefs but they were encouraged not to react, to keep cool and do their best to go on dispite it.
It seems the natural reaction in the face of persecution, it to become angry and to want to fight back, but unfortunatly that never seems to be the right answer. Situations are not improved by seeking vengence, the code of Hamurabi was an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; I believe it was Gahndi who said that such a code leave the world toothless and blind. I know that I have a lot of work to be less hot headed, but I have seen for myself that not reacting is generally better and helps ones cause more. Surely those events in Hotel Rwanda would not stand out as they do, if they had not had the courage to take the higher road. Wars are avoided by the higher road, retaliation only leads to bigger conflict, not healing.
Our world is unstable and sometimes daunting, we do not know what lies ahead of us. In a book set durring the first World War, I read about some women who decided that they were going to be "heroins" rise above the turmoil around them and sallyforth. I want to be a heroin as well, to do my best to act with a cool head and not in fear or anger. I know how hard it is to forgive but I want to make all the more effort, it does not help any when we can't forgive, it only draws out the hurt.