Now is not the time to be apathetic about violence in the Middle East.

This was part of the message relayed at Saturday's rally for peace.

Representatives from the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths gathered on the University of Arizona Mall to call for peace among the Jewish and Arab communities, especially during a time of escalating violence between the two groups in the Middle East.

The peace rally on the Mall was a noble step for those who participated. And the message relayed was even nobler: Take the time to educate yourself on the issues, listen to each other and realize that peace is the desire of the majority.

Stories of suicide bombings and religious feuding appear every day in the news. But we cannot become desensitized about the turmoil occurring in the Middle East. Even though most of us cannot make a direct impact on the controversy between Israel and Palestine, we in the United States can take a stand on the matter like those in the peace rally did just last weekend.

Everyone remembers where they were the moment that first plane hit on Sept. 11. That feeling of terror riveting through the spines of every American is the same feeling those in the center of the fight in the Middle East feel every day.

It is important not to lump all Israelis and Palestinians into a collective ball of hate. There are innocent human beings living in the Middle East, caught in the center of the unrest and scared every single day of their lives.

No, now is not the time to be apathetic. Just because we reside thousands of miles across the ocean from the core of the conflict does not mean more peace rallies shouldn't be held, that Americans and people all over the world should disregard this violence as some distant war happening "over there."

The atrocities occurring in the Middle East are very real and very present. Although the attacks on the United States cannot and will never be equated to those in Israel and Palestine, nearly every person that witnessed the events of Sept. 11 can recall the chaos, disbelief and pure terror of that day.

Just imagine living Sept. 11 every day of your life, as many do in the Middle East.