If we are to break the deadly cycle of escalating violence - of strike and counter-strike, atrocity and enraged reaction - we must listen intently to what everybody, even our enemy, is saying, and be sincerely ready to let it change us: to get beyond the rhetoric, decode the imagery, and hear the subtext of rage, grief, fear, pain, hatred and despair.
He has regularly risked his life by crossing into Syria to report on the aftermath of Russian military strikes and atrocities committed by Isis.
Doubtless, there are authoritarians writing sequels to the Patriot Act to produce when the next atrocity strikes.
In particular, Deng was moved to the drastic action of a hunger strike because of atrocities being committed against civilians including children.
He will hope that the IPCC investigation will show that he made the right decisions, even under the heat of the biggest terrorist atrocity to strike the capital.
The attack suggests that even with the terrorist group on the back foot, and its control of territory diminishing, Isis still retains the capacity to commit atrocities and strike at the heart of the country.
The US secretary of state, John Kerry, wrote: "This initiative would be welcome at any moment but it is especially timely now as we strike to prevent further atrocities, by Daesh, al-Qaida, Boko Haram, al-Shabab and other terrorist groups that are kidnapping and abusing women and girls and are consigning thousands into slavery".
I was a teenager then, and can assure the promoters of this depressing vision that, despite strikes and IRA atrocities, Albion was a long way from skid row.
We used to get riled by monsters in power and be willing to strike back when they committed atrocities.
At the time of the atrocity, many were struck by Norway's unpreparedness, both logistical and emotional, for a terrorist attack.
"Otherwise, Southern Sudan will be left to fight itself out and winner take all," said Deng, who last summer undertook a 45-day hunger strike to raise awareness about atrocities against civilians in the world's newest country.
