Peace Takes Courage
I haven't gotten political or terribly philosophical on this blog, and I don't really plan to...
...but regardless of politics, I think the majority of the world fears war, whether or not it has ever personally touched one's life. We all know, instinctually, that the wrath of war has the capacity to destroy, ravage, and terrify all walks of life like nothing else that exists on this earth. If you don't know that, watch this short video.
We, as adults, know that--yet we continue to engage in it as if we're teenagers playing a video game...and just as damning: we just pick up People instead of Time; we changed the channel from Fox News to American Idol; we don't watch C-SPAN and PBS; we go shopping instead of vote. More people know who Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise are fucking than how many troops we've lost just this month alone--and that says nothing about the number of innocent civilians that have been kidnapped, maimed, raped, and killed as a direct result of our pre-emptive war of choice--I know no words harsh enough to speak about the suffering of the children in Iraq.
Regardless of your politics, you have to know that war is the invocation for our worst traits as human beings. Are we really so blood-thirsty and proud that we cannot admit our own mistakes? Or are we just frogs slowing boiling to death in the comfort of our own homes?
If you were the captain of a ship that was taking on water, what would you do? Would you put on your dress uniform, sit down for your last supper, and go down with her like a noble seaman of old? Would you abandon your ship and hope for rescue, or at least a swatch of land somewhere? Or would you work like hell or die trying to save her and your fellow crewmen?
I think most of us would say that we’re the heroic type that would fight to the finish. That is, after all, what we’re doing in Iraq, right? We’re fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them here. It’s not pretty—“it’s hard work” says the President—but we are fighting the good fight with God’s blessing; we’re fighting the terrorists, who indiscriminately kill women and children and civilians like they’re military targets.
We have a term for that, too--it's called collateral damage.
The President may be the Commander and Chief, but the Constitution of this country begins with “We the People” folks…and if We the People actually took our representatives to task instead of just shook our heads and threw up our hands, or held our noses and voted out of fear of change, you would know the true power of liberty.
But you don’t, do you? You feel helpless to do anything because it won’t make a difference…and, besides, it doesn’t really affect you and there’s just not enough time in the day to write a letter to someone you don’t even know, who won’t even read it.
I hate to interrupt your reality TV and break the bad news to you, but each of us is the co-captain of the U.S.S. America…and she is taking on water in the form of national debt.
Yes, that's right: I'm not talking about morality of war; I'm talking about the financial cost of it...something even the war's proponents can wrap their minds around.
I’m not preaching that anyone ought to sacrifice their whole lives to be a hero, but maybe we should pick up a bucket and start bailing instead of just thinking and talking about it…or hoping and praying that the water is just going to magically evaporate and that it won’t ever reach your deck.
Billionaires died on the Titanic…right along side the steerage and the captain.
Your bucket is your brain on common-sense; we’re spending $10 Billion a month now in Iraq and I don’t think Bill Gates, the Chinese and the Saudi’s are feeling charitable toward the U.S. Treasury. So most of us have two choices: either shut the fuck up about the gas prices or get off our lazy fat asses and do our jobs, sailors!
Even the Titanic was doomed once the water breached five compartments; it was a mathematical certainty, remember?
...but regardless of politics, I think the majority of the world fears war, whether or not it has ever personally touched one's life. We all know, instinctually, that the wrath of war has the capacity to destroy, ravage, and terrify all walks of life like nothing else that exists on this earth. If you don't know that, watch this short video.
We, as adults, know that--yet we continue to engage in it as if we're teenagers playing a video game...and just as damning: we just pick up People instead of Time; we changed the channel from Fox News to American Idol; we don't watch C-SPAN and PBS; we go shopping instead of vote. More people know who Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise are fucking than how many troops we've lost just this month alone--and that says nothing about the number of innocent civilians that have been kidnapped, maimed, raped, and killed as a direct result of our pre-emptive war of choice--I know no words harsh enough to speak about the suffering of the children in Iraq.
Regardless of your politics, you have to know that war is the invocation for our worst traits as human beings. Are we really so blood-thirsty and proud that we cannot admit our own mistakes? Or are we just frogs slowing boiling to death in the comfort of our own homes?
If you were the captain of a ship that was taking on water, what would you do? Would you put on your dress uniform, sit down for your last supper, and go down with her like a noble seaman of old? Would you abandon your ship and hope for rescue, or at least a swatch of land somewhere? Or would you work like hell or die trying to save her and your fellow crewmen?
I think most of us would say that we’re the heroic type that would fight to the finish. That is, after all, what we’re doing in Iraq, right? We’re fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them here. It’s not pretty—“it’s hard work” says the President—but we are fighting the good fight with God’s blessing; we’re fighting the terrorists, who indiscriminately kill women and children and civilians like they’re military targets.
We have a term for that, too--it's called collateral damage.
The President may be the Commander and Chief, but the Constitution of this country begins with “We the People” folks…and if We the People actually took our representatives to task instead of just shook our heads and threw up our hands, or held our noses and voted out of fear of change, you would know the true power of liberty.
But you don’t, do you? You feel helpless to do anything because it won’t make a difference…and, besides, it doesn’t really affect you and there’s just not enough time in the day to write a letter to someone you don’t even know, who won’t even read it.
I hate to interrupt your reality TV and break the bad news to you, but each of us is the co-captain of the U.S.S. America…and she is taking on water in the form of national debt.
Yes, that's right: I'm not talking about morality of war; I'm talking about the financial cost of it...something even the war's proponents can wrap their minds around.
I’m not preaching that anyone ought to sacrifice their whole lives to be a hero, but maybe we should pick up a bucket and start bailing instead of just thinking and talking about it…or hoping and praying that the water is just going to magically evaporate and that it won’t ever reach your deck.
Billionaires died on the Titanic…right along side the steerage and the captain.
Your bucket is your brain on common-sense; we’re spending $10 Billion a month now in Iraq and I don’t think Bill Gates, the Chinese and the Saudi’s are feeling charitable toward the U.S. Treasury. So most of us have two choices: either shut the fuck up about the gas prices or get off our lazy fat asses and do our jobs, sailors!
Even the Titanic was doomed once the water breached five compartments; it was a mathematical certainty, remember?
posted by trace at 2:57 PM
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