Iraq
If you're like me, you spend a lot of time earnestly ignoring whatever is going on outside the beautiful boundary of your own little family. I used to be very seriously political, and now I tend my garden, Candide, in this best of all possible worlds. However, in light of recent events that have forced themselves into my consciousness, I decided to read around the news a little bit and following this and that link, I came upon a couple of news stories that shocked me:
Children Fighting Soldiers Kids are even throwing homemade bombs at American soldiers -- what are they supposed to do about that? There are just so many things wrong with it, I don't even know how to get my brain around it. I know this happened in Vietnam too, but what can they do? The article points out that if an American even pointed a gun at any child or group of children, the image would be on fliers around the world.
Murder in Baghdad Written by a reporter who is a native of Baghdad, about his upper middle class neighborhood where now people get shot in the street and people are too afraid to even go and help the dying person. So they just lie there.
I have this awful, terrible feeling that we're going to war with Iran, and I'm sure some people who have been paying attention more than I have will say, "DUH, YA THINK?" It scares me. What if the jihadists really do take over the world?
The other thing is, I'm unable to find anyplace on the internet where intelligent, rational discussion is taking place, because everything is so partisan and ugly. "Libs" are tree-hugging bedwetters and "Neocons" are gun-toting wife-beaters, and there's no place (that I've found) where regular Americans are just talking about current events without this violent political bias. The republicans won't allow any criticism of the president, and the democrats only want to talk about how screwed we are, without accepting any culpability.
In my garden, Sadie has learned to operate the computer mouse and is avidly playing "Reader Rabbit's Playtime for Baby and Toddler" -- a game which occupied her brother for many a happy hour in his day. And Benny has a loose tooth. All of his holes are now filled in, and the giant new teeth are pushing the little ones next to them out of the way.
Today we're going with the Porterfields on a bike ride in First Landing State Park and then we're going to swim in Broad Bay, if it's warm enough. I'm trusting the world doesn't end before we get back.
4 Comments:
la la la la la....i am not listening to jeffrey....
darn. it didn't work. it's all scary. just really really scary.
did you, by chance, hear hugo chavez' speech to the UN? it was BRILLLLLLLIANT!
It IS hard to find a coherant dialogue. I think it is because the issue is so difficult and many faceted, and we can't get our minds around the horror and complexity. We lump it into a category (we being both liberals and conservatives) and then throw easy answers at it. But of course easy answers just make it more difficult.
I'm convinced that people listening to people makes a difference. I'm convinced that the people closest to the problems often have the best ideas of how to solve them---not only in Iraq, but also in the schools, homes, cities, etc. I'm convinced that nothing is simple enough to be summarized accurately in print or on film. There is always more to the picture than we can grasp.
Did I just go off? I'm sorry. I just really like your idea of a real conversation. Thanks.
I just watched a replay of Hugo Chavez' speech at a church in Harlem where he was giving away free heating oil that is actually badly needed by the poor in his own country. He accused President Bush of organizing the 9/11 disaster with Americans playing the parts of the terrorists. He said the president is drunk all the time and that accounts for American foreign policy. He said that the president is a pedophile. And the crowd screamed and cheered. He said many, many things like this. The crowd rocked and rolled and shrieked and celebrated the entire time. Afterwards, Danny Glover hugged Chavez and said into the camera, "He's my friend. He's my brother." A reporter, incredulous, asked, "Did you hear what he said in his speech?" Danny Glover replied, "Naw, I didn't hear any of that."
Another good one on the news was the President of Pakistan, a country only a little of which is not too different from what it was like in the stone age, was 'telling on' the US government to the world press, and he said that right after 9/11 he'd been approached by a represntative of the USA who said to him, "You need to be with us in the hunt for terrorists or we'll bomb you back to the stone age."
okay - so they didn't play the entire speech by hugo on NPR when i was listening...but tehre were parts where he said "the man right here, he is the devil" and you know, sometimes i really feel that he is.
and while i don't buy the pedophile part, i do know (through heresay - so i don't really know first hand) that he was not kind to his wife in a big and bad way (one of my stepmom's co-workers was from tx and a friend of laura bush's).
what i know first hand is that he scares the bejabbers out of me.
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