Tuesday, May 3, 2011

My Two Cents on War and Peace

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." - Mahatma Gandhi    (Something to ponder)

Let me preface this by saying I'm not a political person at all. I don't watch the news, read the paper, nothing. This is all just ideas running through my head. Let me also say I hate, loath, and despise arguing with people over politics. So please, take this as me trying to work through thoughts in my head. I'm trying to be open minded and still respectful of everyone.

I have friends and family that have served in various branches of the government protecting us all at one time or another, and I appreciate EVERYTHING they do. I fully admit I don't have the courage to join up, go to some other country and live in dirt and dust while trying to kill people who have done us wrong.  I don't have the courage and I could never do it anyway. I kill spiders and scorpions and that's where it ends for me. I'm not even good at that.

On a friends Facebook post I saw that someone had written "Death should never be celebrated but, at best, mourned as a necessary evil." That I understand. That line stood out to me since that was what I had been thinking about today. Murder is murder, plain and simple, right? Whether we are righting a wrong, getting justice or revenge, it still boils down to the same thing in the end, so morally I wasn't sure what to think of the Osama news and us throwing parties.

We were all told he's the bad guy and that the bad guy should be killed. I just don't like the idea of celebrating it the way we are.  I'm trying to be fair though, and I'm thinking that if someone hurt a family member of mine I would probably want to see them pay in some way or another. I don't even like admitting that I feel that way, but I do, yet I don't think I could ever kill someone and then celebrate my taking of another persons life.  I would still feel bad about it. I might be able to beat them up really good and then celebrate though...I honestly don't know, I'm just saying there are different levels of right and wrong and for me murder plus parties is on the wrong list. Let it be known I am in no way putting down the person who got him, I'm just trying to compare. I know it's his job to do this exact thing and in that respect, he should be proud. He did exactly what he was supposed to for his country.

Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy living in the good old US of A and I appreciate everything we have here, but the one thing my travels have taught me is that (at least where I've been, which is all mostly peaceful places) people are all basically the same. We are all scared. We all have hopes and dreams. We all make mistakes and act like idiots sometimes. We are, essentially, all human. But...with that aside, I have mixed thoughts for other reasons.

First, I never know what to believe, period. The news is more opinion than fact and even more often fiction than anything else. How many times have we seen news stories contradict each other? I'm pretty sure that happens every day. I never, ever, ever know what to think of our government. Is it all lies? I mean it certainly seems that way sometimes. We know for a fact a lot of things they've told us were bologna, so when can we ever really trust anyone to give us the plain and simple truth? And why should we trust that they will? This all boils down to my "no on actually knows anything" theory about basically every big thing that we all get riled up over. To me it's all like rumors. Until I hear it with my own ears from that very person, why should I believe anything else? It might be interesting, but I don't necessarily want to bet the bank on it.

Second, back to me being anti-politics. I don't like arguing with people over what is or what isn't, when none of us actually know because we're not the ones pulling the strings. I tend to fall somewhere in the middle of the idea where there should be no war and additionally, there should be no peace. Nothing can be entire because it would then be perfect and perfect doesn't exist. What I do lean towards is everybody (and I do mean everybody) minding their own business. By that I mean that each country should keep to themselves and not worry about everyone else, unless of course they genuinely need help. Who's to say our way is the right way? For us, maybe it is. Heck, maybe it's not! We get things wrong all the time. All. The. Time. Yet we like to make everyone think the way we do, do the things the way we do, believe the way we do. I know that's an impossible thought, but a thought none the less. I would like to think money and power won't control the world one day as well, but there goes me and my thinking again.

My big issue is this: When you really consider it, all politics do are make us pick sides against each other. Let me repeat that...pick sides against each other. "I'm right, you're wrong, no I'm not, yes you are, blah blah blah." Why do we do that to ourselves? Why do we allow ourselves to waste time arguing with our friends and family over these things? Why do we have to be right all the time? United States of America, correct? Not Divided-because-we-argue-about-everything States of America.

I'm still struggling with the idea of us dancing in the streets after we've murdered someone. I feel like we might be asking for trouble and quite frankly, haven't we had enough? I certainly don't want any more mothers losing their sons and daughters to some new battle. I don't want us going to some other country and killing a bunch of kind, innocent people that just so happen to live there. I think of it like this: How many of us here in the USA are all just living our lives, period? And if some other country came and tried to take us down many, many of us good and innocent bystanders would probably die. It's the same in other countries as well. We have to be fair about that at least.

I still, and probably always will, struggle with the idea of lies and misinformation. I have a hard time believing anything the government tells us anymore. A few years back I watched a 9/11 documentary which made me question everything about 9/11. Everything. Maybe it was movie magic, but it made me second guess what I had been told. I won't go into that because I'll be here all night, but it made me wonder about a heck of a lot of things.  Now,  I'm not trying to freak everyone out, but I'm an equal opportunity believer. By that I mean that I like to give everything a serious amount of consideration while trying to push my emotions aside so that I think clearly rather than react emotionally. This doesn't always work, but I try as much as I can.

Now that I've written a small novel and rambled a little bit, I must admit that I feel a little better. So thank you for putting up with me. I'll probably never talk about politics again since it's really not my thing, but just needed to throw this out there in the mix of everything everyone else is saying and deal with it in the one way I really know how, which is writing.

I hope, from the bottom of my heart, that all of you have a good night and happy dreams. I mostly hope that at some point our world finds a way of working with, rather than against, each other.

3 comments:

Chantelle Says said...

I have got to quit blogging when I'm tired. I need to create a cutoff of no blogging past 10 pm. Except I'm cheating right now...

Oh well.

Anyway, I left out some important details that I wanted to clear up now.

First, I have some friends in the Peace Corps who I highly respect. They are doing a wonderful thing over there and one of them just wrote a very similar blog (good job Heather, sorry I'm a little behind on reading everything) that made me want to clear some things up. What I meant by everyone minding their own business was I don't think we should force anyone into anything. I think we can offer help and guidance or they can ask and that's fair. I just don't like the idea of us forcing our belief systems onto anyone else.

Second, I wanted to explain more about the 9/11 movie, but it really would take forever. So let me sum it up by saying it points out some things that make you think we, the USA, enacted 9/11 upon ourselves. It's hard to think that way, but it does make you go "hmmm...I wonder". I hmm and wonder more than maybe others because I'm familiar with Monsanto and the terrible things they do, plus how they work with the FDA, which basically means our own people are out to get us every single day. I will blog about that one day, but long story short they are the ones responsible for genetically modified foods, the suicide sees or terminator seeds (which is terrible, horrible, awful for farmers) and the FDA and Monsanto are responsible for keeping dangerous chemicals in our foods. Knowing that is going on daily and no one is doing anything to stop it because it's a money market make me basically question the integrity, logic, and purpose behind what our government does every day.

Third, On 9/11 a lot of innocent people did die regardless of who are why and I don't think other bystanders, here in the USA or anywhere else, should die or pay the price. Let those who want to battle (and I don't mean the soldiers necessarily) go for it and leave the rest of us out. If we want to jump in we will.

Also, I was pretty ticked off that Obama took all the credit for killing Osama. Whether you like the guy or not, that in itself was rude. All credit should have gone to the man who risked his life doing that. The one who almost had his salary cut recently...yeah, let's not forget that. He should get the credit and the salary.

So now I am done. Here's a new quote I saw today from one of my teachers that I thought was very beautiful and spot on.

‎"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that" --Martin Luther King, Jr.

Anonymous said...

The night that the news came out, I was listening to Coast to Coast with George Noory. This is a late night radio talk show where people call in with information of misinformation and they chat it up all night long from politics to religion to ghosts. I wouldn't say it is a biased show, but its a little on the fanatic side. My jaw dropped to hear that Osama was dead, and my first reaction was not joy. The next thing I heard was that this was cause for celebration which made me so confused. The third thing I heard was that someone said that Osama should be burning in hell because he was so evil. Okay, so Osama was a billionaire who didn't know what to do with all of his money, and yes he is a sinner like anyone else, but I completely agree with you Chantelle, his death should not be celebrated. In fact it is sad that we HAVE to celebrate it.

Chantelle Says said...

Yes! They fixed blogger and I can see this again.

Thank you for your kind words. Honestly, I was nervous about writing this since I, again, don't like to offend anyone or cause a riot with some thoughts I have on my mind. I agree, the radio calls you heard are shocking. Shocking! One day I can only hope that we find a balance, a place where we all can coexist without things of this nature happening. Where there are no 9/11's and no celebrating anyone's death. My hope for that remains alive.