August 19, 2017

  • Terrorism

    American history is longer, larger, with great variety; more beautiful, and definitely more terrible than histories of other nations….though, I have to say the UK is or was a close second around the turn of the last century. Remember the atrocities of the empire where the sun never set?? Remember Jalianwala Bagh in India?? Just google it please to know what happened there.

    We have all seen the destructive and damaging way that this super power has single handedly alienated the native people of this land, and herded them into Reservations, and we have seen how tragic that is! Somewhere I read that no man consciously seeks evil because it is evil; he only thinks that he is grasping happiness as his ultimate goal….what mistakes we make! What crimes and sins we commit!!

    The seed of terrorism grows in the soil of hopelessness, depression and fear; it grows in the soil of poverty, injustice and hunger, and it grows in the black hearts of prejudice! Killing innocent civilians, and occupying countries, exacerbate terrorism. We have seen this happening after the Iraq invasion. Remember the pictures of mothers lifting their hands up to the sky, their mouths open in agony, asking for retribution while the slain bodies of their sons or husbands resting in their laps?? `And you cried with them and for them while their silent screams on the paper went unheeded!

    Imagine a world, where America stood for nothing else but humanitarianism, to help and provide for disaster relief… to help the underdogs of the earth…. and imagine, after helping, the Americans waved good bye and left a happy and satisfied country; imagine if that would happen: and then if ever a disaster with terrorism struck the shores of US, the love and support and help will be on our side; the rest of the world would help us and we wouldn’t have to defend ourselves. The rest of the world would do it for us.

    What?? You say I am thinking with my heart and not with my brain??? Sure! I am naive.

    We were all born with the same grain of humanity, of grace and love. Somewhere while growing up, our values changed. We became selfish and self-centered. We began to look about the differences of equality and oppression. We went against our grain. Look at Trump! What, tell me please, other than his wealth, makes Donald Trump the deity of vulgarity, worth being mentioned in a column of a respectable newspaper?? Does he have an iota of humanity in him? The mosque in Minnesota was bombed. Did we hear from him? Did he talk about living in peace, and loving neighbours and say he was sorry to the Muslims of that community for the prodigious calamity they faced? No he didn’t. At least not that I saw in any newspaper, condemning this act of terrorism and violence. Why? Because he has lost the finesse of the valued grain of humanity from his soul. That he is evil, I understand. But, I don’t believe that any man willingly and consciously chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for the happiness he seeks, and thinks that he can rejoice in the outcome.

    And fools walk brazenly where angels fear to tread!

    We cannot feel the pain and the anguish of a man who is being crushed. The man crushing the other, feels nothing. He is going after his goal of acquiring leadership. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand, the feeling of being terrorized, of being ridiculed, of being de-humanized, of being treated with prejudice.

    Let’s hope that there is a better game than war…. Nuclear or not! Let’s hope that we do not terrorize each other so much that two foolish ego maniacs would think that playing a war game is good for their country and for their own plausible and credible morale, if they have any!!

    I apologize for the length of this post. It had been a long time coming.

Comments (6)

  • I've been getting corn ready to go in the freezer and thinking about this post. I hesitate to comment, because written words are so easily misunderstood. I agree with most of what you said, though I believe we all are also born with a selfish sin nature. Only God can change that. I didn't know about the mosque in Minnesota. I'm so sorry. When Tom was alive he always listened to the news, but now I don't. We live in a small town that covers mostly local news in our newspaper. Sometimes I read BBC on computer to kind of keep up on what's going on in the world. I just wish that the media and others would acknowledge that the majority of us are neither alt-right nor alt-left, no matter what our religion (or lack of) or politics may be. The Goldn Rule says it best, "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you."

  • Beautiful Zakiah, these words are almost as beautiful as you are -- I mean your beautiful spirit as much as your good looks. I've been thinking of you a lot lately, including since Charlottesville. And oh by the way, you certainly don't need to apologize for the length of this post. I'm just grateful it's still visible, so I can read those beautiful words over and over again. Speaking of apologies, here is my own, for the length of what appears not only above (in this comment) but below (if it's visible). It's a letter to the editor I dashed off after Charlottesville, and the editors of the Vero Beach Press-Journal have so far not published it, and I fear they won't. My words are far uglier than yours. But it's how I felt at the time, and still do:

    Submit a Letter to the Editor
    Name of author of letter * Bob Lipton
    Street address * 760 23rd Place SW
    City * Vero Beach
    County * IRC
    Daytime phone number of letter writer * (772) 778-4176
    Email address of letter writer * twoberry@comcast.net
    Your letter: *
    A Plea to Those Good Americans Who Voted for Donald Trump Last November:

    I'm not talking to or about the Deplorables -- those fanatics of the alt-right, I mean the neo-Nazis, the white supremacists, the hate-filled nutcases who stormed Charlottesville on Saturday or who sympathize with them -- I'm talking to the good folks who were seduced into voting for a racist candidate who promised them that only he could fix what was wrong in America.

    We need to impeach Donald Trump, plain and simple. But what has worried me, since November, is than whenever we remove this incompetent, despicable creature from the presidency, has been the possibility of rioting in the streets by the many folks who voted for him.

    So I'm begging you - the good people who have felt the ravages of income inequality, autiomation, plant closings, inadequate access to healthcare, all of the many problems that beset this nation -- please understand that Donald Trump has neither the ability nor the intention of fixing anything.

    Let the rioting population be confined to those pathetic morons who brought their guns and other weapons to Charlottesville. We can deal with them. But what we desperately need is for the rest of the Trump-voting population to realize that they simply made a mistake last November.

    And that mistake needs to be corrected.

    • I do hope the letter gets published. I like it a lot. So many people with similar sentiments. All I can say is, "Heaven help us!"

      Thank you also for your comment on my other posts regarding my health. I should not let stress get to me!! :) Take care and love to you and Barb.

      Zakiah.

  • I do agree with Gracia. I voted for Trump. I know I had some of the same feelings you and Bob had about the former president but I tried to be kind about it. Actually didn't feel like it sometimes. :P I believe we need to pray for our leaders so we can live a quiet and peaceable life without worrying what kind of Christmas Eve scheme they are hatching out now! I believe there is a lot of wrong on both sides. We need some fresh air in Washington DC.

    • Thank you Miriam for your kind response. Not sure if Washington would EVER have fresh air! :) Love and hugs.

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