jay,
as the level of nationalism rises, with flags everywhere...patriotism flowing in the veins of people who previously couldn't tell you how many stars or stripes are on our flag...who don't know the real history behind it, just the fairy tales of glory and honor..."right over wrong" (too often confused with "might is right")...their eagerness to point fingers at a religion or an ethnic group as the cause of this tragedy grows as well...people venting in violence against those that they feel have a resemblance to whatever image they might have as arab, muslim or whatever barometer of defining hate they are using...people can be so ignorant, to where they will look for the simplest of things to blame, easily identifiable...just as it was in nazi germany...if people don't step back and look at why all this has happened...if they don't see what has been happening for the past 20-30 years that has led us to this tragic crossroads, then we are all doomed to a cycle that will repeat itself over and over again...with each horrific tragedy climbing higher on the scale of inhumanity...there has been too many wrongs laid upon the innocent for so long...why did we think we were so immune to it happening in our home? we sat and ignored what was happening in the balkans, only to get somewhat involved after thousands perished in the ethnic cleansing (do i need to point out that it was christians massacring muslims?)..the inhumanity of man against man has nothing to do with religion...and then when the western world got involved, declaring safe havens, only to vacate when shots were fired and leaving tens of thousands of women and children to be slaughtered? then there's the gulf war...was it not our response to hussein's statements that he was going to invade kuwait that led to his eventual invasion thereof (we did say that because we had no treaty with kuwait that we really had no commitment to come to their defense)...then after allowing the iraqi's to pillage kuwait, we finally intervene, but not really for the cause of humanity, but for the oil...but we didn't finish the job, because we got the oil fields back...we gave the kurds and the shiites false hopes in that we would take it all the way, get rid of hussein...then when they were getting slaughtered because we stopped and didn't finish the job, what did we say? nothing, because we were looking the other way...we had recovered the oilfields of kuwait, that was what was important...only to lead to the tragedy of the mass exodus of kurds out of iran into turkey...where was our humanity then? i could go on and on about all the tragedies that have been happening for the past 20 plus years, most of which would tally far more fatalities of innocent people than the one we have experienced...our eyes diverted, only hearing of it, but never really concerned...why? because it wasn't at our doorstep, it didn't come into our home, we didn't allow ourselves to connect to the suffering that exists in our world, that has existed in our world for some time now...
my heart is saddened because as much as in the beginning moments of this tragic course of events, i had a hope that this was our wake up call, but it has only served the purpose of waking me up to the reality that mankind is satisfied with being doomed to not learning the lessons and is only going to take actions to satisfy the immediate hunger for results, but never working on making a permanent fix to the conditions in this world that allowed such a thing to fester and grow...and finally come into our home...
i love you very much, because that is the natural thing for a parent to do...to love their children...unconditionally...and yes, i'm proud of who you have become...not for what you have accomplished, but where your soul is...always keep in touch with it, otherwise you will have all the markings of a terrorist...no soul, no heart, just a lot of hate...
your dad
i have to worry about you...it's that mr. mom side of me...you're my son and i tried as best as a single parent could to assist you on your path to evolving into the good soul you are...always remember that side of you, never lose touch with your sensitivity to others...because with the world gearing up, i'm in fear that it is going to be something much more than anyone realizes or even is prepared for...the level of hate and anger in the air is not good...more innocent people are going to suffer, more innocent people are going to die because the prevailing attitude is that the ends (getting the terrorist) is justifying the means (destroying everything and anyone in the path to him)...would this mentality not put us into the same category with whom we are hunting down?
