11/08/2009
11/09/2009 update
MAKING SENSE
My first intention had been to write about the rape of the young girl in California and then the murders at Fort Hood took over the news, so here I am trying to make sense of something else that does not make sense.
In these times of the twenty four hour news cycle, by the time the news of the massacre at hit the headlines, surely most people instantly forgot about the rape of a fifteen year old and moved on. That is not to say that the murders in Cleveland were not important even though most of the victims were all probably black .
Two friends came in, joking, talking about me now, one says, you know he is a psychologist, ( I have a master's in counseling) yeah and the other says and he is in the military, ( I am retired), and we know he has weapons, they agree, and I laugh. You have to have a thick skin to be the one that I am.
Back in 1979, I was teaching Air Traffic Control in the Army, I was called a "camel jockey", a "sand nigger" and a "rag head", at the same time I was also investigated by the Army , twice that I know of, for would you believe, Racism. Not to be left behind, Tim Motley, God bless him, stuck a gun in my face after the hostage crisis, at the Coffee Kettle in town, threatening to show me what how he wanted to deal with those Iranians, I am not an Iranian.
I left my family and I came to the United States to escape fundamentalism, I was always against it and abhor it even today. And yes I was against our war in Iraq. My letter against the war was published in the Dothan Eagle back then and I called the evidence presented to the UN a fabrication. I spoke out against Islamic fundamentalism forty years ago, I call them as I see them today in these United States. I have talked about our stupid economic and social policies, and the decline of the US for years, many of you have seen my letters and blogs postings, I am not shy.
On the morning of the 9.11, 2001, June was watching TV and she came told me when the first aircraft hit the first trade center building, I thought may be it is is foggy in New York and some civilian had hit the tower, but when she came back and told me of the second hit, "where the "F" is the FBI' came of my lips, I had no doubt what had happened.
Yet we have experts, all over the place, on TV and on the talk radio, who never see anything coming, but they are always there to tell you what has just happened, after the fact only.
We live in the time of half hour sitcoms and one hour shows where all the problems of the world are solved, we want instant answers so we can move on, have closure!
I do not have an instant answer, but take time please and try to understand. Before we invaded Iraq, I had said don't go, "I said there was a reason for us to go to Afghanistan but Iraq, no. I said, that there are one point two billion people ion this world that have nothing in common, not language not culture, but they call themselves Muslim, and if we manage to make one tenth of one percent of this population angry at us, and we do not know who they are where they are and what they are capable of we will have problems. I said that if we go to Iraq, they will not receive us liberators but call us occupiers and come after us and try to kill us, and then we will say they are bad, they try to kill us, I said stay out."
Yes I said it, and wrote it in a letter to then Commander in Chief, and had my letter published in "the Dothan Eagle". That makes me unpatriotic in the eyes of many, but then why am I here. If I am an American do I not have a right to an opinion? Do I not have the freedom of speech? Do I not have the right to criticize the government policies? Well I think that I do, and I use my right, even as I have told you it has cost me friendship of many, and also otherwise.
Can we even imagine how many soldiers have comeback hating Muslims and Arabs because they were injured overseas or lost their friends to the enemy, or lost their wives and kids due the divorce or separation caused by deployments? Can we imagine them opening up to an Arab with these sentiments? I have been at the receiving end of these feelings even though most of (an incredibly vast majority of my comrades have been totally respectful, but there have been a few exceptions also)
For many, religion is an escape, a sanctuary from day to day problems, this where we find someone to dump our problems on. So it is not question that the Fort Hood killer turned to his god, misguided about the religion by who ever he was talking to. It is the tragedy that parts of Islam have become like a doomsday cult, like what David Koresh was saying or James Jones or even Charles Manson.
No one can justify or excuse the senseless murders of the innocent. But is there is any crime , ever that is sensible? Any cold blooded murder that can be justified? And then a cold blooded murder in the name of a god? But any way, the gun sales in this country have been up for months, and stores shelves are void of bullets.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
