I've been thinking like this for a long time and I'm not sure quite how to put it into words but I'll try.
Our country- the USA has been on top for a long time now. We have the strongest economy, we have the strongest military, we have the best living conditons, and we have overall some of the richest people. Our culture permeates the world. I have to say that we are unquestionably the greatest civilization ever known on earth.
And that has me concerned, for many different reasons with different consequences.
First off, we have been the policeman of the world for some time. We go into places, stop the warlords, kill the Hitlers, arrest the Saddams. We bring democracy and free bottled water and chocolate bars to these 3rd world ****holes. Just like with regular police, the world shakes their head and sometimes their fist in our direction for our "brutality". Never mind that despite a few unfortunate incidents(for which the guilty were punished btw) we're probably the kindest and gentlest invading/occupying army the world has ever known. Not only do our soldiers have rules of engagement, orders to obey human rights, but they also are required to respect the local culture. What other army would bother?
But just like the real police, people get upset at us. We stick our nose where it doesn't belong they say. Many of us here at home feel the same way. And while there is no question that we are the good guys, it has brought us the thanks of terrorism. Many of us would like to put down the proverbial gun and badge and get out of this policemen of the world bit. Great, but we're on top. Who could we possibly pass the baton to? Who else has the resources and the will to do what has to be done in the world?
If you think Al Quida is bad, just wait until we stop policing things. Just wait until all the bastards of the world who we've pissed off build themselves up. Not fun. We're the policemen of the world. We're stuck with it now, for better or worse.
Unless spending a lot of time in foreign places, Americans shouldn't be afraid of terrorism. Prepared, yes. Afraid, no way. 9/11 was the worst they were able to do. Yes, a lot of people died and it is not my intention to diminish the loss that their friends and loved ones must feel. But, it was a drop in the bucket. It was a small rock hitting us in the ear... it hurt but it didn't actually do any real lasting damage. Our infrastrucure was never badly hurt. Our military was never comprimised. The next day the flag was still waving, folks and everything was running pretty smoothly except for that one area in New York City. Terrorism cannot defeat America. I can't emphasisze that enough. This doesn't mean we should ignore it, or that we should stop hunting Osama. Those people are criminals and should be brought to justice, but it is imperative we do not give up our freedoms or comprimise our way of life because we are afraid of a 1 in 100,000,000 chance someone might hurt us.
To me, the idea we can prevent a determined individual who doesn't care if he dies from carrying out a terror attack when we don't know who, when, or where it will happen is laughable. Regardless, I'm not afraid. I know my chances of getting taken out by a drunk driver this weekend are much higher.
I did say though that I am concerned about our direction. Well, I'm getting to that...
We have seen the hurricane Katrina debacle discussed to death. We've been bombared with the sad pictures of those people who are "so poor and so black". We've watched the blame game go from George Bush to the Fema director to the Governor, to Mayor Nagin. The politicians keep passing the buck. No suprise there, what do you expect from politicians? Of course the media loves it, anything to keep the viewers viewing is good to them.
But why didn't these people help themselves? They had warning. Maybe they didn't have a car or a school bus but they had feet. This is how people 100 years ago dealt with evacuation: walking. The friends and family or able bodied good sameritains help the disabled and it gets done.
But we hear howling about how these poor poor people were left on their own. We hear howling because they were black. Why oh why didn't the government come in and take care of them? Yeah, we do have agencies to help people in disasters and in this case they seem to have dropped the ball. But the thing is, this is a free country. One of the downsides to independance is that you sometimes have to take care of yourself. Well worth the joy of being free I say, but it seems others don't like it that way.
Americans have been told for years to wait for help. "call the cops and go hide" "don't resist" " don't try to do anything, call for help" any of these phrases sound farmilliar. You can understand why law enforcement, rescue, and fire departments say this. They don't want untrained civilians getting in the way when they try to do their job. But what if they're not available? What do we do then? How many Americans will just sit down and cry like a baby expecting their mother to come save them?
I have to talk about diversity and tolerance. People in America complain a lot because certain races don't always have it as good as others. They complain a lot because they are subject to stereotypes and have to hear racial slurs. They complain because their lifestyles are not accepted. Ok. In Iran, if the authorities find out you are gay they kill you. How's that for opression and inequality? In much of the world if you are the wrong race or the wrong religion, it's off with your head my friend. Now I'm not gonna sit here and say racism and intolerance is dead in the USA. It's not. But only 50 years ago we had seperate facilities for whites and blacks. Most communities would shun you for being gay. Today, we have laws in place to protect people's rights. We have a culture that is very intolerant of racism and goes to the extent of worrying about what words it uses to describe people. It's not perfect but what do you want? We've had an unprecidented amount of progress in civil rights over the past century, did you expect it to just get better that fast? It will improve, but it may be towards the end of our lifetimes before it does. In the meantime, you're allowed to be gay. You're allowed to be black and be anywhere whites can be. You can go get an education, you can go get a job. Maybe it is harder for you, I don't know. But what do you expect? You have it good here and if you stop blaming the world, buckle down, and work hard, your children will have it great here.
Being called a name, not having your culture respected, or whatever is NOT an injury. Do not even try telling me it is. What are you going to do if real opression in the form of angry mobs or opressive government comes at you? Words are nothing. Grow up.
And now a word about economic inequality. Have your own computer? Your own internet connection? Do you have a safe place to live with running water, heating, cooling, etc? Do you have all the food you need? Are you still complaining about being poor and not having enough money? If you do, don't worry. Most of us are guilty of it. But we have great lives here. Even those of us who are poor.
Then our unskilled laborers think they should live as good as their doctor friend who has two brand new SUVs in the driveway. They unionize, make demand after demand..... and then people wonder why manufacturing is gone in America. They wonder whey Mexicans come over here and take our jobs.
We think we're too good to work low-wage labor intensive jobs now and that's the long and the short of it.
This is why I worry. I worry that if the call comes that the Brittish are coming, I'm gonna throw on my tri-corner hat, grab my musket, and find myself standing in the ranks alone.
One of these days... maybe 20 years later maybe tomorrow some real disaster will hit. No little Katrina, no 9/11 but something that puts us all at risk. Are we ready? Are we tough enoug? Or are we pampered and expecting someone to come help us nomatter what?
Our country- the USA has been on top for a long time now. We have the strongest economy, we have the strongest military, we have the best living conditons, and we have overall some of the richest people. Our culture permeates the world. I have to say that we are unquestionably the greatest civilization ever known on earth.
And that has me concerned, for many different reasons with different consequences.
First off, we have been the policeman of the world for some time. We go into places, stop the warlords, kill the Hitlers, arrest the Saddams. We bring democracy and free bottled water and chocolate bars to these 3rd world ****holes. Just like with regular police, the world shakes their head and sometimes their fist in our direction for our "brutality". Never mind that despite a few unfortunate incidents(for which the guilty were punished btw) we're probably the kindest and gentlest invading/occupying army the world has ever known. Not only do our soldiers have rules of engagement, orders to obey human rights, but they also are required to respect the local culture. What other army would bother?
But just like the real police, people get upset at us. We stick our nose where it doesn't belong they say. Many of us here at home feel the same way. And while there is no question that we are the good guys, it has brought us the thanks of terrorism. Many of us would like to put down the proverbial gun and badge and get out of this policemen of the world bit. Great, but we're on top. Who could we possibly pass the baton to? Who else has the resources and the will to do what has to be done in the world?
If you think Al Quida is bad, just wait until we stop policing things. Just wait until all the bastards of the world who we've pissed off build themselves up. Not fun. We're the policemen of the world. We're stuck with it now, for better or worse.
Unless spending a lot of time in foreign places, Americans shouldn't be afraid of terrorism. Prepared, yes. Afraid, no way. 9/11 was the worst they were able to do. Yes, a lot of people died and it is not my intention to diminish the loss that their friends and loved ones must feel. But, it was a drop in the bucket. It was a small rock hitting us in the ear... it hurt but it didn't actually do any real lasting damage. Our infrastrucure was never badly hurt. Our military was never comprimised. The next day the flag was still waving, folks and everything was running pretty smoothly except for that one area in New York City. Terrorism cannot defeat America. I can't emphasisze that enough. This doesn't mean we should ignore it, or that we should stop hunting Osama. Those people are criminals and should be brought to justice, but it is imperative we do not give up our freedoms or comprimise our way of life because we are afraid of a 1 in 100,000,000 chance someone might hurt us.
To me, the idea we can prevent a determined individual who doesn't care if he dies from carrying out a terror attack when we don't know who, when, or where it will happen is laughable. Regardless, I'm not afraid. I know my chances of getting taken out by a drunk driver this weekend are much higher.
I did say though that I am concerned about our direction. Well, I'm getting to that...
We have seen the hurricane Katrina debacle discussed to death. We've been bombared with the sad pictures of those people who are "so poor and so black". We've watched the blame game go from George Bush to the Fema director to the Governor, to Mayor Nagin. The politicians keep passing the buck. No suprise there, what do you expect from politicians? Of course the media loves it, anything to keep the viewers viewing is good to them.
But why didn't these people help themselves? They had warning. Maybe they didn't have a car or a school bus but they had feet. This is how people 100 years ago dealt with evacuation: walking. The friends and family or able bodied good sameritains help the disabled and it gets done.
But we hear howling about how these poor poor people were left on their own. We hear howling because they were black. Why oh why didn't the government come in and take care of them? Yeah, we do have agencies to help people in disasters and in this case they seem to have dropped the ball. But the thing is, this is a free country. One of the downsides to independance is that you sometimes have to take care of yourself. Well worth the joy of being free I say, but it seems others don't like it that way.
Americans have been told for years to wait for help. "call the cops and go hide" "don't resist" " don't try to do anything, call for help" any of these phrases sound farmilliar. You can understand why law enforcement, rescue, and fire departments say this. They don't want untrained civilians getting in the way when they try to do their job. But what if they're not available? What do we do then? How many Americans will just sit down and cry like a baby expecting their mother to come save them?
I have to talk about diversity and tolerance. People in America complain a lot because certain races don't always have it as good as others. They complain a lot because they are subject to stereotypes and have to hear racial slurs. They complain because their lifestyles are not accepted. Ok. In Iran, if the authorities find out you are gay they kill you. How's that for opression and inequality? In much of the world if you are the wrong race or the wrong religion, it's off with your head my friend. Now I'm not gonna sit here and say racism and intolerance is dead in the USA. It's not. But only 50 years ago we had seperate facilities for whites and blacks. Most communities would shun you for being gay. Today, we have laws in place to protect people's rights. We have a culture that is very intolerant of racism and goes to the extent of worrying about what words it uses to describe people. It's not perfect but what do you want? We've had an unprecidented amount of progress in civil rights over the past century, did you expect it to just get better that fast? It will improve, but it may be towards the end of our lifetimes before it does. In the meantime, you're allowed to be gay. You're allowed to be black and be anywhere whites can be. You can go get an education, you can go get a job. Maybe it is harder for you, I don't know. But what do you expect? You have it good here and if you stop blaming the world, buckle down, and work hard, your children will have it great here.
Being called a name, not having your culture respected, or whatever is NOT an injury. Do not even try telling me it is. What are you going to do if real opression in the form of angry mobs or opressive government comes at you? Words are nothing. Grow up.
And now a word about economic inequality. Have your own computer? Your own internet connection? Do you have a safe place to live with running water, heating, cooling, etc? Do you have all the food you need? Are you still complaining about being poor and not having enough money? If you do, don't worry. Most of us are guilty of it. But we have great lives here. Even those of us who are poor.
Then our unskilled laborers think they should live as good as their doctor friend who has two brand new SUVs in the driveway. They unionize, make demand after demand..... and then people wonder why manufacturing is gone in America. They wonder whey Mexicans come over here and take our jobs.
We think we're too good to work low-wage labor intensive jobs now and that's the long and the short of it.
This is why I worry. I worry that if the call comes that the Brittish are coming, I'm gonna throw on my tri-corner hat, grab my musket, and find myself standing in the ranks alone.
One of these days... maybe 20 years later maybe tomorrow some real disaster will hit. No little Katrina, no 9/11 but something that puts us all at risk. Are we ready? Are we tough enoug? Or are we pampered and expecting someone to come help us nomatter what?