A week ago I had to travel to Kansas City for work, and at the airport a Middle Eastern man was sitting in the boarding area. One of the dudes traveling with us said something to the effect of, "Man, I'm glad he's not on my flight. Being on an airplane with him would freak me out!" I turned to my co-worker and said, "You're right. He might be smuggling some lotion or hand soap inside his turban."
Honestly, ever since 9/11 it seems that fearing/hating Muslims has become socially acceptable. While I realize it was a terrible event worthy of the full retaliation of our military, if you make a side-by-side comparison of all the things committed against Americans by Middle Easterners, you can find at least a dozen more instances of Americans committing atrocities against each other. (McVeigh, the Kennedy Assassination, Columbine, the Omaha Mall and Virginia Tech Massacres, the list goes on and on.) And now, because of the ineptitude of our political administration, American anger is directed toward Iraq, when they've never had ANY provable links to Al-Quaida. When was the last time the U.S. caught, tried, and punished an actual terrorist? Yet, more and more people seem to be jumping on the "Let's get the sand niggers" bandwagon.
Personally, I'm more afraid of being in a mall, or college, or grocery store and a disgruntled employee walks in with an AK-47 and mows me down! It happens way more frequently, and when was the last time Albertson's made you empty your water bottle before letting you in?
It shames me that more people aren't aware of the fact that ritualized hate was the reason behind practically every tragedy in human history. Shouldn't we be learning from our mistakes?
I'd love to read other thoughts about this.
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Welcome to Shrublandia!
If you haven't done so already, Derone, you should really read Huxley's "1984". The current Bush regime has been using this classic as a manual.
Much of what you see going on around us can be found between its pages:
- An unending state of war to justify the government's actions and keep the populace always fearful and looking for scapegoats for their fears.
- Extreme surveillance measures for the sake of "security."
- Arrest without habeas corpus if one is declared an "enemy of the state."
- Government leaders who hold themselves above the law. Bush essentially signs Congressional Bills, then signs an additional executive exception stating he doesn't have to obey its provisions; he's done scores of them!
- Regionalization of the war into warring/competing factions over dwindling resources.
- Control of the mass media for propaganda purposes, lies and filtering of information. Hey, can't run a Regime without that! Admittedly, the Bush Bunch isn't quite in total control yet, so conglomeration by sympathetic corporate entities will just have to do for the time being.
Oh my, how the list goes on, and on, and on. Ain't Shrublandia fun? Keep 'em in the dark and feed 'em lots and lots of Bushit! Nice to know that the "opposition" party is just as beholding for their elections to the giant corporate interests that benefit from lowering the American standard of living. Democracy? We don't need no stinkin' democracy, Big Brother Bush is watching over us. But that's all right, 'cause God's on his side.
When Lincoln was asked if he thought God was on his side for the Civil War, he answered, "I'm more concerned if I'm on God's side." Where are you Abe when we need you? Oh, yes, I know he suspended habeas corpus, too. However, his emergency measures were never intended to be in place for decades, and he faced a little problem of an invading Army of hundreds of thousands of men just across the Virginia border. What do we have, a few hundred zealots holed up in the border region of Pakistan? Oh yes, and don’t forget an entire Middle Eastern region of the world enflamed by our policies toward them and Israel - but that’s okay, the End Days are a comin’.
We blew the opportunity to wipe out al-Qada in Bora Bora, because our so-called "real national interests" lie in Iraq and control of the Middle-East's oil fields. If the Bush Regime didn't have Osama bin-Ladin as a foil, they'd have to make him up, or at least assure his survival! Hey...
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