My heart is broken from all the suffering in the world, so much of it caused by our country and our 'friends' like Israel. It's so sad, and yet we have to look. People in this country desperately need to grasp the reality that our leaders have engineered across the globe. Please take five minutes of your life to watch this video of little boys in Iraq.
I spoke to someone the other day who still supports and likes Bush. This person does not think a war with Iran will happen. This person has not heard any Winter Soldier stories or seen any distressing YouTube videos from Iraq. This person chooses to believe only the best about our leaders and our military. Only the best. Anything less than that is definitely not patriotic. That is how this person chooses to see the world, and this person insists there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. As a matter of fact, this person considers that I am being negative, and negativity is unAmerican. Americans are positive. We are upbeat. We support the troops and we support the President. It's Not Complicated, you see. That's the point. That's why everyone loves us. It's Good v Evil, and we're Good.
I just don't agree. Over and over again I see a profound lack of curiosity in my fellow citizens. Their attitude is this: if the information doesn't come through the television, it must not exist. Or if it does exist, it must not be legitimate. Only wicked people and liberals (same thing) believe the horrible things on the internet. Our country would not do anything purposefully harmful, so just calm down. Sheesh. Have a drink.
I just live in a totally different place. I can't unsee and unknow the things I have searched for and worked to understand, but neither can I take a person like this and make him or her want to know the truth. Some people don't want to know the truth. They choose to believe only the good, and in that choice they see themselves as good.
But what is evil but a spirit of unreality? Who is Satan but the Father of Lies? Refusing to see evil does not make a person good. People who refuse to see evil don't make the evil go away. On the contrary, these people are feeding evil. They are protecting evil. They are nourishing evil. They are hiding evil. They accomplish the exact opposite of what they think they're doing. As the Penitential Rite says: I have sinned through my own fault in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do.
That is why we need to let our minds wrap around the alternative explanations of 9/11, and let our eyes take in pictures of dead civilians in Iraq and Gaza, and let our ears hear the testimony of Winter Soldiers. We need to see the evil and name it and understand it. Only then can we possibly begin to choke it off.
So today, on Good Friday, my heart is crushed for all the innocent people who have suffered and died and who suffer and live thanks to George Bush, his friends and his wars. I am crushed. I can't look at these little boys in Iraq without seeing my own son, and I don't know how God can possibly forgive us what's happened to them because we invaded their country. I just really don't know. It does not seem possible to me. May His will be done, and may He have mercy on us all.
I spoke to someone the other day who still supports and likes Bush. This person does not think a war with Iran will happen. This person has not heard any Winter Soldier stories or seen any distressing YouTube videos from Iraq. This person chooses to believe only the best about our leaders and our military. Only the best. Anything less than that is definitely not patriotic. That is how this person chooses to see the world, and this person insists there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. As a matter of fact, this person considers that I am being negative, and negativity is unAmerican. Americans are positive. We are upbeat. We support the troops and we support the President. It's Not Complicated, you see. That's the point. That's why everyone loves us. It's Good v Evil, and we're Good.
I just don't agree. Over and over again I see a profound lack of curiosity in my fellow citizens. Their attitude is this: if the information doesn't come through the television, it must not exist. Or if it does exist, it must not be legitimate. Only wicked people and liberals (same thing) believe the horrible things on the internet. Our country would not do anything purposefully harmful, so just calm down. Sheesh. Have a drink.
I just live in a totally different place. I can't unsee and unknow the things I have searched for and worked to understand, but neither can I take a person like this and make him or her want to know the truth. Some people don't want to know the truth. They choose to believe only the good, and in that choice they see themselves as good.
But what is evil but a spirit of unreality? Who is Satan but the Father of Lies? Refusing to see evil does not make a person good. People who refuse to see evil don't make the evil go away. On the contrary, these people are feeding evil. They are protecting evil. They are nourishing evil. They are hiding evil. They accomplish the exact opposite of what they think they're doing. As the Penitential Rite says: I have sinned through my own fault in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do.
That is why we need to let our minds wrap around the alternative explanations of 9/11, and let our eyes take in pictures of dead civilians in Iraq and Gaza, and let our ears hear the testimony of Winter Soldiers. We need to see the evil and name it and understand it. Only then can we possibly begin to choke it off.
So today, on Good Friday, my heart is crushed for all the innocent people who have suffered and died and who suffer and live thanks to George Bush, his friends and his wars. I am crushed. I can't look at these little boys in Iraq without seeing my own son, and I don't know how God can possibly forgive us what's happened to them because we invaded their country. I just really don't know. It does not seem possible to me. May His will be done, and may He have mercy on us all.
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