melancholia

[ciroccoj]

My baby's last day of day care today. He'll be home with me for the summer, then go to JK in September. I can't believe how big he is. Where did the last four years go?

In the news... you know the blow-up over ABC Nightline's tribute to fallen American soldiers, and the Sinclair Broadcast Group pulling the show from their ABC affiliates in 7 major cities, because obviously taking a moment to honour people who've died in the service of your country is an anti-war political statement? I can't actually snark about because it's too damn sad, really. But Chris made a little funny, when I mentioned ABC was owned by Disney.

"Oh really? Good for them. Good for Walt Disney. Good old Walt. He may have his head frozen in a jar, but he's still doing what he can to make the world a safer place for the children."

Here's a link to the story, if anyone's interested.

Sinclair Stations to Boycott 'Nightline' Tribute

Comments

[bear.livejournal.com]

::gapes::

I don't get it. I also don't get the whole "the American people shouldn't see flag-draped coffins" thing, either. To my mind, a flag-draped coffin is a thing of terrible beauty -- a stunning visual that reminds us of the solemnity and finality of war, and the fact that it *does* come with a price. I think it's pretty telling that the Bush administration believes that reminding Americans that there *is* a price will make them unwilling to *pay* that price -- leads me to believe that even *they* aren't confident in their justifications for war.

And, um, now that I've used your journal for political rambling, I'll go back to studying for tomorrow's exam. :)

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

I think it's pretty telling that the Bush administration believes that reminding Americans that there *is* a price will make them unwilling to *pay* that price -- leads me to believe that even *they* aren't confident in their justifications for war.

WORD.

[daf9.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of the problems of war would disappear if committing the USA to combat required that the Commander in Chief was the first guy shipped out and the last to be shipped home.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

if committing the USA to combat required that the Commander in Chief was the first guy shipped out and the last to be shipped home.

Absolutely. That should be a basic rule of war for every single nation on Earth.

its sort of like this forwarded email

[animaltalker.livejournal.com]

a friend of my husband's forwarded this email to him from a friend of hers that has something to say too the first sentence was added by my hubby the rest is from the friend of our friend (oh by the way we've got a nephew in the service too was in an AWACS over there not sure where he is now)

I'm not an over the top patriot for the war in the Iraq (meaning, I'm not against a war on terrorism but Iraq is the wrong war) but this one scores a good point.

As some of you may know, one of my sons serves in the military. He is still stateside, here in California. He called me yesterday to let me know how warm and welcoming people were to him, and his troops, everywhere he goes, telling me how people shake their hands, and thank them for being willing to serve, and fight, for not only our own freedoms but so that others may have them also. But he also told me about an incident in the grocery store he stopped at yesterday, on his way home from the base. He said that ahead of several people in front of him stood a woman dressed in a burkha. He said when she got to the cashier she loudly remarked about the US flag lapel pin the cashier wore on her smock.  The cashier reached up and touched the pin, and said proudly, "yes, I always wear it."  The woman in the burkha then asked the cashier when she was going to stop bombing her countrymen, explaining that she was Iraqi.  A gentleman standing behind my son stepped forward, putting his arm around my son's shoulders, and nodding towards my son, said in a calm and gentle voice to the Iraqi woman: "Lady, hundreds of thousands of men and women like this young man have fought and died so that you could stand here, in MY country and accuse a check-out cashier of bombing your Countrymen. It is my belief that had you been this outspoken in YOUR OWN country we wouldn't need to be there today. But, hey, if you have now learned how to speak out so loudly and clearly I'll gladly pay your way back to Iraq so you can straighten out the mess you are obviously here to avoid."

Re: its sort of like this forwarded email

[(Anonymous)]

While the sentiment in that paragraph is worthy of praise, I doubt the story itself is true. The burkha is Afghani, not Iraqi, and the women who wore it could not be outspoken for fear of death; someone pious enough to still wear it would not speak up like that, and would probably not even be unaccompanied in a grocery. Now, perhaps the writer meant a hijab instead of a burkha?

Re: its sort of like this forwarded email

[animaltalker.livejournal.com]

The person who forwarded it is from a very small town in Montana and the friend probably is too and probably doesn't know the difference between a hijab and a burkha.In fact I'm not sure I do and I live in Denver among a very diverse population. As far as the story being true well the email addresses were stripped off for privacy reasons but if you want i'll ask for them and you can ask the man through email if he's lying about it.

We have Muslims of each sect and Hindus, and Buddists, etc, etc. living here in denver mnay of them go to school on my campus at one of the three school r teac or work at one of the three school. We all try to get allong and learn from one another. Of course as much as Americans are decried for not knowing the differences in Middle eastern customs and religions I doubt most Middle easterners know the difference between the various forms of Catholicsm (I.e. Roman catholic, Greek and Russiona orthodox) and all the Protestant forms (Methodist, Baptist, Episcopalean, Lutheran, Quaker, Mennonite, LDS) as well. people are people all over the world we all have are blind spots and we all have or prejudices.

This semester I've had the pleasure of having a man from Saudi Arabia in my class and it has been enlightening to have conversations with him. This man respects me as an instructor, likes me as a person and likes his fellow students, but does not like our country even though he lives in it. That's not to say he likes his own government any more than he likes ours. What I have learned by having classes that are perhaps 15to 20% foreign born and of that predominantly southeast asian, middle eastern, afghani, russian and african is that people are people wherever they are from, most non-americans are not fond of America's government but they still want to be Americans.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

is that people are people wherever they are from, most non-americans are not fond of America's government but they still want to be Americans.

As a foreign-born Canadian, I'm not sure I would agree with this. Many immigrants don't want to leave their home countries, and have no interest in becoming Canadian or American. But they often have little choice. My own mother did not want to leave Chile or be anything other than Chilean, but Chile had a slight mass genocide problem going on in the early 70s, so she left.

I can see it from both sides. I know many immigrants don't have a choice coming here, and many resent being made to feel like charity cases who need to learn to act 'right'. But I also know how frustrating it is sometimes for native-born Ottawans, for example, to accept a massive influx of foreigners who don't follow 'normal' rules of behaviour and ettiquette, who express disdain towards our society, yet who use our social systems, our welfare, public schools, etc etc. It requires a lot of understanding and goodwill from both sides to settle into a livable co-existence.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

I appreciate the sentiment here. To many Americans who believe in the war, it must be incredibly frustrating to know that their own soldiers are dying and their own tax dollars are being spent to fix a problem that wasn't theirs to begin with - and yet they're being vilified as invaders. That's not my POV, because I don't believe the US leadership sent its army out there out of purely altruistic motives. But I do know that a lot of soldiers, and their families, truly believe they are in Iraq to help. And they have helped, a great deal.

However.

It is my belief that had you been this outspoken in YOUR OWN country we wouldn't need to be there today.

I think statements like this, while understandable, only show Western (not just American) ignorance of the rest of the world. It's very easy to say that the downtrodden in other nations should just "stand up for themselves" instead of expecting others to come and rescue them. But that's looking at the rest of the world through Western eyes, where the worst consequence we usually have to suffer for being politically 'outspoken' is an unfair arrest which we can loudly denounce to the media.

In the rest of the world, being outspoken will get you killed. And not just in a clandestine "disappeared" kind of way - in many countries around the world, the government is unashamed to say, "We executed that traitor because he was spouting anti-government slogans", and nobody will contest it because they don't want to be killed either.

And until we can understand certain realities of life in other countries, we haven't got a hope in hell of helping them.