Imagine that you are on your way home from work, you’ve already picked up your child from the day-care provider, and you decide to stop by the local farm market to purchase a few cheap specials of fresh produce to take home. Since this is your local community, you run into family, friends and neighbors as you shop for the best deals to feed your family. Perhaps you’ve stopped to talk with one of your neighbors from up the block, and suddenly there’s an explosion followed by rapid gun fire. Every god-given instinct in your body says to run, but first you need to grab your child because you defiantly will not leave your child in this type of situation. Try to imagine that, as you look for your child frantically, you see people you know that have succumbed to either the explosion or the gun fire that followed. Of course, your terror and anger at the person responsible for such a massacre continues to grow inside of your heart-especially up until the point that you are able to locate your child and flee the scene. Once you are safely away from the area, your terror might subside, but would your anger?
Most Americans cannot begin to understand how a scene like this would play out on our home soil, but there are more people in the world today that have experienced moments like this than there are USA citizens. Just watch your nightly world news. These moments are common place in some countries or regions. We watch the news-every single one of us, and yet, I deem that a lot of just regular people become immune to the violence that is ongoing in other countries of the world. After all, we have our own concerns and cares-take the economy and the inflation rates for example. And then there is always the adage that I hear more and more often these days, "It’s those Muslims-they’re all so radical." This sentiment seems to be growing here and now, and I find it particularly powerful in the younger generations-say 18-30 year old range. Yet, I have tried talking about these differences of religion, race, and cultures to some people of this same age group, and the undercurrent seems to be a lack of knowledge about any religion or religious affiliation. In fact, a lot of younger generation Americans do not even vote or have a working knowledge of our political systems.
This current mind set-one of hatred and discrimination- crawls under my skin, bites at my nerves and screams, "Careful-remember McCarthy?" History recounts aristocracy after another committed both on and off USA soil. I remember talking to people that lived through the era of Japanese concentration camps in the Pacific Northwest. Remember what we ourselves have done to the Native American Indians and countless Africans? We cannot afford to repeat the hate of the past-individually, spiritually or politically-as a nation and as free people.
Part of the reason, I guess I’m a little sensitive is that I love living in a country that was founded on FREEDOM-predominantly freedom of religion and speech. Freedom from government control, and the right as a citizen to expect to be treated fairly and equally.
Mystified I am then, that in our society, there has suddenly arose a spirit of intolerance of people whose religion is different from our own, or whose immigration status is shorter than our own family’s.
Have we learned nothing as a society from our own history? Discrimination is ugly business! Remember the lessons about Hitler and the Holocaust? Hitler was able to come to power in Germany with a rhetoric that there is a supreme race, and that all other’s should serve this race or be annihilated. As a world, we felt so responsible for the extermination of the Jewish people, that we elected to give them their own nation.
One thing that history teaches, and that is not often even mentioned is that we-the USA-turned a blind eye on what was happening in the world because we were practicing isolationism. In other words, as a society and country, we were taking care of ourselves. We vowed as a nation that we would never let such rampant hate kill so many innocents in the world again. As a country, we stood for basic human rights and freedoms.
Now, please understand, I am not advocating that we do not have to take care of our citizens and domestic policies first-every country needs to handle its own issues before it can hope to help someone else. It is the same in every community (and family situation) in our country-people that are able reach out to help others that are not so fortunate. It’s the principle behind philanthropy and charity, for goodness sake. Our citizens should help each other-and we need to learn to love one another as well! If you are a Christian, think of the greatest commandment Christ gave out…."Love one another." However, are you aware that all religions teach this same philosophy? Do you know and understand that 95% or more of Muslims are not terrorists, but just people going about their lives and trying to practice their own religion, and must we forever misinterpret a package by it’s cover?
The article that prompted this tirade, of sorts, was in yesterday’s GR Press, but I am sure as an educated person, you have heard of Blackwater? If not, go to www.mlive.com and research what it is. Erik Prince-a fellow Michigander and Christian-founded this corporation as a security company. So how is it that a domestic security company caused problems in the Iraqi war? Personally, I do not understand the why of our government allowing a private company access into a war zone. What in the hell were we thinking? War is also ugly, but to have troops that do not answer to our President nor our military? Blackwater has changed its name to Xe Services LLC-most likely to avoid any fall out from Iraq here in the USA, and Erik Prince has resigned.
Yesterday’s article about Prince’s ideals is an upsetting one! The two employees that have come forward in this investigation will not even give their names, and I feel the reason for this is that the two are most likely living in fear of their own lives somewhere! John Doe No. 2 describes Prince philosophy, "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe." Now, does that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up?
Personally, I have never had to figure out how to survive a fire-fight at my local farmer’s market, and, God-willing, I never will. However, the viewpoint expressed above helps me to understand exactly why the Iraqi people were so very happy to see the Americans leave. It remains to be seen if they will be able to protect their own citizens without aide from the world. As a person of faith, I have offered up silent prayers to the God of my understanding for this country. Think of it as a sort of motherly prayer of, "come on, you can do it-take the first step!"
A terrorist’s first description should not be their religious affiliation, nor should it have anything to do with a person’s ethnicity. Obviously people of all faiths or non-faiths for that matter, can become radical!
Are we-as a society and country-spreading discrimination and hatred? If Erik Prince really believes it is his job to eliminate people of Islamic faith, where did this attitude come from? I know of no churches-Christian, Islamic or otherwise-that teach we need to eliminate other people just because those people do not believe the way we do. Yet there are most defiantly people with such hatred in the world, and sometimes it makes you take a step back to realize that even some of our own have hatred in their hearts. Erik Prince was a neighbor at one time to a lot of people in the Holland and Grand Rapids areas. So…
Radical regimes rise to power in the world all of the time, and we have even backed rebels in other countries instead of the government because of the humanity that is endangered. That is the essence of why we were in Iraq to begin with-the aristocracies committed by the Hussein regime-remember? All too often, I hear fellow citizens say it’s about the oil.
Yet I remember the carnage in Kuwait, and I believe that we should not allow radicals hell-bent on destroying others to stay in power. Nazi Germany started it’s reign of terror by the supposed invasion of Poland, but yet the real invasion occurred within Germany itself for years before that actual event. Ever watch "The Sound of Music?" The Nazi party arose because of radical beliefs, and it was a political fight long before the first drop of blood was shed! When people with extreme radical religious or other beliefs come into power within a country, the regime will always spread, thru propaganda, a spirit of pervasive fear. We are taught to discriminate, and sometimes this begins in our homes, schools and workplaces first.
I think that we need to educate our youth better-especially concerning how history has a way of repeating itself! The problem is fear of people whom are different-i.e. discrimination.
So hear is the real meat-examine your own thoughts, opinions and viewpoints. All religions agree that we must first take a long hard look at our own selves before any one of us is ever able to point out the ’sin’ of another! Enlightenment can be achieved thru self-examination first, but each one of us has a responsibility to stand up for what is right as well. Always try to exercise your rights because that is what keeps us a free nation, and each one of us do have a voice and, perhaps, a personal responsibility to speak out over discrimination issues. Just because someone is different than you are does not mean that that person is any less human-think about it!
