Today at work this girl who has an infatuation with David Letterman and records all of his shows brought me the tape of Monday night's show and I just finished watching it and it wasn't pretty.
At first, well...I shouldn't say that.....I've yet to decide how I feel about whether we should retaliate or not. Sometimes I say yes. Sometimes I say no. Today I came to, at least for me, the conclusion that we're damned if we do, damned if we don't.
If we don't do anything then that leaves the door wide open for further attacks.
If we do something, then I'm afraid it won't be as simple as the whole world against a couple of countries like it seems now. I'm afraid that over time, all of these countries will start to disagree and one thing will lead to another and before you know it, we'll be in the midst of World War III. And isn't that the war that's supposed to end all wars? Meaning....that's it, right? We're talking nuclear weapons and shit that'll end life as we know it.
I fear that's what's gonna come of all this.
Fear isn't really a good word I suppose. I'm not scared. I'm just anxious.
And there are two things that I can't get behind, even though I tear up at the vision of them on TV:
The late great Bill Hicks once said he didn't believe in patriotism - that it was a round world last time he checked and he believed in humans as a race rather than humans as a nationality.
I'm of that belief, too. I can't get behind the flag waving and the slogans. It seems to me, now don't get me wrong because I know that it's doing a lot of people a lot of good, but it seems to me that it's also doing a lot of bad. This new found patriotism is what's behind all these assaults against Muslims and, even Jews are being attacked now I heard on the news.
I like to think of it not as a crime against a country - the country I happen to live in - but as a crime against the human race. And patriotism doesn't play into those feelings.
Same thing with religion, which is a whole can of something that I'm not willing to get into. Religious fervor is what meditated this attack and religious fervor is helping to meditate retaliation against innocent people because of their beliefs.
But, and this is a big but, even though I've long considered myself an atheist, I fully believe in the good that can be found with and in religious belief. And I do not attack religions of any kind. I'm glad they are around. It's just that when it is a major cause of events like we've witnessed, it magnifies the madness of it all. The absolute madness that, not only now, but for thousands of years, innocent people have died for and because of something so trivial as what they believe. Not necessarily for their actions, but for their thoughts! That goes beyond anything I'm able to comprehend.
I told myself I was done with talking about and/or writing about this whole mess, but plans change with emotion.
But luckily, emotions themselves are just as fickle.