Sharon's Muse.... Let's chat over coffee while I ponder some things
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Sharon's Muse.... Let's chat over coffee while I ponder some things |
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Name::Sharon Cullars
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Sunday, November 06, 2005 Long weekend, short rant (No, I don’t want to be like you!) Barely recuperating from having to attend a long yawn-inspiring council meeting all day Friday and half a day Saturday (both my off days for which I receive no comp time), then today took three arduous hours getting up the leaves that decided to fall after my lawn guy signed off for the rest of the year. While I was back and forth getting trash bags and splitting my time doing two loads of laundry (still have to cook, do towels and take out the garbage today), I caught scenes from the documentary “Declarations of War” that was playing on my living room television. Although I didn’t have a chance to watch the whole thing, I did catch two statements that made me pause. The documentary featured pro and anti arguments on the Iraqi war and basically I heard nothing different than what I’ve been reading and hearing for the last couple of years. But the statements (both from the same guy, didn’t catch who he was) got my blood going. He was a pro-war advocate, and usually I don’t take offense because they have a right to their viewpoints just as I have a right to mine. Still, this guy was presenting the argument that even if we did invade the country for oil, instead of the bogus rationale of liberating the Iraqis, what was wrong with that? Wouldn’t we fight for food and water, which are both necessities? And isn’t oil just another necessity? Yes, oil is a necessity but only on a convenience level; it is not an imperative as are food and water, which are staples to keep us alive. Where the argument failed is that itty bitty oversight he forgot to mention: this war is an offensive war and we are the invaders. In my estimation, the only time we should start an offensive war is where our health and safety are imperiled; no one in the administration has been able to show that this was the case. I could even buy the argument, albeit tenuous, of invading another country in the case where we have run out of food and water and there is no other reasonable way to get it. Again, because these are needed to keep us alive. But to say that invading Iraq is justified because of our need for oil evokes the arguments that were probably put forth by the forefathers centuries ago; we need labor, and we’re too fucking lazy to do it ourselves – hey, why not go get those dark people running around half naked in the jungles of Africa and make them toil for us; after all, this is a necessity for our comfort and our economy. So, what could make both invasions justifiable to the invaders? Maybe because the invadees were so dissimilar from them. “They’re not like us, and they don't worship our god, so it really isn’t wrong.” Ask yourselves: would the U. S. have been as quick to invade a European country under similar circumstances? Would we really have started an offensive war against those who were basically “just like us” with the incentive to get oil? The pro-war guy then went on to say that we would eventually bring democracy to Iraq. And yes that would mean Burger King, J. C. Penny's, Footlockers and other American stores pervading their land; and guess what, “they will like it.” So, he defines democracy not by people having the freedom to be autonomous, but by becoming Americanized like us. Well, here’s a newsflash: not everyone in the world wants to be like America, and definitely wouldn’t “like it” if Americanization was forced on them. I know this is one man’s view; my fear is that it is shared by so many others. The assumption that people not like us don’t have the same rights, or would jump at the chance to be like us, is one of egocentric ignorance that is pervasive not only in the political sphere, but is the crux of most religiosity. The other day on my train ride to work, a woman began lambasting the entire car about our supposed sexual “sins.” Then she went on and on about how we women were perverting the natural order of things by working when we should be at home taking care of a husband and children. Understand, my music was blasting in my ear, so I didn’t catch all of her spiel; I was trying to drown her out, with limited success. She then went on about how we needed a good man to marry followed by some insipid joke about only then being allowed to buy Victoria’s Secrets once we were legitimately hitched. I took a quick gander at the woman; saw her only from the rear and was summarily unimpressed. Large wig, overlarge coat, she resembled many of the itinerant preachers I see on the street. I would ask this woman, and the man in the documentary: what makes you think I, or anyone else for that matter, want to be anything like you? If you have the audacity to tell me your way is the right way, then you should make the offer a bit more appealing. I mean, you should be the beacon, the light, the example. From what I saw of both these self-righteous know-it-alls, where they goeth, I flee in the other direction.
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