It has been said that there is something inherently ignoble in crushing those that are weaker than you. It may be necessary, but all the more reason to conduct yourself with the dignity that the gravity of the situation calls for. War is war; it’s not a football game where you spike the ball and dance around in the end zone. In the fervor leading up to the war in Iraq, Americans and more importantly, our leaders forgot that. Or, in considering our leaders, I just don’t think they really have that much class. Now, the clock doesn’t stop, there are no time outs, and the lines, the enemy and even the goal is blurry.
For me, as a young girl, war was a troubling mystery. You could see and touch the artifacts, the medals with foreign writing, some with swastikas, and the paper money and coins from halfway around the world, but how does a father, a man quiet and reserved by nature, talk to his daughter about such a thing? And so, I was left to wonder and search for the clues that would help explain what my father had experienced that made him the man he was to me.
And what I found was Ernest Hemingway, a one-time reporter for The Kansas City Star. A military expert who had somehow managed to cram into one prematurely ended lifetime enough experiences for an entire battalion of men. Direct, blunt, unmitigated and in a style all his own, he builds a scene of a battlefield or a field hospital and you are there.
Peter A. Brown and the like can write an entire column about the political effect this war might have but they might as well be on a different planet, and I really wish they were. David Brooks says, “This is a culture that knows how to honor the casualties and the dead, but not the strength and prowess of its warriors.” No, you respect that and you honor that but forget about the glory because there is a price that can never be repaid and it might be years before these young soldiers even know what that is. Your part is to make this country worth it.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
religious lib writes:
religiouslib writes: Friday, March, 02, 2007 11:31 PM
sjt18,
I guess the thing many conservatives don't seem to understand is that their view of the world, politics, and religion aren't the only ones that matter.
Let’s say that I didn't get into a long explanation of my set of beliefs because the Christian community I have been involved with for 50 years uses Jesus Christ as the role model and hence, when someone says they are a Christian we take it on face value until proven otherwise.
I have been surrounded by good Christian people all my life and have never seen Christians act the way the "so-called" Christian conservatives do on this board.
One of the lessons I have learned over the years is that God is too complex to truly understand all his teachings and that being a Christian is a journey towards the truth and the light using his word as the guide.
The idea that any Christian knows everything about the Bible and God is simply puzzling to anyone who has studied the Bible for any length of time.
I grew up in a family of preachers (my brother is an ordained Baptist minister) and I have sat in Sunday school rooms and sanctuaries and discussed the meaning of almost every single passage of the New Testament again and again. Every time I re-read a passage I learn something new or see the passage in a different light.
I do know this. Christians like inkling revival obviously have not been around other Christians who were sincerely searching God’s word for enlightenment and guidance because according to him, he has it all figured out.
There is no litmus test to be a Christian. That is the reason I put down John 3:16 as a core belief. I have had that verse memorized since I was 5 years old and to challenge me like I didn't know what I was talking about is not only insulting but un-Christian.
That is the problem here, many conservative Christians have all the answers when many of the answers are unknowable until we meet face to face with God.
Yet you and others on this board want to judge others based on your interpretation of the Gospel. I find it quite telling that conservatives quote more from the Old Testament and Paul than they do from Jesus.
Could it be that their politics would not be so conservative if they had to live with the actual text of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John?
To decide who is a better Christian is blasphemy on your part in my opinion. Who made you the judge of God's servants?
Did it ever occur to you that maybe God has plans for some Christians that are different than others? Some of us were meant to be missionaries, some were meant to be preachers, some to be youth directors. Could it be that some were meant to be liberal and some conservative?
Conservatives have the brazen audacity to speak for God and decide who is Christian enough and what a Christian really is?
I am sorry but those conservatives have missed the basic precepts of the teachings of Christ. The church is a community of believers and when you rule that some who gave their heart to God are not fit to worship in your church because you disagree with their politics, you have lost your way.
It comes down to this, the hatred and the name calling and the derisive comments I have received from conservative Christians on this board because I dared to be a Christian and a liberal does not speak well for their personal beliefs and their relationship with God.
May God bless you and keep you.
sjt18,
I guess the thing many conservatives don't seem to understand is that their view of the world, politics, and religion aren't the only ones that matter.
Let’s say that I didn't get into a long explanation of my set of beliefs because the Christian community I have been involved with for 50 years uses Jesus Christ as the role model and hence, when someone says they are a Christian we take it on face value until proven otherwise.
I have been surrounded by good Christian people all my life and have never seen Christians act the way the "so-called" Christian conservatives do on this board.
One of the lessons I have learned over the years is that God is too complex to truly understand all his teachings and that being a Christian is a journey towards the truth and the light using his word as the guide.
The idea that any Christian knows everything about the Bible and God is simply puzzling to anyone who has studied the Bible for any length of time.
I grew up in a family of preachers (my brother is an ordained Baptist minister) and I have sat in Sunday school rooms and sanctuaries and discussed the meaning of almost every single passage of the New Testament again and again. Every time I re-read a passage I learn something new or see the passage in a different light.
I do know this. Christians like inkling revival obviously have not been around other Christians who were sincerely searching God’s word for enlightenment and guidance because according to him, he has it all figured out.
There is no litmus test to be a Christian. That is the reason I put down John 3:16 as a core belief. I have had that verse memorized since I was 5 years old and to challenge me like I didn't know what I was talking about is not only insulting but un-Christian.
That is the problem here, many conservative Christians have all the answers when many of the answers are unknowable until we meet face to face with God.
Yet you and others on this board want to judge others based on your interpretation of the Gospel. I find it quite telling that conservatives quote more from the Old Testament and Paul than they do from Jesus.
Could it be that their politics would not be so conservative if they had to live with the actual text of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John?
To decide who is a better Christian is blasphemy on your part in my opinion. Who made you the judge of God's servants?
Did it ever occur to you that maybe God has plans for some Christians that are different than others? Some of us were meant to be missionaries, some were meant to be preachers, some to be youth directors. Could it be that some were meant to be liberal and some conservative?
Conservatives have the brazen audacity to speak for God and decide who is Christian enough and what a Christian really is?
I am sorry but those conservatives have missed the basic precepts of the teachings of Christ. The church is a community of believers and when you rule that some who gave their heart to God are not fit to worship in your church because you disagree with their politics, you have lost your way.
It comes down to this, the hatred and the name calling and the derisive comments I have received from conservative Christians on this board because I dared to be a Christian and a liberal does not speak well for their personal beliefs and their relationship with God.
May God bless you and keep you.
Some Gave All
There is a situation exemplified at townhall.com that I call an Unholy Alliance. You have two disparate groups who have come together in their mutual hatefulness, narrow-mindedness and fear. Many of the authors there claim to be Christians but most of the regular visitors do not. And I know from personal experience that these two groups really do not like each other. To listen to them you wonder how they could possibly feel qualified to adjudicate any complex matters at all. They are out of touch with reality, they have no use for facts that do not suit them and they have become a powerful force to be reckoned with. A “noise machine.”
While many Americans have their own daily endeavors and struggles to attend to, they feel like have no real stake in what has become a high stakes environment in Washington. Still, they have always felt that their leaders ultimately would do the right thing. Those days are gone.
Many of the people who go to townhall.com to “vent” and “express” themselves don’t seem to have a real grasp of the sacrifices it took to make this country what it is today. It was not your parents’ – Bush’s – generation who built this country. It was your grandparents. They are the ones who wanted something better for their children and were willing to work hard and live simply to make that happen.
Bush’s generation seems only concerned about what the country can do for them. They disdain the disadvantaged just as they disdain other people in the world that disagree with them. They have no use for the very system that made it possible for them to be successful – now you are on your own. They have no grand vision for this country.
What is so scary to some of us is their certainty in their own righteousness. And, if you dare to question or speak out then you are unpatriotic, or worse, treasonous. They don’t blink. You do not criticize your leaders during a time of war. They can do no wrong. How convenient then to take advantage and push through as much legislation as possible that will benefit them.
Then there are the veterans. I have a great respect for the sacrifices they have made. And they certainly have a right to voice their opinions about this war. And I understand the military mindset, the machismo. But, maybe they should be reminded, also, as Ernest Hemingway, himself a battle-tried veteran said, the real heroes, the people who really fought the wars, are not here to talk about it. Some gave all.
May 11, 2007
While many Americans have their own daily endeavors and struggles to attend to, they feel like have no real stake in what has become a high stakes environment in Washington. Still, they have always felt that their leaders ultimately would do the right thing. Those days are gone.
Many of the people who go to townhall.com to “vent” and “express” themselves don’t seem to have a real grasp of the sacrifices it took to make this country what it is today. It was not your parents’ – Bush’s – generation who built this country. It was your grandparents. They are the ones who wanted something better for their children and were willing to work hard and live simply to make that happen.
Bush’s generation seems only concerned about what the country can do for them. They disdain the disadvantaged just as they disdain other people in the world that disagree with them. They have no use for the very system that made it possible for them to be successful – now you are on your own. They have no grand vision for this country.
What is so scary to some of us is their certainty in their own righteousness. And, if you dare to question or speak out then you are unpatriotic, or worse, treasonous. They don’t blink. You do not criticize your leaders during a time of war. They can do no wrong. How convenient then to take advantage and push through as much legislation as possible that will benefit them.
Then there are the veterans. I have a great respect for the sacrifices they have made. And they certainly have a right to voice their opinions about this war. And I understand the military mindset, the machismo. But, maybe they should be reminded, also, as Ernest Hemingway, himself a battle-tried veteran said, the real heroes, the people who really fought the wars, are not here to talk about it. Some gave all.
May 11, 2007
Captain Brian Freeman - In Honor
Captain Brian Freeman was the chief U.S. liaison officer to Iraqi officials in Karbala, Iraq. He and four other soldiers lost their lives in an attack and kidnapping by a group of militants that U.S. officials believe to have been backed by Iran.
Freeman was a West Point graduate who served his five obligatory years of active duty and had returned to civilian life where he and his wife had a year old son and another child on the way when he was called back to duty as a member of the Individual Ready Reserve.
But, he felt uneasy about his assignment in Karbala. “He was an armor officer, more used to dealing with tanks and cannons than Iraqi politicians. Yet, in Karbala he was a civil-affairs official, doing work he felt was more appropriate for a diplomat than a soldier.”
He happened to meet Sen. Christopher Dodd while in the Green Zone for a furlough and he emailed the senator, “’Soldiers are being asked to do work we're not trained to do. I'm doing work that the State Department people are far more trained to do in fostering diplomacy. But they're not allowed to come off the bases because it's too dangerous here. It doesn't make any sense’…
… Freeman felt certain that the Iraqis he and his soldiers were supposed to be helping did not want them there. He and other troops suspected some of the police were members of the Mahdi Army… But even the wariest Americans have trouble believing that Iraqis who look them in the face each day could muster the audacity to try to kill them…
…By early this year, Freeman was beginning to question the assignment. He was having trouble sleeping during his stays in Karbala. When he returned from leave in January, he asked his commanding officers if he could skip the Karbala mission heading out Jan. 14. He suggested doing some other long-term projects at the main base. Not doable, Freeman was told. The mission was heading out as scheduled, with him in command.”
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1647454,00.html.
Freeman was a West Point graduate who served his five obligatory years of active duty and had returned to civilian life where he and his wife had a year old son and another child on the way when he was called back to duty as a member of the Individual Ready Reserve.
But, he felt uneasy about his assignment in Karbala. “He was an armor officer, more used to dealing with tanks and cannons than Iraqi politicians. Yet, in Karbala he was a civil-affairs official, doing work he felt was more appropriate for a diplomat than a soldier.”
He happened to meet Sen. Christopher Dodd while in the Green Zone for a furlough and he emailed the senator, “’Soldiers are being asked to do work we're not trained to do. I'm doing work that the State Department people are far more trained to do in fostering diplomacy. But they're not allowed to come off the bases because it's too dangerous here. It doesn't make any sense’…
… Freeman felt certain that the Iraqis he and his soldiers were supposed to be helping did not want them there. He and other troops suspected some of the police were members of the Mahdi Army… But even the wariest Americans have trouble believing that Iraqis who look them in the face each day could muster the audacity to try to kill them…
…By early this year, Freeman was beginning to question the assignment. He was having trouble sleeping during his stays in Karbala. When he returned from leave in January, he asked his commanding officers if he could skip the Karbala mission heading out Jan. 14. He suggested doing some other long-term projects at the main base. Not doable, Freeman was told. The mission was heading out as scheduled, with him in command.”
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1647454,00.html.
Hate Crime Laws - Reverse Discrimination
Many of the conservatives on the Internet do not seem to understand the concept of a hate crime law. They were up in arms about a vicious attack on a young white couple by some black youths that didn’t receive enough national attention, in their opinion. They said this should be considered a hate crime, that all violent crimes are committed with hate. I do not know the extent of the torture in this case. I did not read the article.
George Will is clearly an educated, highly intelligent man. Nevertheless, he cannot grasp the significance of a hate crime law? I’m not buying it. He says it is “enhanced punishments for crimes committed because of thoughts that government especially disapproves…Mind-reading juries are required to distinguish causation from correlation.”
Hate crime laws are necessary when there has been a history of violence and cruelty toward minorities and where the abusers have the power to get away with it. Motive is a fundamental component of our justice system and always has been.
It is a very hateful country we live in and I don’t know why when everybody here has it better than most of the people in the world. That’s not to say that there is not real suffering. The hatred displayed in these articles and posts is palpable. The thing that strikes me most about you people is that you only look at a situation – any situation – how it affects you.
I’m an outsider. I have experienced your wrath, you’ve called me names, made a lot of assumptions but mostly just refused to listen to what I have to say. I know what I’m talking about.
People like you who have had it with affirmative action and hate crimes and the politically correct this and that have never considered for one minute what it would be like to be that black child in that moment of realization that your world is not what it seems. Talk about losing your innocence. Talk about having your childhood snatched away.
It’s an ugly, ugly thing. And you people have never owned it and you’re not fooling anybody.
May 5, 2007
George Will is clearly an educated, highly intelligent man. Nevertheless, he cannot grasp the significance of a hate crime law? I’m not buying it. He says it is “enhanced punishments for crimes committed because of thoughts that government especially disapproves…Mind-reading juries are required to distinguish causation from correlation.”
Hate crime laws are necessary when there has been a history of violence and cruelty toward minorities and where the abusers have the power to get away with it. Motive is a fundamental component of our justice system and always has been.
It is a very hateful country we live in and I don’t know why when everybody here has it better than most of the people in the world. That’s not to say that there is not real suffering. The hatred displayed in these articles and posts is palpable. The thing that strikes me most about you people is that you only look at a situation – any situation – how it affects you.
I’m an outsider. I have experienced your wrath, you’ve called me names, made a lot of assumptions but mostly just refused to listen to what I have to say. I know what I’m talking about.
People like you who have had it with affirmative action and hate crimes and the politically correct this and that have never considered for one minute what it would be like to be that black child in that moment of realization that your world is not what it seems. Talk about losing your innocence. Talk about having your childhood snatched away.
It’s an ugly, ugly thing. And you people have never owned it and you’re not fooling anybody.
May 5, 2007
Know Thy Enemy
I had never been to a political website until after the Iraq war started. When I did, I was met with an unprovoked hostility and everything I said was met with derision and ridicule. It is disgraceful; all the things you have heard about a polarized society come through loud and clear on the Internet.
In all the time I spent, I only made acquaintance with a handful of people on the most offensive website I found, which was townhall.com, who would actually give me a chance and listen to what I had to say. As in recent difficulties I have experienced in real life, the only way to get these people's attention is to throw a big fit in the most outrageous way you know how. But, after ten years or so, some people start to listen. Do we have ten years?
You are supposed to know your enemy or you cannot know what kind of damage your enemy is capable of. Unfortunately, although I have gotten to know my “enemy” quite well, I don't think Americans have a very good understanding of the so-called "Islamo-fascist." Many are of the belief that they hate us because of our success, because of the air they breathe, or because they are locked into some sick kind of "death cult."
I do not believe that they are motivated entirely by a desire for religious purification. I believe they are reacting to a long and convoluted history, much of which has been unconsciously ignored by Americans due to patriotic or nationalistic indoctrination. An ancient history that cannot be sorted out, you can only take responsibility for your own history, and make amends for your own modern-day actions.
Where I come from, the heartland, there are many Christians who are good people, but maybe suffer from certain prejudices and stereotypes that were prevalent during their upbringing of which they are not entirely conscious. They are not so sophisticated; they don't even know this seething network of political/religious right-wing extremists on the Internet even exists.
No, they think the Republican Party, including Bush, is the down-to-earth, well-meaning, God-fearing, everyday common people like them. They go to work, they go to church, they try to take care of their families and deal with life’s ups and downs and they do not spend hours and hours and hours typing up compulsive, repetitive and utterly useless “debates” with themselves on the Web.
I believe the terrorism we have experienced is a culture clash and one that I don't see how or why could have made it to our shores without our interference. I think we went knocking on the door to an ancient culture where we are not wanted and where we never had any business.
In all the time I spent, I only made acquaintance with a handful of people on the most offensive website I found, which was townhall.com, who would actually give me a chance and listen to what I had to say. As in recent difficulties I have experienced in real life, the only way to get these people's attention is to throw a big fit in the most outrageous way you know how. But, after ten years or so, some people start to listen. Do we have ten years?
You are supposed to know your enemy or you cannot know what kind of damage your enemy is capable of. Unfortunately, although I have gotten to know my “enemy” quite well, I don't think Americans have a very good understanding of the so-called "Islamo-fascist." Many are of the belief that they hate us because of our success, because of the air they breathe, or because they are locked into some sick kind of "death cult."
I do not believe that they are motivated entirely by a desire for religious purification. I believe they are reacting to a long and convoluted history, much of which has been unconsciously ignored by Americans due to patriotic or nationalistic indoctrination. An ancient history that cannot be sorted out, you can only take responsibility for your own history, and make amends for your own modern-day actions.
Where I come from, the heartland, there are many Christians who are good people, but maybe suffer from certain prejudices and stereotypes that were prevalent during their upbringing of which they are not entirely conscious. They are not so sophisticated; they don't even know this seething network of political/religious right-wing extremists on the Internet even exists.
No, they think the Republican Party, including Bush, is the down-to-earth, well-meaning, God-fearing, everyday common people like them. They go to work, they go to church, they try to take care of their families and deal with life’s ups and downs and they do not spend hours and hours and hours typing up compulsive, repetitive and utterly useless “debates” with themselves on the Web.
I believe the terrorism we have experienced is a culture clash and one that I don't see how or why could have made it to our shores without our interference. I think we went knocking on the door to an ancient culture where we are not wanted and where we never had any business.
Compassionate Conservatism - Fraud
As much as Christians would like to believe that their leaders are on their side - politics and religion just do not mix.
"...the boardroom, not the sanctuary, remained the real Republican hallowed ground. When the Christians' interests clashed with the G.O.P. business wing the money talked...(their concerns) would not translate into policies that might inconvenience corporate America." - Michael Duffy and Nancy Gibbs in TIME.
"...the boardroom, not the sanctuary, remained the real Republican hallowed ground. When the Christians' interests clashed with the G.O.P. business wing the money talked...(their concerns) would not translate into policies that might inconvenience corporate America." - Michael Duffy and Nancy Gibbs in TIME.
Moms And Soldiers
The words of Julia Ward Howe, a patriot, composer of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and creator of the first Mother’s Day, reminds us that “Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy, and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”
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