Here in Texas and back in my US military service days, there was always one thing that will always work to make me sad.
Any time I hear a co-worker say: "What we ought to do is drop a nuke over them, and get it over with.". Another favorite of mine: "The US should go over there and turn that place into a big parking lot!". It always sadden me or even piss me off to listen to those remarks. It also made me think a lot less about the speaker making such comments.
Is it Hollywood and the endless stream of crap a la "Aliens", "Star Ship Troopers" or some other sadistic teenage aimed block buster film that made some of our American citizens so dehumanized? In Iraq, Peru, Cambodia as well as in Alabama or Plano Texas you will find people. The kind that are women, children, men, and elderly. All of them are either fathers, sisters, uncles, sons or grand parents. All of them are human like you and I. Certainly not bugs or some despicable pseudo-mythical alien species.
The excesses and abuses that happened at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by our service members may have very well taken place because superiors ordered it. However, I believe that what enable it to happen is the erosion of some basic understanding that all men are created equal.
Posted by martinf at June 29, 2004 06:00 AMHi there, Paco.
Just letting you know I'm 100% with you on this (yes I read your blog :-)
This lack of respect for our fellow human beings that is going around, and the "get what's yours, and to hell with the rest" attitude permeating culture nearly everywhere, are quite depressing sometimes. Makes you want to throw up your hands and go live in Greenland or Siberia, alone in your own little corner.
This reminds me of the choice Frodo had to make in Lord of the Rings:
he could stay in Bag End and ignore the big fearful things going on in lands far away. But if he did nothing, eventually the big fearful things were going to happen right in his backyard. And for the love of Hobbiton and the Shire and everything that is good, he set out to destroy evil and end its power forever, at whatever personal cost.
Just like each and everyone of our servicemen around the world.
A toast to Paquito and his comrades everywhere:
Here's to their personal sacrifice, and for all that is good.
Posted by: PJ Cabrera at June 29, 2004 09:27 AMI feel so VERY proud to be your mother. Your comments on war and values-- or the lack of them-- are so true. If our leaders would use this paradigm our world would be a better place to leave to our children. God bless you always, my son!
Posted by: Mimi Martinez at June 30, 2004 08:16 AM