Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Expendible Lives


Children are killed. 20 by a man in a school in a small, "peaceful" community in Connecticut. 35 in Gaza, a place wracked by violence; a place where violence is openly advocated by Pres Obama, the administration, the Congress, & many Americans; a place where American bombs, bullets, helicopters and bombers do much of the damage. (Never mind a decade in Afghanistan, and Iraq, and American intervention in so many places that it boggles one's mind.)

In both cases the essential elements are the same. Children are murdered in an act of unspeakable violence. In one case it is an outrage, there is lots of hand wringing and questions of, "How it could possibly happen here?" In the other it is acceptable, met with barely a shrug of the shoulders, or maybe, in an act of appeasement, a call for "restraint".

i would like to call on the next mass murderer in the United States to show a little restraint.

The only difference between the 2 incidents is the fantasies we wrap around them with our minds. When these fantasies don't align with the culture, we label it "mental illness".

But what do we call it when the culture itself is so diseased that immorality is the norm, when killing children is acceptable? This has been the culture of America for generations. The unspoken agreement is this: Certain children, in America and in the world, are simply not worthy of our concern or our care. They are expendable for an idea.

Banning guns will not cure this disease.

In this picture, M Basyouni stands above the hole where shrapnel entered the bedroom and decapitated his 8 year old son in his sleep. Gaza Nov 2012.