Civilized? Yeah, right.

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." -Aristotle

"They construct ransom letters from biblical passages..." -Flobots

In essence, this post is a sequel to yesterday's entry. Except, instead of satirically proposing we kill the weak, I actually want to rant a bit. Today, I was able to catch the first hour of The Lost Boys of Sudan and it really made me to see how these boys have grown up to come to America in search of help for their country and they are soon "suckered" into American culture. Currently, there is civil unrest in Africa. Peace treatises are attempting to gain ground, but death still continues. In five short years of war, 300,000 people have been killed. Those numbers include women and children. The Sudanese civil war may have had a "peace" treaty, but there is still problems.

Let me say one thing; I'm not a liberal, tree-hugging, sushi-eating person, or anything like that. But I am a humanitarian. I don't propose that the U.S. step up in every conflict that the world has, because we would never get anything done here. However, I am upset that millions have died in Africa, and we go a couple months of higher gas prices and we invade oil-bearing countries. We claim to justify ourselves under the guise of "homeland security" when all we really want is cheap gas, cheap labor, and cheap cheap cheap.

All I'm trying to say is what if we unconditionally loved for a day? A week? A month? A year? You might say, "Well, America could do that, but our enemies wouldn't and we can't take a break for our own safety..."

"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind." -Mahatma Ghandi

So, can America (the "perfect" society) reach beyond their borders and love? In fact, can they even reach across the street?

You know what I hate? The term "holy war." In Islam, it's called jihad. In Christianity (oh yes, Christians have it too), it's called crusades. It basically gives the right to kill simply because one people don't believe as another. I'm not completely familiar with the teachings of Muhammad, but I have read a little bit. (I believe in knowing about things outside of ourselves.) I know that he taught peace and love just as Jesus did. Over time, we have bastardized the holy writings of our ancestors and conformed it to our own beliefs. "Holy war" is a conundrum in itself, for darkness cannot exist in light and bad cannot exist in good. Jesus went to the people, down to where there were, not to "raise" them up to a higher level of piety, but to give them mercy and love. Jesus taught against piousness. I'm not sure if the modern Christian church got this memo. I love it when the church does trips to a foreign land carrying, not the mercy and love of Christ, but the piety and culture of Christianity. I mean to say that some missionaries (definitely not all, I love them dearly) don't go in with a Christ-like mindset. They basically want to integrate them into American society, rather than just teach Christ. It's very similar to the globalization by the Spaniards and British from the 14th Century to as late as the !9th Century. They came in and forced integration and "civilized" society on these Aztecs and Native Americans and nearly wiped out an entire race. Thanks, White People. Culture is a vital part of the world. Every piece makes up a mosaic of beauty.

Well, I'm done ranting. For now. I now this makes little sense, but I hope you see what I'm saying as a whole. Look at the big picture. Look at the canvas of words I'm trying to paint for you. It may be a bit expressionistic, but I hope you see my message.