Today’s self-righteous rant concerns the trouble I ignore, but which
seems to be knocking on my doorstep. I watched with sadness the coverage of people
protesting the Ferguson, Mo. shooting, and more recently, the bizarre seemingly
unjust acquittal of the Staten Island officer charged with killing Eric Garner by
putting him in a suffocating chokehold. There seems to be a growing consensus
that the police are using unnecessary force with African Americans and that
this problem undermines our very system of justice. So I think about justice in
a free society, and I
think about right and wrong. At what point does force fail to enforce? America,
and to a lesser extent, Canada, seem to be sitting on a powder keg, at home and
abroad. How do we diffuse the bomb?
The other night there was a news story about Omar Khadr, the young
Canadian tried for treason and murder and sentenced to serve in prison at Guantanamo
Bay, although he was under sixteen years old when he was apprehended. Now a
young adult, going blind in a Canadian prison, Khadr claims he was railroaded, and
his lawyer says that he did not get a fair trial. Khadr, he argues, was a child
soldier, forced under duress to do the crimes for which he was accused, and it
is the adults who directed him in his crimes that should be held accountable. Khadr
confessed to killing an American soldier and to assisting in terrorists
activities (bomb making), so there is little chance in a post 9-11 world that
he will ever be exonerated. After years of reported abuse in Guantanamo, he was
recently sent back to Canada to finish out his sentence. When I read his story,
it became a little clearer to me how a young Muslim becomes a radical. I can
look at these people and say that they (all Muslims) are the enemy; it is the
simple solution to have an us-or-them mentality, especially when we are force
fed outrageous images of Western hostages, brutally beheaded by Islamic
radicals. But not all Muslims are fanatical, violent monsters. Most are peace-loving,
good people, just like you and I. It does humanity and injustice to demonize
the second largest and by some accounts fastest growing religion in the world.
I just watched an interesting video entitled The Islamic State, which I
found on the International Herald Tribune website. It is attributed to a filmmaker
and journalist named Medyan Daireh, who for three weeks was embedded with
Islamic State rebels in Syria, and who covered the story for an organization
called Vice News. First of all I cannot believe that this man was allowed to
document what he saw and whom he interviewed without being killed, but he did,
and the footage is a sobering look inside the foul underbelly of the Middle
East. I do not know how accurate the information was, but I did find the
footage alarming. While I always knew that the Muslim extremists hate the
infidels, and want us all dead, this documentary seems to suggest that their
poisoned ideology is growing and more widespread threat than I had imagined.
What becomes evident is that these fanatics control a good part of Syria and
now Iraq, and seem to be closing in on other parts of the Middle East as well. With
the recent disturbing one-man attacks in Canada and the United States, I fear
it is only a matter of time until some of these religious nut balls succeed in
their diabolical mission to carry off some new genocide in North America. Terrorism
is ultimately indefensible when the terrorists are perfectly willing to
sacrifice their own lives. What happens to the rules of engagement when one
side completely abandons them? While I sit here frustrated because my
Blackberry will not communicate with my laptop properly, twelve year olds are learning
how to shoot automatic weapons, and being indoctrinated with the hatred of an
ever growing poisoned theocracy. Did we foment this hatred by backing monsters
like Assad and Hussein, or were these religious wars bound to erupt? Do we
justify torture now because we are trying to catch up with a new kind of enemy?
We cannot fight this enemy with bullets and drones; I think it is clear that
will simply alienate the innocent and mobilize the enemy.
Here is what I see, at least in myself. I see I don’t know who is right or wrong; I used to think I did. Especially where religious ideology is concerned, people are still hated for their chosen beliefs in G-d, and this perplexes and astounds me. I also see the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots. I’m a have, at least for now, and as much as I yammer on about my thankfulness, I am acutely aware that some of my good fortune is unearned. Every time I hear about a soldier taking his or her own life, and about the hopelessness that so many vets feel due to PTS, or about an African American man shot and killed for no good reason, I get a glimpse of how out of touch I am becoming with the world. I am numbed by the news, and no matter what the spin, the facts are clear to me. Ignorance and fear are the enemies, not Muslims, Jews, Blacks, or the police. Ignorance and fear are growing every day, ironically fueled by today’s increased “information.” They cannot be fought with force, only with education.
I am as ignorant and afraid as the next man, but while it is hard for me
to face my failures as a human being, I have not given up on love. As we approach
the upcoming holiday, which used to stand for peace and goodwill , but which
has fallen so far off the tracks it’s ludicrous, I ask only this, of myself,
and of my friends. Try to make an effort to understand what you do not
understand,- the other side - be it another culture, or religion, or race. Love
is not dead, but it is fighting for
its life. I’ll try harder if you will.
“And time just seems to swirl up like the leaves in a blow/ So much
spinning out of my control.
And I want to solve the problems of this oh so troubled world/ But I can’t
even seem to solve my own …”
Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2014 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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