I began writing this report before I learned of the Paris attacks. I am including the first paragraph because I think it is eerily prescient…
Friday, 10:45 A.M. - As I begin this week’s missive, it is the morning of Friday
the 13th, and while I am not a superstitious man by nature, I am
feeling a little strange today. There is a weird energy about me which I cannot
explain. I’m not even sure if it is negative or positive, simply that it is a feeling
things are ripe for change. I consulted Wikipedia, my oft-referenced source of
misinformation, to gain some insight as to why Friday the 13th might
be considered unlucky, and came up with a myriad of possible reasons. Dating
back to The Last Supper, there are plenty of examples why the superstitious
might rue this day. If my readers are so inclined, they can research this for
themselves, but I found two so-called statistics noteworthy. According to a
stress clinic in North Carolina, it is estimated that as many as 21 Million
Americans are terrified of this day, and will go out of their way to avoid
normal routines in order to circumnavigate bad luck. Elsewhere in the article,
it was estimated that as much as $900 Million in revenue is lost on Friday the
13th because people are avoiding their normal activities. I think
when your number is up, it’s up. Certainly one can stack the deck, and as the
Darwin Awards clearly remind us, fools tend to remove themselves from the
gene pool prematurely. Is Friday the 13th really unlucky?
Friday, 4:30 P.M. Just turned on the radio for the first time today and heard
the news about the terrorist attacks in Paris. Is this what I felt earlier? After learning about this Paris attacks, I had the same desperate feeling
that I had when Shauna and I watched the second plane hit the World Trade Center
on 9-11: utter horror and disgust. When it became apparent that there had in
fact been several concurrent attacks on U.S. soil, I was filled with the
competing emotions of fear and rage. These attacks, born out of religious
zealotry are nothing new, but it is discouraging to see a growing number of
religious fundamentalists bent on destroying the status quo. Good people
practice their religions to find peace and harmony in a world that is often
confusing and frightening, but a few nut balls can turn the world upside down.
Myopia and zealotry seem to be on the rise, and I don’t think this is a hopeful
sign for humanity. Apparently, it was ISIS this time; last time, it was al Qaeda, but does it really matter? I googled “Muslim terrorist organizations”
and came up with a list of close to one hundred different groups. This is not a war we win with
bombs or by “putting boots on the ground.” The new enemy is a shadow society
whose ideology is inconceivable to us. It targets civilians, and there are no
rules of engagement. The new world war will be a battle of intelligence, communication,
and technology … does anyone else find this ironic? How many other attempts
were thwarted? French intelligence was outmatched this time, and I suspect
there are a lot of other major population centers equally vulnerable to the un-detectability
of these threats. I suspect that the planners will be systematically hunted
down and killed, like that recently exterminated monster featured in all those
internet beheading videos. Still, others will spring up in their place, like
Whac-A-Moles, and the circle of violence will continue to feed on itself. How
many times must history repeat itself? Hatred cannot be exterminated with
violence. Yesterday, I read some online comments about these attacks. I was distressed to
see that so much hatred has been directed towards the Syrian refugees. Somewhere
near Toronto, a mosque was burned down. Revenge, or finding scapegoats, will not solve
the problems. Should we now treat every Muslim
like the Germans treated every Jew in WWII? Though a Syrian refugee was allegedly involved in the
Paris attacks, so were French nationals.
At the risk of sounding naïve, I believe love, respect, and compassion
are the only things that can eradicate this cancer on mankind, and it’s not
just our enemies’ hearts and minds that need to be changed. The enemy already
lives among us. Absolutely, root out the bad guys. Marginalize this blight on
mankind and stop them however we can, but don’t throw the baby out with the
bathwater, or we are as bad as they are.
We have just celebrated Remembrance Day. I was a day late, but I drove
to the Burk's Falls Legion and made a donation towards their purchase of a new furnace. I
wanted to do some good for the people we should be hailing as our heroes. With
the approach of the American Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday, I am thankful
for so many things I once took for granted. I am thankful for my (somewhat
eroding) freedom, for my beautiful wife, for my good parents, and for the good friends I have made thus far. I am
also thankful that I have not given up on mankind. It’s a choice, and I hope my
readers feel the same.
Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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