I don't know why I'm writing right now. Sense of boredom? Probably.
The 15th Anniversary of September 11, 2001 just passed. It's hard for me to fathom how it's been that long. It feel like just yesterday I was in my World History class sophomore year of high school when the news broke and we watched in horror as everything unfolded. That was my generations loss of innocence. On a national scale, we no longer felt invulnerable.
It also made me think of the 5th anniversary of 9/11, when I was in the Panjshir Valley of Afghanistan. When the towers collapsed I promised to myself I'd serve my country through the military. The military was a mixed experience for me and had equally mixed results in Afghanistan efforts, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't damn proud of myself, then and now.
This year's anniversary also reminded me of the first time I visited the World Trade Center site, as the fountains, museum and New WTC Tower neared completion. Entry to the site was still fenced off, but me and my newfound Muslim love interest saw what we could.
I didn't even know what a Muslim was in 2001, and I hated them in the following weeks until I came to know what Islam truly was and that the vast majority of Muslim people are just that, people. It felt so exceedingly right to be at the site of such past devastation with a Muslim companion, proof I had overcome my blind bigotry and a thumb in the eye of terrorists who wanted nothing less than a Muslim woman to be enjoying the company of a Western atheist man. It also felt as if we were ... part of the solution in some small way; I still believe that to be the case.
For all of our faults, the US has never forgotten. Neither will I.
Monday, September 12, 2016
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Friday, July 29, 2016
RNC vs DNC
I'm not going to elaborate too much, but -- just like the primary debates -- the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention highlighted something profound and obvious: The Democrats are simply the adults in the room. That's not to say most conservatives are immature. Far from it. It's an indictment against Republican Party leadership. America can't hand them and Donald Trump the keys to the car.
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Deja Vu: Orlando Was All So Predictable
Remember this blog? I barely did either, but today necessitates its use for, if nothing else, my sanity.
I love America. I truly, truly do. It, in a very real way, was my first love. I've been to 47 of her states; I served in her Army for 5 years. Every political stance I take is predicated on what I believe to be what's best for my country as a whole and not my wallet or some other self serving interest.
In lieu of yet another tragic mass shooting, this time at a gay night club in Orlando, it's time for me to yet again give me thoughts on another tragedy.
There is so much blame to go around. The shooter, obviously, first and foremost. ISIS, who apparently radicalized him and inspired him via the internet, is probably a close second. Homophobia is right up there. Guns themselves certainly have a place. This particular mass shooting, the worst one in America's dubious history of them, is probably a despicable concoction of domestic terrorism with foreign terrorist roots with a side of hate crime and potentially a mental health disorder as well.
All of these elements are worth analyzing, addressing and eliminating. Yet one of those elements to our country's gun violence epidemic is met with a collective shoulder shrug : guns themselves. It's painful to feel compelled to point out that guns are a huge part of the gun violence issue, but we've reached this point.
America makes up little less than 5% of the world's population but owns 31% of all of its mass shootings since the 1960s. We're a first world country with a third world crisis on steroids. But there never seems to be enough political will to tackle the gun portion of the gun violence issue. It's mind boggling.
How dismissive large segments of the population are to this issue is very much a cause of these tragedies. There's no panacea, but people dealing in the reality of the situation and mobilizing the political will to reform gun laws is absolutely a crucial step in curing this national health crisis and not being the best of the worst on this issue.
This is far from a cry to ban all guns and to rescind the 2nd Amendment. I do believe the Constitution guarantees the rights of individuals to own arms. I get the desire to own a firearm in order to help protect your family. (Though a midsize dog is a far better deterrent.) I also embrace the recreational activity of practicing one's marksmanship and hunting animals, especially when population control for the own animal's sake is necessary.
When i was six, I asked my parents for my own gun. They got me a BB gun and my dad spent a whole week training me on how to use it and how to respect it. He instilled in me a belief my BB Gun was no different that a AR-15. I treated it as such. I never shot towards a house or aimed my gun at a person. Why? It wasn't a toy. It was a weapon.
And that has been lost on people. While they can be used for sport and fun they're primary design, their origins are to kill people with ease. Period. End of story.
We let people own drones, but we don't let civilians own drones with hell-fire missiles and other military grade hardware attached to them. Yet we let people own de facto military grade weapons of war that can kill masses of people with ease. Can't we logically accept that civilians shouldn't own military grade drones and weapons?
The AR-15 is not all that different from an M4, what they issued to me to protect myself from the Taliban. To put it more bluntly, they gave me a slightly more jacked up AR-15 to kill the enemy. And the same gun fell into the hands of a known wife beating homophobic ISIS sympathizer. AR-15 and other powerful semi automatic weapons have also fallen into the hands of hateful racists, the deranged and domestic and foreign terrorists.
We're a country awash in private gun ownership and rarely do they protect the population from others with private guns. In a country of 300 million people and probably even more privately, legally owned guns, there's only 260 or so justifiable homicides a year. Thank goodness those people had their guns and protected themselves and loved ones from harm, but if the bad guys didn't have such easy access to those guns would the justifiable homicides have even been necessary in the first place? Oh, and about 11,200 gun homicides happen every year. Basic arithmetic and such.
I've heard a lot of people say that if people in that Orlando gay nightclub were packing heat that shooter wouldn't have killed nearly as many people. Let's just ignore how concerning it is some people feel compelled to have a gun on them at all times just to feel safe. Instead focus on the victim blaming. It's the exact same inexcusable action of blaming a rape victim. "Well, how much did she have to drink?" "Well, she was asking for it by what she was wearing." "Well, if he was wearing his holster maybe he wouldn't be dead right now."
America, I love you, but you've really let me, millions of others and, most of all, 50 precious Orlando lives down. It's not to say you're guilty. It is is to say you/we bare much of the responsibility. Drop the victim blaming, or saying it's a lack of prayer in schools, or that it's just foreign terrorism. Let's just collectively act like adults and admit it: semi-automatic rifles are far too powerful to be left in the hands of a civilian population that has a small minority of whack jobs and evil souls who do a large amount of damage with them. We're not safer because of them. Quite clearly the opposite is, and has been, true.
I love America. I truly, truly do. It, in a very real way, was my first love. I've been to 47 of her states; I served in her Army for 5 years. Every political stance I take is predicated on what I believe to be what's best for my country as a whole and not my wallet or some other self serving interest.
In lieu of yet another tragic mass shooting, this time at a gay night club in Orlando, it's time for me to yet again give me thoughts on another tragedy.
There is so much blame to go around. The shooter, obviously, first and foremost. ISIS, who apparently radicalized him and inspired him via the internet, is probably a close second. Homophobia is right up there. Guns themselves certainly have a place. This particular mass shooting, the worst one in America's dubious history of them, is probably a despicable concoction of domestic terrorism with foreign terrorist roots with a side of hate crime and potentially a mental health disorder as well.
All of these elements are worth analyzing, addressing and eliminating. Yet one of those elements to our country's gun violence epidemic is met with a collective shoulder shrug : guns themselves. It's painful to feel compelled to point out that guns are a huge part of the gun violence issue, but we've reached this point.
America makes up little less than 5% of the world's population but owns 31% of all of its mass shootings since the 1960s. We're a first world country with a third world crisis on steroids. But there never seems to be enough political will to tackle the gun portion of the gun violence issue. It's mind boggling.
How dismissive large segments of the population are to this issue is very much a cause of these tragedies. There's no panacea, but people dealing in the reality of the situation and mobilizing the political will to reform gun laws is absolutely a crucial step in curing this national health crisis and not being the best of the worst on this issue.
This is far from a cry to ban all guns and to rescind the 2nd Amendment. I do believe the Constitution guarantees the rights of individuals to own arms. I get the desire to own a firearm in order to help protect your family. (Though a midsize dog is a far better deterrent.) I also embrace the recreational activity of practicing one's marksmanship and hunting animals, especially when population control for the own animal's sake is necessary.
When i was six, I asked my parents for my own gun. They got me a BB gun and my dad spent a whole week training me on how to use it and how to respect it. He instilled in me a belief my BB Gun was no different that a AR-15. I treated it as such. I never shot towards a house or aimed my gun at a person. Why? It wasn't a toy. It was a weapon.
And that has been lost on people. While they can be used for sport and fun they're primary design, their origins are to kill people with ease. Period. End of story.
We let people own drones, but we don't let civilians own drones with hell-fire missiles and other military grade hardware attached to them. Yet we let people own de facto military grade weapons of war that can kill masses of people with ease. Can't we logically accept that civilians shouldn't own military grade drones and weapons?
The AR-15 is not all that different from an M4, what they issued to me to protect myself from the Taliban. To put it more bluntly, they gave me a slightly more jacked up AR-15 to kill the enemy. And the same gun fell into the hands of a known wife beating homophobic ISIS sympathizer. AR-15 and other powerful semi automatic weapons have also fallen into the hands of hateful racists, the deranged and domestic and foreign terrorists.
We're a country awash in private gun ownership and rarely do they protect the population from others with private guns. In a country of 300 million people and probably even more privately, legally owned guns, there's only 260 or so justifiable homicides a year. Thank goodness those people had their guns and protected themselves and loved ones from harm, but if the bad guys didn't have such easy access to those guns would the justifiable homicides have even been necessary in the first place? Oh, and about 11,200 gun homicides happen every year. Basic arithmetic and such.
I've heard a lot of people say that if people in that Orlando gay nightclub were packing heat that shooter wouldn't have killed nearly as many people. Let's just ignore how concerning it is some people feel compelled to have a gun on them at all times just to feel safe. Instead focus on the victim blaming. It's the exact same inexcusable action of blaming a rape victim. "Well, how much did she have to drink?" "Well, she was asking for it by what she was wearing." "Well, if he was wearing his holster maybe he wouldn't be dead right now."
America, I love you, but you've really let me, millions of others and, most of all, 50 precious Orlando lives down. It's not to say you're guilty. It is is to say you/we bare much of the responsibility. Drop the victim blaming, or saying it's a lack of prayer in schools, or that it's just foreign terrorism. Let's just collectively act like adults and admit it: semi-automatic rifles are far too powerful to be left in the hands of a civilian population that has a small minority of whack jobs and evil souls who do a large amount of damage with them. We're not safer because of them. Quite clearly the opposite is, and has been, true.
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
There's Nothing to Fear Except ...
I just don't feel it, but I sure as hell see it. So many Americans seem to be living in a perpetual state of fear.
That's not to say we don't have issues worth being concerned about. Wages are stagnant and plenty still financially struggle, ISIS is the epitome of evil and our election season has been a circus at best and exceedingly divisive at worst.
But to only dwell in the fear of all of this to completely ignore that the economy and jobs market has been trending upward for the better part of seven years now, our military and intelligence community have become very adept at fighting Islamic Extremism and politics are always murky, especially in an election year.
Yet so many people latch on to this irrational fear, viewing things as much worse than they truly are. Why is that? Where does it come from? Who is at fault?
I think people who've fallen victim to the fear aren't necessarily victims at all. They live in the most powerful and rich country in the world and many of these fear fans live a life of privilege by any objective measurement. Most Americans have an inherent advantage over the vast population of the world yet so many act as if the end is nigh.
While there are trials and issues worth tackling, it's worth noting that throughout the whole of human history charlatans have used fear to further their own agenda, often their own rise to power. Remember, every time a citizen buys into the fear, someone is getting a little closer to achieving exactly what they want.
Don't believe me?
Let's look at the media. Tell me, when was the last time you saw headline or heard a news anchors say, "Everything was fine today." It doesn't happen. It never will because it never sells. A mantra in journalism is "If it bleeds, it leads." Sure, much of that is human nature. We have predisposition to rubbernecking on highways as we pass the scenes of horrific car accidents. If a train was about to hit a stalled-out car on the tracks, would you look away? I know I wouldn't.
Quite frankly, we're just as much informed by violent events as were are entertained by them. It's exciting, borderline addictive. A news junkie, like myself, can easily be a violence junkie as well. ISIS blows up a Brussels airport, a concert hall in Paris or a convention in Southern California and our eyes our glued to the TV. It's not enough to know the essentials what happened. No, we crave every gruesome,gory eyewitness detail we can get our hands on.
And as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow, someone with a message of fear swoops in and tells you that the odds of such acts of violence, terrorist or otherwise, are increasingly likely to happen to you -- that is, unless you elect them, of course. They'll never mention how for the past 15 years our intelligence community and military evolved from a Cold-War build and mindset into one custom made to tackle Islamo Fascism.
Are the defenses full proof? Obviously not. But why talk up how much better we've become at tackling this threat when one can portray Armageddon to get a few more votes?
Ahh, but the fear and false prophets don't just use the fear of terrorism to advance their aims. No, anyone different from the majority can be labeled as a liability on a good day and an existential threat on another. Mexico is only sending us their rapists and murderers. Most or all Muslims want to destroy us. Blacks only want to shoot each other and hate all cops.
I obviously don't endorse these sentiments, That doesn't mean they don't litter my Facebook feed on a nearly daily basis.
I'm pretty sure the Mexican landscaper with a wife and three kids and no criminal history other than sneaking into a country to give said family a better way of life is far from a rapist and murderer. I'd think that if all 1.6-billion Muslims, a quarter of the world's population, wanted to destroy America we would have a lot more than ISIS to worry about. I know not all blacks hate cops, seeing how there are black cops and all ...
Fear is a natural human condition. Try getting shot at and not feeling fear. It's not going to happen. The important thing is to overcome fear, not succumb to it. Yet so many of us choose to. In doing so, we surrender our objectivity and rationality. I'd even go so far as to argue we forgo much of our morality as well, caving into the darker, tribal corners of our nature.
Ultimately what I'm here to tell you is that while it's not all good, it's certainly not all bad. In 2008, many of the cynics said Western Civilization would cease to be in a few years, but here we stand. Beware the false prophets that wear suits, wave holy books or wear tinfoil hats. (At least the guy in the tinfoil hat is sincere in wanting to help you.) False prophets' predictions only come true when enough people succumb to the fear and self-fulfill them.
When you see anyone in positions of or currently pursuing power in any and all of its forms producing, promoting and perpetuating fear, don't fear their claims. Fear the fear mongers.
That's not to say we don't have issues worth being concerned about. Wages are stagnant and plenty still financially struggle, ISIS is the epitome of evil and our election season has been a circus at best and exceedingly divisive at worst.
But to only dwell in the fear of all of this to completely ignore that the economy and jobs market has been trending upward for the better part of seven years now, our military and intelligence community have become very adept at fighting Islamic Extremism and politics are always murky, especially in an election year.
Yet so many people latch on to this irrational fear, viewing things as much worse than they truly are. Why is that? Where does it come from? Who is at fault?
I think people who've fallen victim to the fear aren't necessarily victims at all. They live in the most powerful and rich country in the world and many of these fear fans live a life of privilege by any objective measurement. Most Americans have an inherent advantage over the vast population of the world yet so many act as if the end is nigh.
While there are trials and issues worth tackling, it's worth noting that throughout the whole of human history charlatans have used fear to further their own agenda, often their own rise to power. Remember, every time a citizen buys into the fear, someone is getting a little closer to achieving exactly what they want.
Don't believe me?
Let's look at the media. Tell me, when was the last time you saw headline or heard a news anchors say, "Everything was fine today." It doesn't happen. It never will because it never sells. A mantra in journalism is "If it bleeds, it leads." Sure, much of that is human nature. We have predisposition to rubbernecking on highways as we pass the scenes of horrific car accidents. If a train was about to hit a stalled-out car on the tracks, would you look away? I know I wouldn't.
Quite frankly, we're just as much informed by violent events as were are entertained by them. It's exciting, borderline addictive. A news junkie, like myself, can easily be a violence junkie as well. ISIS blows up a Brussels airport, a concert hall in Paris or a convention in Southern California and our eyes our glued to the TV. It's not enough to know the essentials what happened. No, we crave every gruesome,gory eyewitness detail we can get our hands on.
And as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow, someone with a message of fear swoops in and tells you that the odds of such acts of violence, terrorist or otherwise, are increasingly likely to happen to you -- that is, unless you elect them, of course. They'll never mention how for the past 15 years our intelligence community and military evolved from a Cold-War build and mindset into one custom made to tackle Islamo Fascism.
Are the defenses full proof? Obviously not. But why talk up how much better we've become at tackling this threat when one can portray Armageddon to get a few more votes?
Ahh, but the fear and false prophets don't just use the fear of terrorism to advance their aims. No, anyone different from the majority can be labeled as a liability on a good day and an existential threat on another. Mexico is only sending us their rapists and murderers. Most or all Muslims want to destroy us. Blacks only want to shoot each other and hate all cops.
I obviously don't endorse these sentiments, That doesn't mean they don't litter my Facebook feed on a nearly daily basis.
I'm pretty sure the Mexican landscaper with a wife and three kids and no criminal history other than sneaking into a country to give said family a better way of life is far from a rapist and murderer. I'd think that if all 1.6-billion Muslims, a quarter of the world's population, wanted to destroy America we would have a lot more than ISIS to worry about. I know not all blacks hate cops, seeing how there are black cops and all ...
Fear is a natural human condition. Try getting shot at and not feeling fear. It's not going to happen. The important thing is to overcome fear, not succumb to it. Yet so many of us choose to. In doing so, we surrender our objectivity and rationality. I'd even go so far as to argue we forgo much of our morality as well, caving into the darker, tribal corners of our nature.
Ultimately what I'm here to tell you is that while it's not all good, it's certainly not all bad. In 2008, many of the cynics said Western Civilization would cease to be in a few years, but here we stand. Beware the false prophets that wear suits, wave holy books or wear tinfoil hats. (At least the guy in the tinfoil hat is sincere in wanting to help you.) False prophets' predictions only come true when enough people succumb to the fear and self-fulfill them.
When you see anyone in positions of or currently pursuing power in any and all of its forms producing, promoting and perpetuating fear, don't fear their claims. Fear the fear mongers.
Saturday, January 16, 2016
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