"And The World Looks Just The Same And History Ain't Changed"

It's been a weird morning. I woke up when my alarm first went off (for once in my life), and had every intention of falling right back to sleep and hitting the snooze button two or three or four times.

Then the power went out.

As in completely out. Everything in the apartment died. I don't know if it was just this building, or just this area of town, or what, but my entire apartment went dead quiet for about two or three minutes at 6.30 in the morning. It's still pitch black outside at that time of the day, so I wasn't quite sure how I was going to shower or anything like that.

Thankfully, the power came back on a few minutes later, and I went back to sleep until 7.30.

Anyway, that was only the first bizzare occurance of the day. About half an hour ago, as I was driving home from the bank (I'd gone to deposit the check Beth sent me to repay me for the furniture I bought her when we were in Florida last month), I was stopped behind a pickup truck. This truck had a hand-written sign in the back window that read "Pacifists are Parasites on Freedom."

Things like that really just depress me, in part because the person who posted this sign probably considers himself a good Christian. Now, I'm not saying I've read the Bible cover to cover or anything, but I've done some pretty extensive reading and studying of the book, and I got that minor in religion and philosphy at Ozarks, which means I took lots of religion courses. I don't recall anywhere Jesus saying something like, "Hey guys, verily I say unto you, go forth and smite all who look at thee cross-eyed, yea, and look down upon all those who disagree with you."

How can people actually think like that? It just boggles my mind. I mean, it's like the folks who can't comprehend how someone can be opposed to the war in Iraq but still support the troops. The idea seems pretty clear-cut to me. Supporting troops is supporting human life--you want the troops to survive the encounter and come back whole. The reason warhawks have trouble reconciling the idea of pacifists supporting troops but not the war is that they don't understand a pacifist's stance at all. People who are pacifistic do not want anyone to die or be killed. This includes the troops. Thus, we support the notion of the troops not dying--we support their right to live. If you look at it from that point of view, supporting troops but not the war is a totally valid philosophical stance.

Back to the sign, though--parasites on freedom? That's a bit harsh, I think. Okay, the previous phrase doesn't even begin to do my thoughts on the matter justice. It's ridiculous to say that just because my stance on fighting and war is different than yours, that I'm wrong, a parasite, or a Godless Commie Bastard. It's ludicrous, and it's the sort of tactic Bush's administration has been beating into people's heads for awhile now--believe and say as we do, or you are wrong. That sort of logic has never flown with me, and has never been a valid argument, and I'm not about to start believing it now.

Anyway, the sign annoyed me, because closed-minded thinking like that is directly related to the "My country, right or wrong" mentality. Automatically assuming your position is right without first consulting relavent facts is irresponsible. By the same token, assuming that your country is always in the right (when we have a history of doing stupid, selfish things just because we can and want to) is about the stupidest thing you could do.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: The Who, "Won't Get Fooled Again"