Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Why Run To Danger?
There is a roundabout where bravery, stupidity, idealism, skepticism and adventurism all come together. Take the wrong road off the circle and you can be dead quicker than your idealistic humanitarianism brain can process the thought “I think this was a really dumb idea.”
I have often looked into the faces of surfers when the surf was up and raging and then watched them charge into a 12 foot set with some stupid short board. That has nothing to do with bravery it is the zest for an adventurous adrenaline rush and if you don’t feel it, then stay planted in the soft sand because those drunk with enthusiasm are like real drunks just hard to break in half.
Yesterday I heard a story on NPR about a 73 year old American nun killed in the Amazon of Brazil while delivering a landownership contract to local farmers. She was stopping on an uphill trail, questioned, then rifles were pointed at her head, she read the bible in defense, and then two nasty nun shooting jungle cats shot her ass dead.
This morning I read of another aid worker in Afghanistan missing and presumed murdered. A 50 year old American aid worker for the “Asian Rural Life Foundation” was snagged from a village and disappeared because just because that’s what happens.
Perhaps the American government who loves to send green card workers home should refuse to send women into such dangerous places poking about with no protection in the name of what exactly? Human rights?
If FARC snags your ass in Bogotá or those Howler Monkeys in the jungles of the Philippines your ass is crab grass and no humanitarian expedition will come looking for you.
A nun on radio said “The church is built on the blood of martyrs” and I’m thinking “Before the cock crows thrice thee will deny me twice.”
A car gets hit in the roundabout and catches on fire. There are kids trapped in the backseat. You are safely drinking coffee on the sidewalk. Do you sprint towards the potential fireball of exploding sheet metal and rubber or do you call 911 and begin to pray? What is your humanitarian responsibility and are you brave enough to race into the fire?
What if the rear bumper has a sticker "Taliban on Tour!"
Freddogg
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The Republican Party has long claimed superiority in foreign policy. Understand that this depends on your definition of foreign policy and their policy reeks of imperialism. Refer back to the time of the Spanish American War by reading the article on page 38 of th New Yorker, Feb 25 issue, titled the "Water Cure", and see the level that the wealthy imperialists, in their need to expand their empires, are willing to abuse the Armed Forces of the United States. We see a repetition of that philosophy in Iraq and again the Commander in Chief uses troops to fulfill the imperial agenda of the wealthy while sacrificing the lives of the sons and daughters of the working and middle classes in the name of Democracy. The party of hypocrisy will stop at nothing to pursue their agenda of greed.
R. Malachy Ward
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R. Malachy Ward
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