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The enemy of my enemy is...?
I'm not one for blogs, even the word just looks weird to me, but what I'm putting here just isn't a "poem" per se, more an AH ha! moment.
I've been blessed to have some thoughtful and intelligent conversations with many of you, and of course, there have been some little snickers here as well. I think we all know about them, they've been brought up enough. This isn't about them.
This is about a post which I wanted to prove wrong at first.
A post that got me thinking.
Jess posted a piece this week that I would call more political comment than poem, "America the Brave." In it he recollected about a 19 year old American boy he met in Ireland the day after the attacks on the Twin Towers and Pentagon.
He called those acts "the first minor steps of retributive justice." (Paraphrased)
And I thought "That kind of thinking just makes no sense, all it did, and will continue to do is embolden us... why would anyone think like that, it's stupid."
AH HA!
And holy shit, it dawned on me.
We've (America) fallen right into it:
"You killed my brother, so I'll kill you."
"And now since you've killed MY brother, I shall kill your sister."
"And since you killed my sister, I shall kill your neighbor."
"And by killing his neighbor, you killed my mother."
"His neighbor was my husband, so I shall kill your father."
...and so on and so on.
now I know, now I know horribly what I did not know before.
War solves nothing.
I remember chatting up a Palestinian girl once. She told me how she woke up every day, got dressed, and went to work.
Just like I do.
I remember chatting up a young Israeli soldier once. He told me how he woke up every day, got dressed, and went to work.
Just like I do.
Just like the Palestinian does. His mortal enemy.
My pastor once told me: "Patriotism is the rock behind which cowards hide."
I can tell you I love America.
The America I was taught about in grade school.
The America that spearheaded democracy around the world in the text books I read as a child.
The only thing is, with each passing day and person I meet
I wonder if that America ever existed.