Friday, January 9, 2009

A Serious Start


Maybe it's just the turn of the tide.

Perhaps it's being through with 16 years of frivolity.

Or it could be our new Commander in Chief takes the job really, really seriously.

Whatever the cause, 2009 seems to be off to a serious start. There's no humor to be found in the horrific situation unfolding in Gaza, nor can we find much to laugh at in the absurdly high cost of additionaly taxpayer bailouts and deficits. While the Blago scandal gave me hope for hilarity in 2009, the joy quickly faded once I realized how little I cared about these narcissistic blowhards in relativity to the severity of the state of things.

I recently read a friend's Facebook status that said: "Free Palestine".

At first I tried to ignore it. Why even respond to such ignorance, I thought.

But as the day wore on; and as I kept coming back to Facebook (at least 75 times per day), the status remained and my bubbling frustration grew...

This was, after all, a Facebook status: meant to be read. Meant to be spread.

Why would someone post something about a situation so serious without offering serious thought? This is a serious year, after all.

I finally responded: "Where's Palestine?" To my knowledge, the sovereign nation of Palestine has not existed for sometime. I added "From what?" I suppose the implicit idea was that the Palestinians find themselves oppressed by Israel. Some people would certainly agree with that idea, but few would suggest that Israeli aggression is wholly unjustified in the face of constant terrorism. It seems the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict just can't be distilled in a single Facebook status. Who'd've thunk it?

Sorry, but I've had it with jingoism. "War on Terror", "Spreading Democracy", "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques"; I'm not sure any of these has done us any good.

And while they all fit comfortably into a Facebook status, I'm not sure how much they contribute to our serious start in 2009.


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