I watched Pearl Harbor tonight. It really is one of my favorite movies. But I can't watch it over and over again. Not because of the gore or the violence, but because if I did it would lose meaning to me. The producers did a wonderful job, absolutely superb. Cole, I know you're reading this thinking it was just Titanic with planes and guns. To an extent it was. But the writer did his homework. The history nerd in me now understands the intricacies that played out. After tonight, I feel I owe it to myself, if not to him, to talk to my neighbor Don. Don fought in WWII. He's one of the few left alive. He lied about his age so he could fight. He was part of Normandy. Sometimes I wonder for what will our generation be remembered?
One of an historian's downfalls is history itself. To often we will become entangled in the past that we forget to look at the present and especially the future. We, meaning I, become embittered about the way our country is developing and sometimes long to return to when times seemed simpler. Then I remember that history repeats itself in spite of and because of us. This is why I want to be a teacher. Our schools put so much emphasis on tests rather than actual knowledge to the point that we abandon our pupils. Our society has become the epitome of hypocrisy when it comes to education. No child left behind my Aunt Fannie's spatula; more like every child left behind. I don't blame the teachers at all. I blame politicians rhetoric.
For the last few years, I have felt impeding doom. My heart has been burdened with the future of not only our nation but the world. I'm not talking a religious Apocolypse. I am speaking of the end of the world as we know it. Thank you REM, but I don't feel fine. We are fighting a war for what? Democracy? Yes we take pictures of the Iraqi people with their purple thumbs on the first free election day in I don't know how long, maybe ever, yet we openly oppose the person who was voted into office and replace him with someone who will be a yes man to Washington. Are we fighting because we were attacked? Yes, September 11th brought tragedy and devastation to our soil, but Saddam Hussein didn't send the suicide bombers. Saudi Arabia sells oil to our greedy nation then funnels our money to those that did attack us on 9/11. We are paying our soldiers to fight a product of our dependancies. If the American people are truly the wealthiest in the world, which if we're paying for both sides of the war then we are, why haven't we figured out how to raise the tide in our own nation? With all our money we still can't learn to help our neighbor. We can't figure out how to care for our own people.
The quote, "The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over expecting different results." is a fallacy. The Webster's definition of insanity is extreme folly or unreasonableness. Both apply to our times. We as people continuously oppress others and then revolt against that oppression. Both Hegel and Marx's Dialectical Models of History express that clearly. Life continues down a path until a spark occurs. That spark becomes a conflict and out of that conflict shines a new path. Like I said history repeats itself. Marx wrote that eventually Communism will become the new path, and all conflict will cease. How many sparks and conflicts must we encounter before we leave the capitalist dialectical and enter this communist utopia? War seems just as constant as life. The only differences from the beginning of time to now is the numbers. More people can be killed with the least amount of effort, right now more than any other time in history. The world witnessed that with the a-bombs in Japan. We, as people not nessecarily as Americans, kill more innocent people and call it collateral damage. We care not for the other individual, only for our own. One would think that after thousands upon millions of years we would have this figured out by now. Maybe we're not as intelligent as we think.
I still stand behind my vote for President Bush in 2004. He was the lesser of the two evils. However, I cannot stand blindly or even with 20/20 vision, behind his decisions now. 3,616 Americans have died, and 26,695 have been wounded. It is estimated that 655,000 Iraqi people have died, 70,000 of whom were civilians. In terms of numbers we have them beat. Our war has killed more people in the last 4 years than Saddam Hussein killed in his 25 year reign. Pride is a heavy load to carry through the gates of heaven, so are 755,000 lives. The government once used propaganda to embolden the people, hence my neighbor lying about his age. Now we the people stand divided aided by material goods we use to assuade and defend our apathy.
I am disappointed in my country. Two weeks ago I had my Fandango moment. I realized when we celebrated our Independance that I can't say I am proud to be an American. I won't forget the men who died to give me freedom, and I won't forget the administrations and Patriot Acts that have taken them away. I am honestly ashamed to call myself American.
This is why I want to go to Africa. I need to trust my government once again. I need to know that I can ignore apathy and take action to right the wrongs in the world, my home, without killing the innocent or guilty, or lying to, or greedily taking from my neighbors, friends, or family.
Others may call me naive.
I call myself broken.
