The Wisdom To Know The Difference

If you haven't seen it on my Twitter, I'm feeling more and more personally responsible for the Iraq war. I, like most Americans, was not opposed to the idea when it was presented 5 years ago. It was lumped in with the "War on Terror"; there wasn't much explanation as to why and WMD's weren't found, but all that was overlooked then. And as this war continues, the question of how the war will be inherited and how to deal with those responsible is starting to come up (well... at least in the media outlets that should be given attention). There is also much talk about Bush being tried for his abuse of power and crimes (hopefully with the rest of his cabinet as well) but to be direct we will inherit this war. Whether you believe in "We, as Americans" or not, the problems the war has caused does effect us all. Even if you opposed the war at the beginning, you're still paying $4 at the gas pump (if you drive, if not, you're paying it at the grocery store). I wish there was a way to separate those that didn't oppose the war and those that did, I can only raise my own hand, and that's about it. I foolishly thought the death of one man would save the lives of many more. I wanted Saddam out of power, by any means plausible, but after that was accomplished it should have ended. But it didn't, and trying to embody another man's judge/jury/executioner cost the lives of many American soldiers. And some think its worth it, but I don't... I feel guilty. I should've known the difference.

Thankfully, the task of the next president is to put an end to these crimes against humanity.

[image provided by: counterclockwise @ flickr]

***DISCLAIMER***|***DISCLAIMER***|***DISCLAIMER***
I apologize if I offend anyone with my preceding comments.
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Although somewhat unrelated, I want to share another train of thought that really isn't all that disconnected from the commentary above. It begins with a question...

Why aren't we all anti-war activist? Is the war something we really cannot change?

!!!Incoming!!!|!!!Incoming!!!|!!!Incoming!!!
Another post, at another date (probably July 4th) is about how we, as Americans, shape America. After all, America is a democracy, as much as some of you may want to deny it, and a democracy is shaped by its people. (That's gonna hurt, comrade.)

[image provided by: spider2544 on deviantART]

Sometimes I feel like the "The Serenity Prayer" breeds passivity. Because of this particular prayer, many people choose not do anything when things aren't quite right. I think there's a door of ambiguity that is opened that is easily overlooked. What if the prayer was read in reverse? Bottom up? Something like this:

God, grant me
The wisdom to know the difference
The courage to change the things I can
The serenity to accept the things I cannot change

If it were read like this, would you get a different message? Is it something along the lines of trying the "change" before accepting the "cannot change"? Do you know what I'm getting at, or is there a different door of ambiguity that must be resolved in another post?

The Italians got it right, why can't the Americans?

All year around there's some crazy-ass group of individuals designing outrageous pieces of wasted space. They're Architects, the majority of individuals in the profession are arrogant elitist, who have some agenda on how the world would be run. I would know. But every now again and again there's a little gem that shows up. You wanna talk about progress and sustainability, well someone needs to port this beautiful piece to the states.

Click Here for more info.

in all the wrong places...

Here's a series of events that aren't likely to happen:

Go to a cafe.
Introduce yourself.
Have a great conversation.
Setup a time and date for the next meeting.
and... spend the rest of your lives...

Today, in our overly technological society, our *brand new* dating forum is the internet. And thank God for that, who would ever want to meet some random person on the street—who knows who's out there, they might be a terrorist. So our society supposes it’s acceptable to post our personal information and hopes of finding true love on the internet (big business in that, as if it didn’t play a factor at all). Further more, some websites are dependent upon being the match maker, so we’ve completely removed ourselves from the process and we wonder why divorce is as high as it’s ever been. Now there’s news of people scamming others over romance, click here. It’s my intuition to say “you deserve what you get, b-tch” but that’s a bit harsh, but who’s really to blame: the scammer, the person naively trusting themselves over an Ethernet cable, or the company robbing you blind by promising love?

When classes are dismissed I’ll be working on something special, small social-science project. It’ll be a personal ad/essay entitled “looking for <3,”

Army Strong

I'm linking an article to this post. Here.

It's about Post-Traumatic Stress and the soldiers coming home. About 1 in 5 troops come back with visions of war that never leave them; when they close their eyes, they see the innocent burning or visions of their comrades blowing up. But the saddest part, only about half of them report every having them. There's a "toughen-up" mentality in the Army, "Army strong" means you can't have an personal problems or you're weak. Well when the soldiers that we have in Iraq start coming home, their families are going to really experience the hardest times. Someone should pen a script... maybe it should be me.

Update (04.22.2008)...
Dropping off another link. Here. The article is about using Stem Cells to regrow troops limbs when they come back from war. Some 250 million dollars, in conjunctions with universities, to further cover the cost of war. Food for thought: War wouldn't fly in a society that broad casted its ill effects.

Retrospect

I decided to video blog today, although I think I write (rather type) better, I need to work on not being so fearful of the camera.

Especially, when we'll have paparazzi around I think it's terribly more difficult to run. It'll be all good when they're friends, easier to market stuff too. "Clear the air", dispel rumors, clarify quotes or comments, that sorta case is where the paparazzi does better with you than against.

I could've just uploaded it directly, but YouTube is suppose to be about "Broadcast Yourself" right? Well, let's take this for spin.