Thursday, February 23, 2012

No Knee-jerk Reaction


Y’all know I don’t ‘do’ politics on this blog.  That said, this morning’s local news reported a young Oklahoma warrior killed in Afghanistan.  National news reported riots in that same country, retaliation over the burning of the Koran by NATO troops.
So, to me, sitting on my comfy couch sipping Sumatran coffee in sunny Arkansas, it looks like somebody did something disrespectful and, frankly, stupid.  Out of their own anger, maybe, or frustration, or hatred, who knows?  An individual or group of individuals burned a book that is holy to hundreds of thousands of people.
This disrespect triggered anger, hatred, frustration on the other side and people have died.  Not old men sitting in high towers, counting their coins or seeking justification for their power in heavy, well-used books, not the folks that start wars.  No, no.  Those kind of people are not dying.
The ones bleeding out on the streets of Afghanistan are young people with their lives ahead of them.  Children trained as warriors to march under a flag, young men and women doing their best to promote justice and good.  
On both sides, under both flags.
For me, safe and sound for now in my own home, there seems no way to break this God awful cycle of hate.  Except, maybe . . .
What if one by one, in our own sphere of influence as the warmongers say, we respect the ideas and opinions and beliefs of others?  What if we stop our knee-jerk reaction to any view or belief different from our own and actually LISTEN.  What if we stop labeling as evil every single thing we don’t understand and do our very best to HEAR what’s being offered?
That would be something, wouldn’t it?
For the love of God and all that’s holy, today would be a good day to start.


 http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_11?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=redneck+goddess&sprefix=redneck+god%2Cstripbooks%2C280

2 comments:

  1. I was speaking of the same thing with a friend of mine yesterday. How stupid all this fighting and war is and how so many have died because of actions of a few. I wonder if man will ever reach a point where war is no more? Where the power of the all-mighty buck yields to universal love and acceptance. Doubt in my lifetime, but hopefully one day. Until then the only cure for this insanity is just what you propose; one person at a time listening and hearing one person at a time. Guess the next time I feel like ripping someone a new one, I should stop and practice what I preach.

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