Posts
Just war is just.
"It is like writing history with Lightning."
Wilson worked hard to integrate new immigrants into the Democratic party, into the army, and into American life. For example the war bond campaigns were set up so that ethnic groups could boast how much money they gave. He demanded in return during the war that they repudiate any loyalty to the enemy, saying, "Any man who carries a hyphen about with him carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic whenever he gets ready."
Our nation must be re-born.
I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
W.B. Yeates.
****
War Crime?
3 comments:
Hi, sorry I havent read much of your blog so I dont know if you meant it as a joke, but if you really think Islam is evil and shouldn't be allowed to continue then that sort of outlook isn't really very conducive to getting along. It's reasonably similar to a fundamentalist Muslim's attitude that all westernisms are bad and therefore should be exterminated. I myself follow Islam and as far as I know I am not that evil, neither are most of my Muslim friends.
Cheers
Belal
hi belal I haven't seen any previous comments of yours so I don't know if you meant your comment above as a joke, but if you really think Islam isn't becoming synonymous with evil, and should be encouraged to continue as it is currently practiced in many parts of the world, then that outlook isn't very conducive to stopping the current wave of violence engulfing our world in the name of allah.
If you follow islam and have not been actively trying to change the direction your fellow practitioners are taking your religion, then I think it is open to debate, whether or not you might be evil, as well as your muslim friends. In my opinion it is absolutely open to debate, as to whether or not you are a "true" muslim. If you pick and choose which suras to agree with, are you the correct practitioner, or is mullah omar?
If I heard that the Pope was organizing stonings in Vatican City would I be expected to shrug my shoulders and say, "ehh, I'm not that kind of catholic".
If I heard that there was forced marriage of pre-teen girls in Salt Lake City's Temple could I be proud in shrugging my shoulders and saying "well I'm not that kind of Mormon."
If I heard that apostate members of the Church of England were going to be put to death in Westminster Abbey for having abandoned England's official religion, as the descendant of british immigrants would I sleep untroubled that night?
If I were muslim and saw, day in and day out, what was being done in the name of my peaceful religion, would I be right in being as smug as you are?
Do you really, truly, honestly, not see why good people, the world over, begin to feel it is not going to be possible for islam, as it increasingly being practiced, to co-exist with the modern world?
As for your point about muslim fundamentalism, I'll have to concede that part of the debate, as you would know far more about that than we would... glad to see you agree, at least, that it is a bad thing. That's one thing we have in common.
No joke about Islam, though you might have, (though you didn't,) pick uped up on the in-jokes as I dashed off the piece above: The first refers to D.W. Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation," primarily about the founding of the Ku Klux Klan in the southern states after the Civil War. I make what I thought was a nice comparison to the founding of the Republic of Ireland in Yeates poem "Easter, 1916."
The questions you might have asked follow along eht lines of the nature of civil government and society. What is a good government born of blood? Is The USA a bad place because of the KKK? Is Ireland a bad place because Yeates is a fascist? Is Irish nationalism a good thing in Ireland but a bad thing in the American south?
You could have asked some interesting questions, but you didn't, and I have nothing to contribute in response to what you did that Charles didn't do far better than I could have anyway.
Post a Comment