Tag: war

Posted on by — Leave a comment

hope rises with the sun

The world is a hot mess right now, and I have to admit that it is eating up a lot of my brain power and making me want to just hide in my safe little sanctuary until it sorts itself out. We’re still dealing with a pandemic, we’ve got monkeypox on the rise, new cases of polio (which we thought we had irradiated), some new virus in China…we’ve got war in Ukraine, a former president who appears to have committed even more crime than we thought, his supporters taking guns to the FBI and calling for civil war (let alone just plain murder of agents). We’ve got Israel pounding Palestine, civilians being killed the world over, continuing gun violence here in the US and a congress who seems to have forgotten they’re supposed to work for us.

It’s a lot, and some days it’s more than I can wrap my head around. Other days, I’m wallowing in it, which isn’t good for anyone.

Still, there is beauty and kindness in this world, we just have to dig a little deeper to find it these days. The sun still rises, the rain still falls (though most of the world really needs more of that), the flowers still open up and people still do good things for one another.

And when you can’t find that kindness around you, the best way to look for it is to be that kindness. It doesn’t have to be a big gesture or cost you a fortune. It can just be the little things, the smile for a stranger, a kind word to someone you pass in the street or stand behind in line. It can be the cup of coffee you bring a coworker who is having a hard time, or the lunch tab you pick up for a friend.

Hope rises above despair, but it needs our help. Find a moment today to hope for something. Bring kindness into the world.

Happy Sunday, Readers. May it bring you peace.

Photo by todd kent on Unsplash

By the way, have you picked up your copy of Thanátou yet?

Thanátou
Posted on by — 1 Comment

on war, religion, and faith

I am not a religious person. What I believe doesn’t fit into neat little boxes, or for that matter, a church pew. I am, however, a student of religion because religion shapes our world.

Notice I say religion, not faith. The two can be mutually exclusive. Religion seeks to subjugate, control. Faith is freedom, or it can be. I guess it depends on where you put your faith.

Today, three of the biggest religions are celebrating holy days. I know people of all three religions, all three faiths. They live their faith daily. It is part of who they are and their faith is beautiful. Their religions? Not so much, in my opinion.

Why is that? I think it’s because faith is an individual thing. It lives in a person’s heart. Religion, on the other hand, is a man-made expression of what a group of men said they believed thousands of years ago, modified and codified and made rigid by human beings who maybe started with the best of intentions, then discovered the money and power available to them through the enforcing of said religion.

I don’t begrudge anyone their faith. Believe what is in your heart to believe. I have no desire to stop you.

So, where does the war part come in?

It’s no secret that religion has been used to justify war for centuries and it continues today. Right here in the US there is a concerted religious war on LGBTQ+ folks, on a woman’s right to control her body and on critical thinking. Around the world, religious groups attack other religious groups as they have done since the beginning of time.

And perhaps most jarring to me at this moment in time is the time and money that will be spent in religious celebration while men, women, and children are under siege by a megalomaniac. Not that I expect us all to sit and wring our hands all day every day over what is happening in Ukraine, not at all.

However, it might be nice if those religious leaders would stop praising the megalomaniac, and lead their congregations in support of those fleeing the violence.

Happy Easter/Passover/Ramadan, if you celebrate, Readers. Please keep Ukraine in your thoughts and remember that Kindness Matters.

Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash

Posted on by — Leave a comment

a reminder that freedom isn’t free

In the last two years, we’ve heard a lot of people yelling about their freedom and comparing masks and vaccines to nazi Germany. This week, we have had a glaring example of how absurd that actually is.

While the US and Canada are mired under protests about mandates designed to protect the public health, Ukrainians have had to step up to fight for their actual freedom…the freedom to live under their democratically elected government. They have been forced to flee or take up arms against a country so much larger than their own who seems intent on annihilating them.

I see people in the US declaring that this is why we need AK rifles to be available to everyone, completely missing the fact that a) we aren’t at war and b) we are not imminently under the threat of invasion. The Ukrainian government armed its people to defend themselves against Russia.

Automatic weapons have no place outside of war. They have no purpose other than to kill.

We are watching a nation stand up and fight back under nearly hopeless odds. The ingenuity and strength of the Ukrainian people are an inspiration. And still, here at home, we have people whining that being told to put a piece of cloth over their face to protect others is a violation of their “freedom”…and many of them are the same people who are saying that they would defend their neighbors with their guns if the need arose.

And they can not see the irony there.

Freedom isn’t free. It is predicated on a number of principles, including the idea that we must protect our citizens, even from ourselves, especially in a time of crisis.

I hear that the Ukrainians are open to volunteer militias coming to aid them. Maybe some of our right-wing militias should head over, prove they’re actually willing to do the work of defending the freedom that they keep declaring. But, if you’re going, make sure you’re not carrying a deadly virus with you so you don’t kill those you are there to defend.

Meanwhile, I’ll keep my mask on in public to protect those here at home from the same.

I hope your Sunday is filled with kindness and joy, dearest Readers, and that peace comes sooner, rather than later.

Photo by Eugene on Unsplash

Posted on by — Leave a comment

bullies are not welcome

I had planned to write a blog post this morning about settling in to the new routine in the new house, but with all that is happening on the global stage, that seems a bit frivolous. Sure, my day-to-day existence continues onward, as the epicenter of the current global crisis is far away and currently will little impact that routine.

But it is sobering to see the destruction that modern weapons of war are capable of when waged against a democratic country mostly at peace, especially with tensions so high here at home in a US divided along idealogic and political divides that grow deeper each year.

Honestly, I had expected a second civil war here at home before I’d anticipated the start of what could become WWIII. Maybe that was naive of me, or merely typically US-focused. We do have an issue seeing beyond our own borders at times, and I am as guilty of that as anyone, particularly now.

I’ve always been a fan of dystopian, post-WWIII stories, but I have no desire to actually live in such a story. I’m torn in my thinking regarding the US response. I believe on one hand that we must show a strong, united front in support of Ukraine as our ally, but I have no desire to commit our troops to engagement, particularly after we finally withdrew from Afghanistan.

I’m not sure how well sanctions will work against someone like Putin, who does not care one tiny iota about the Russian people and will likely let them freeze and starve while he throws his temper tantrum over a country that fought to cut itself free of the Soviet Union in the first place.

I am also strongly anti-bully, and Putin here is exactly that. He’s a bully on the global stage and he’s throwing the full weight of the Russian military at a smaller country simply because he can. I don’t have any answers here, I’ll leave that in the hands of our elected and military officials who have much deeper knowledge than I do on the subject.

I have a candle lit on my altar today for the people of Ukraine. May the gods protect them. And you, Readers.

Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash

Posted on by — Leave a comment

an act of treason

July 4th is a celebration of an act of treason. An act of dissent. The original event, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was only one such act. The colonies had already been at war with their sovereign for some time. They had already convened a Continental Congress once to bring the colonies together and lay down plans for governance and to bring grievances from the colonies to the ear of the king, among other things.

The second congress was convened and from that congress came the Declaration of Independence, essentially a written FU to the king. These Americans were fed up, done with being the king’s dogs. So they rioted.

They started a damn war. They felt cornered, like they had no choice.

Sound familiar?

Sound like anything going on in our country today?

I keep hearing people saying that the Black Lives Matter movement is not going to get the changes they want unless they are “polite” and “protest the right way”…whatever that way is. But that isn’t how the world actually gets changed. We’ve spent two hundred years treating black and brown people far, far worse than old King George treated the colonies.

You think they don’t deserve to rise up and make their own declaration? You think they don’t have reason to destroy the property of the overlords? Is it going to take a war? A revolution?

Think that’s unAmerican? Think that’s treasonous? They aren’t even looking to create their own country, they just want to be treated like people, equal to and considered the same as white folks, by white folks.

That kind of treason is where we come from. An act of treason should not be necessary, a war should not be necessary, for us to recognize the problem inherent in our history and our present so that we can forge a better future.

And those are my thinky thoughts on this July 3rd. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness“

All men are created equal and entitled to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. All men. All.

And on that note, I shall leave you and head out to the living room to start work on Job #2. Have a nice long weekend, Readers. And contemplate the rights which are unalienable.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

november 11

I’m a big fan of remembering our past to keep us from repeating our mistakes, and the keeping of armistice day is particularly important to my mind.  When we look back at human history and the loss of human life that came from both World Wars, and war in general, it’s hard to comprehend any justification sufficient enough to bring us to the brink of such violence again.

And yet, I look at the world around me and it saddens me to see how close we are today to a violent clashing between world powers, and how much destruction it could bring us today.  As a species we seem to have excelled in the technology to destroy ourselves, perfected it in a manner of speaking.  Today we have the power to end life on this earth over the minor, trifling disputes that seem all together important, important enough to demonize and otherize those not like us, those who believe differently or look different or whatever reason we might give.

Even just within the country I call home, I have never in my life seen us so divided, so willing to level blame and accusations without consideration, even without fact in many cases.  Our technology allows us to spread lies as if they are truth in a heartbeat around the world.  It provides us glimpses of who people are when they are presenting their worst side, but never when their better selves are on display.

I sometimes feel as if war is inevitable now.  As if we are about to toss all of the lessons of years past, disregard the humanity of the “other side” and fall headlong into a bloody, terrible conflict that will not end until we have once again grown weary of the bloodshed.

But, sometimes, there is hope.  Sometimes someone reminds me that humanity is not yet lost.  Sometimes we put down our guns and our flags and our pride to remember what has gone before.

Now, if only we could vow to keep that peace beyond a single holiday.