Sometimes I am taken back by how life and reality unfolds. I honestly believe we are going backwards as a people, especially here in America. I'll run down examples as to why I feel this way.
Some Muslims want to build a mosque near where the Twin Towers stood, and there are people who are offended and want to block it for by any means. If a group wanted to build a church, synagogue, or temple there would be little said, but because some insane and sick radical Muslims were responsible for 911, it seems all Muslims are to be held accountable....
in Gainsville on September 11th some "Christians" intend to burn a copy of the Qur'an, but if someone wanted to burn the Torah or Bible or an American flag there would be a group against that.
Religious radicals who are against abortion seem to condone the murder of doctors who perform them, and feel it's okay to mislead and lie to or badger and harass women who seek abortions.
In Jacksonville, members of the city council made statements that showed prejudice against Muslims when a Muslim college professor was nominated to serve of the human rights commission. People turned out with hate speech at council meetings in droves.
In Texas conservatives have re-written history and science books with outright lies and mistruths and opinion and belief spouted as fact.
Republicans blame the Democrats for the economic nightmare they created and allowed, and Fox calls their propaganda program "news". Israel still steals lands from and abuses non-Jews, mainly Islamic arabs, and in China a news coal fired electric plant goes into service on a weekly basis.
"Conservatives" call the biggest advancement in fair healthcare "Obamacare" and vow to fight it as if it was a bad thing, and fight against removing tax cuts for the most wealthy of us, who got that way from deregulation of business and abuse of the economy, while the super-rich and many corporations were the first with their hands out demanding help when the economy tanked and crashed, and many of our tax dollars went to bonuses for the rich who failed everyone.
Global warming is real and we drag feet in going green, and oil pollutes much of the sea, and too many of our people are losing their jobs and homes, while unfairly traded goods from China and elsewhere come to our shores, stealing jobs and lives.
Rap and thrash are called "music" and the ignorant side of culture is promoted.
Elected officials get rid of restrictions and allow oil companies to police themselves and near destroy the Gulf of Mexico, while other spills appear as a blurb in the news, all this while the Bush Administration and republicans energy bill from five years ago allows energy companies to drill for gas with a system called fracing, which has ruined the drinking water of many people and many many sick, and polluted our waters with cancer causing agents, and all this while mountain tops are removed for coal, which also ruins our water supply, and all this while minor pollutants like trace chemicals and drugs ruin the waters as well...
Our schools hardly teach civics. We watch the religious right rise as enlightenment fades, and if you are homosexual you are expected to pay taxes and work but not allowed to marry, being treated no better than slaves were 150 years ago in that respect,
Insane radicals are running for office and few people seem left that really care about all of this. Everyone seems so wrapped up in their own problems that they don't or won't care about their fellow man, unless it is easy to do so, or there is a payoff.
If all of this wasn't enough, invasive species have displaced so many natural populations and development killed off so many habitats that we are in the throws of a planetary mass extinction, and are on the edge of doing that to ourselves as well....
Haiti, Rwanda, Kosovo, Congo, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, the drug wars in Mexico.
To me, the Tea Party is no different than Nazis were in early 30's Germany, and it all seems like too much to deal with, but to anyone of conscience there is little choice.
It is the intolerance of people that is a root of this, and it is that which must be fought with understanding and pity and a thirst for knowledge and truth. We sit on the verge of a new form of yet another dark age, and if the wonderful religions of the world were practiced rather than selectively preached we might just have hope.
