"[Once we clue into the fact that life is finite, the thought of losing it shouldn't] scare us anymore. The end comes no matter what. What matters is how you want to go out: on your feet or on your knees." - quote revised from The Kingdom.
I hadn't watched this movie in about 7 months when I put it in a few nights ago. We know someone who lost her husband in Afghanistan last September. I absentmindedly put it in in October, with out thinking and couldn't finish more then 10 minutes of it. It hit home too closely for comfort having known quite a few people who are in the Middle East working, or, rather more specifically, knowing some one who was Killed In Action. Its a harsh reality when you basically ignored the fact that there was a war over there in the first place.
Its not that I am ignorant to that fact, its just that as Americans, many of us have created a bubble around ourselves. That bubble is too encompassing and it allows us a false sense of protection and infallibility. That we are indestructible, invincible, all powerful.
On the morning of September, 11, 2001, this bubble was burst. This was a scary day for all of us. Personally, I was sitting in my living room, watching the morning news as I tied my shoes. I specifically remember feeling in a daze, as I watched the 2nd plane hit on live television. Not many people in my school, (as I was a sophomore in high school,) really understood the seriousness of the situation. I knew it was a big deal, but, I was naive to the reality of it all. It was surreal. It didn't seem real to me. I just went about my day as if nothing happened, even though not one of my classes did anything that day but watch television. Across the nation, I know millions of others were doing the same as they went about their daily routines, pausing in banks, post offices, in stores, in their cars as they watched and listened to the days events, floating along in a fog; was this really happening?
Please don't think that this is a anti or pro war blog. Its not. Granted, I am anti war for the simple fact that I hate that people have to die because of their countries government, however, this is not a blog about war at all. It is about us as Americans and how and why we act to the rest of the world.
Most every other society in the world thinks we are all big fat idiots. Its the plain truth. At least those with the freedom to think, say and feel the way they want to do. Others still are programmed to think that we are the big Evil in the world; or rather that Westernization is, but most of the time, that means America.... Am I wrong?
As Americans, we seem to think we have some sort of superiority to the rest of the world. Why? Because we run a democracy? Because our homes are bigger? Because we are allowed to vote and are not persecuted for which way we vote? Does this make us better human beings? Does it keep us from the same corruption and depravity of other countries? The answer is a simple: No.
We are the youngest nation. Throughout history, there were new and powerful empires that thought they had the right to rule over the rest of the world, and each and every one of them crumbled. As Americans, it seems that we are in that exact position right now. Our economy is shot and has been that way for a long, long time now. People have been crying out against the government more than ever. Have we begun to be brought to our knees?
As ironic as it was, watching the movie "Team America: World Police" was pretty spot on for the way it defined us as thinking we were the Worlds police. It seems that every problem out there, we rush to help. Whether or not we are needed, or wanted. I want world peace as much as the next human being, but who says it is Americas place to enforce it?
I think that the answer lies more in society than it does in our government.
Well, I am off to study up and inform myself so I don't sound so ignorant. Wish me luck!
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