As we prepare to send more arms & $$$ to Ukraine (which I support), it is interesting that we also widely condemn China for potentially providing the same support to Russia. I mean, sure, obviously, we disagree vehemently with what Russia is doing, to the point that we are near-ready to go to war over…
Tag: war
109) The bad guys behind The Bad Guy: Or, How the West started this War
The thing that I wish our media talked about more often, and that we discussed more openly amongst ourselves, is how our governments are complicit in causing things like this war against Ukraine. There is a history here, leading back to the oh-so-celebrated “End of the Cold War”, which I remember clearly as I neared…
108) War, Part 4: Solutions?
It seems to me that war stops only when one of two conditions are met. Neither of these conditions are very likely, or easy. They are definitely easy to critique, easy to dismiss. But the alternative, as we discussed previously, is more war in a world, bristling with weapons, poised on the brink of global…
107) War, Part 3: The 21st Century
Now, in the 21st century, we can’t afford this tragic spectacle of war and obedience to the power-seekers, anymore. The future cannot be determined by the despots. The stakes are just too damn high. I mean, they always were; the cost of human suffering is incalculable. But now, it’s incalculable to the power of incalculable.…
106) War, Part 2: Hate and Heroism
History can seem so clean and simple, when we look at it through the lens of the narrative we prefer. Usually, that narrative involves Us, our people, our nation, “people like us”, being the Good Guys, the reasonable ones, the honourable ones, prevailing over Them, “those people”, those non-allied nations, “people not like us”, being…
105) War, Part 1: Love
“Hey Mommy, Daddy, Grandpa, Grandma…..What did you do during the Great War?” Have you ever thought of how you will answer questions like that? Because your future will, if you are lucky, arrive, and you will have lived through whatever atrocities humankind inflicts on each other in the present days and coming years. And someday,…
71) Purpose — Part 3 — I hate you.
(Trigger Warning: all the triggers, seriously, don’t read this if you are not prepared to be upset.) If I met you on the street, or at a party, or in a class, or at a job, there is a very, very, very good chance that we would get along just fine. Or at least would…
17) The larks, still bravely singing
I don’t remember her name; I should pay more attention to details like that. But I remember her eyes. They were a brilliant blue, beautiful. Kind, and warm. I could have imagined falling in love looking into those eyes. We were sitting beside each other, randomly, at my kids’ Remembrance Day Concert. The woman had…
16) Murdering terrorism
Proposition: We (that is, all of us) stop using the words “terrorist” and “terrorism” altogether. Rationale: 1) It suggests some ideological legitimacy to acts of murder, framing them as “at least coming from SOME belief system and trying to accomplish SOME goal”. And then, when they are contrasted against other acts of murder, like the…