Empathy and Humanity

What difference does it make?  That is the question I get asked from time to time about events that transpire in the USA and around the world.  My answer is, if I don't care, where is my humanity.  That was brought very much into focus when I read about the 63 year old man in New Mexico, Steven Eckert, who was pulled over by the police at a traffic stop.  He was then subjected to being anally probed 8 times in search of drugs.

My reply is that if we don't have empathy for those unfortunate people who have their legal and civil rights stripped away by an ever increasing police state, then it could happen to me and you.  That is the bottom (no pun intended) line.

Once the government knows that they can get away with murder, literally, then that is the end, as we know it.  How many other events transpire that go unreported?  Do you think that is just in recent times that police beat the crap out of suspects? No, its just we all have a camera on us now, and they are being recorded in record numbers.

How about the 72 year old women in Saint Simon's Georgia, who was thrown to the pavement so hard, you have heard her skull smashing on the road. That is horrible. It happened to someone I do not know, but it could be my Mom or Dad, or brother and sister.  If we do not say something, then it just go on, and before we know it, those fictional FEMA camps, will be our home.

I think that if the nameless people who work at the NSA had some empathy, all this mass surveillance would not have transpired in the first place.  If they thought about what they were doing, how they would not want it done to them, then all of what they do, would have above board, and legal.  I know, my idealism is showing again.  But, I believe that.  Edward Snowded has empathy, so mush so, he changed every facet of his life to let us know about it.

Just last week a wedding party in Yemen was erased from the face of the Earth.  There was no terrorist in the group.  How come there is not a national outrage about this?  Because the mainstream media don't care, shut up, go shopping. Disgraceful.  

As long as we allow these events to occur with no repercussions then we are all at risk for horrible crimes to happen to us, all in the name of security and safety, BULLSHIT.

Bad Intel - So Far Away.

It has been weighing on my mind for a while.  When I read about the wedding party in Yemen being erased from the face of the Earth in a second, I felt this inner anger and feeling of helplessness.

Do we as a people really understand what our actions are doing to innocent people, so far away?

How can we comprehend the anger that they feel? I can't.  I have tried to empathize with the people of not only Yemen, but of Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, that we do not know about because of those magic words that the Obama administration use so often to hid atrocities, "national security" in countries, so far away?

Is it because of national security that Obama hides the fact that thousands of innocent women and children are dead in countries so far away?

When we kill like this, we are creating a whole new batch of enemies.  Instead of trying to peacefully figure out the problems that plague the world, we just kill.  I am sick of it.  I didn't vote for this.  How can we tell the world that we don't want the never ending "war on terror" to continue?

You dear reader should ask yourself a very introspective question.  The answer you find just might surprise you.  Do you value the life of the people of Yemen less that american lives?  How about the over 1,000,000 innocent Iraqi people we killed all in the name of peace?

Do we think less of people because they live in mud shacks, ride donkeys to town, and go to the outhouse to relieve themselves?

It is not as easy to reach the answer as you might think.  In my younger days I have to admit the ignorance that enveloped me, and kept me from looking at the big picture.  Not anymore.

I want the people of world to know that not all Americans feel that killing is the right way to handle our differences.  What if trying to reason with people and empathizing with their struggles is not only the right way, but honorable way to reach an accord?

I dont know about you, but I am sick of seeing children, who have done nothing wrong, have their tiny bodies blown apart because of this bullshit never ending "war on terror."  How do you think their mothers feel?

We must think differently, we must empathize with those who we are killing.  Why are we killing them? Bad intelligence is the phrase and excuse we hear so often.  What if the people of Yemen had drones of their own, and all of a sudden bus loads of kids in the US were being killed?  Would we stand for their government falling back on "bad intel?" I don't think so. I could be wrong.

It all happens, So Far Away.

The following post here is being typed with much anger and a broken heart.  I just read the a drone strike killed 15 people in Yemen on their way to a wedding.  My heart is breaking, it hurts terribly reading this story.

Can you even in your worst nightmare even comprehend the human carnage that investigators are trying to figure out?  I bet you cannot, because you are so far away.

The likely drone pilot who ultimately pressed the fire button was a person in a small container like office, in Nevada, so far away.

The smell of cordite and death cannot be inhaled by the drone pilot because he or she is so far away.

President Obama will most likely give the standard line like "our hearts and prayers" are with the victims families, but he cannot hear them wail and cry, he is so far away.

We as a people cannot understand why Abdelah Haider Shaye is still rotting in a prison in Yemen.  Most people do not know that he is there because Obama called Yemen, and ordered him to be thrown in prison for reporting on our drone strike that wiped out a village of innocents in a land, so far away.

And that folks, is the crux of the problem.  We cannot understand how our actions are being viewed, how our actions are destroying families, how our killing of innocent women and children is changing the landscape in a country, so far away.

I am appalled.  I am angry.  I am sick of death and destruction all in the name of "security."  This is the biggest lie to be held out in front of us by the mainstream media in quite a while.  There will be a day, when those in power are held accountable for their despicable actions.  Whether by judges, or by God himself, they will answer for their war crimes committed in a land, so far away.