How long should injustice be tolerated? Should we condone or accept violence done to any human for any 'reason?' ...
exploringinside
J'C: "Injustice and violence cannot be tolerated. But frequently cannot be prevented. Nutjobs whether individuals or nations or political movements, will be nutjobs. Can you tolerate them? No. Can you do whatever you can to combat them in phone banks, internet movements, knocking on neighbor doors to gain support for opposing them. It is the only real choice you have short of grabbing an AK47 and becoming a nutjob."
Do you remeber Sidney Poitier's speech concerning racism and interracial marriage to his 'father' in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? [I paraphrase] 'It's going to take until your whole generation up and dies for the rest of us to be free of your prejudice.' I ask you....how many generations of Theists and Atheists must continue to live at arms length for fear of stirring up the ancient hatreds and inciting a violent outburst?...
exploringinside
J'C: "I don't remember Sidney's speech, I read the book. But bringing a person of color, a gay couple, a muslim in a chador to your church or bowling league will do more than combating those ancient hatreds with words, or that AK47."
Both sides must change their attitudes for there to arise a chance of 'co-existence.' That can only occur person-to-person, one pair at a time, outside the institutional doors that lock us into and out of human communion. Beliefnet Forums are not the answer, either; these Boards are all too often 'playpens for the bored.'
exploringinside
J'C: "Don't tell it to me. Tell it to the Shiites and the Sunnis. Tell it to the Israelis and the Palestinians. But it is no accident that China is blocking Google at the cost of its internet. And don't underestimate the power of the chat rooms and the blogs, even beliefnet. Just in the time I have been here I have seen several fundamentalist nutjobs become before our eyes more reasonable and better people. I know of several more who never posted even once. Yes we are in playpens, but as you and Fulghum know the playpen is where we learn to live."
2 comments:
Why is it that I believe you are correct and realistic in your responses but I still want to argue for the possibility of hope?
Palestine and Israel - I could not find the name of the HBO Documentary but I remember it vividly as it concerned the mothers of two young dead teenage girls; one girl was the Palestinian suicide bomber that blew up a bus and the other girl was one of the Israeli victims. Their mothers somehow got together and decided they should be friends and share their grief for their dead children. That they publicly shared their friendship and their grief was a powerful testament to the resilience of the human spirit under extremely difficult circumstances. Maybe this story is a little ray of Hope.
Thanks EI. Humans are basically good people even across ethnic and religious lines. It takes a religious nutjob usually a nutjob leader, note not God, to counter this human goodness and respect even for the "enemy." But one on one, even on the internet, or perhaps only on the internet is what will eventually break the nutjobs. It will take time maybe as Sydney Poitier said a whole generation, but I see the internet compressing the time frame considerably. Internet generations are measured in months, and maybe even weeks. So maybe there is hope for a quick resolution soon. I will bet the Israeli mom and the Palestinian mom hooked up first on the internet. I would love to see that first PM.
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