war is terrorism…
The days go by filled with the news reporting an alleged invasion of the United States. The reports illicit no fear. Americans go about their days assuring one another that it will never happen — as the sip their venti double shot frap — wars just aren’t fought in America.
Then, one day a fleet of planes flies low over DC, Chicago, New York, LA, Atlanta, Miami, Las Vegas; planes are landing everywhere, in open fields, airports, anywhere they can find a spot. More planes arrive strategically dropping bombs. Well, as strategically as a bomb drop can be, it’s not as accurate as many believe. Bombs land on schools, hospitals. Children are burned alive, the sick blown up.
The white house is in flames. National guardsmen and women are activated. Army bases are on alert, releasing their own arsenal of weapons and planes. Oops, another miss, more civilians dead.
Power outages plague the entire mainland. Vehicles are useless, there is no where to go. Americans congregate with the neighbors, shaking their heads in astonishment, cursing their cell phones for lack of service.
Weeks go by, children count gunshots at night as cannon fire fills the sky. The adults cannot access their money, the banks have all shut down. Riots have broken out everywhere. Your neighbor is shot by another for stealing vegetables from his garden. No money. No food. No escape.
Bridges collapse. Schools that haven’t had bombs dropped on them are closed indefinitely. The draft is reinstated.
There are no rules.
Another neighbor just died.
You have no idea how your family in another state is faring. You have no idea if you have any out-of state family left.
The Statue of Liberty’s torch is at the bottom of the Atlantic. Wildfires are taking over California, Arizona and Nevada.
Your child is sick, there are no antibiotics.
Your other child stepped on a live land mine and lost her legs. She can’t feel them or see them since her sight was taken as well.
Women and girls are raped in the streets. Males are shot for being male.
America can’t hide in her unlit, homes with empty pantries and no fresh water.
Perhaps if more Americans educated themselves about the devastating effects of war, they would not be so quick to retaliate with guns. The media and Washington do not have all the answers.
I truly hope we grow up before learning the harsh reality on American soil.
until next time…
Filed under: Political | 3 Comments
Tags: government, pacifism, politics, war
It’s like the the old saying, it’s better to get them before they get us. It’s absolutely sickening when you look at it from the other side of the fence. We Americans, however, prefer to look the other way and ignore the reality that others do face. We flip the channel when we see a bombing in the Middle East, we throw away letters from charitable organizations and just let a homeless man as for spare change; we are so far detached from the world around us and have allowed the material, fairy-tale-esque world called “America” shelter us from what our fate could be. But I can’t blame us for we could never relate. 9-11 was a wake-up call for America, but for other countries, this sort of thing happens all the time.
Great post.
Great post. Have you read The Kite Runner or A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini? The things you wrote about are things that actually happened in Afganistan from the 1970s through 2001, from the last days of the Afghan monarchy through the taliban reign and near present. The effects of war are devastating, and it astonished me to get that real, down-to-earth, inside glimpse of living not only in a war-torn country, but on a war-torn street … to hear the missiles day and night, bracing each time, wondering if you or your neighbor is the next to die. And you’re right … These things happen every day around the world. And we look the other way. We’re sheltered and naive, and we like it that way.
Well said Steph and chilling. We are so jaded here that we rarely, or never look at issues from the other perspective. We are all human and neither oceans nor country boundries should make us forget so easily. Keep blogging…it’s infectious in a great way!