A year of seeing differently
Recently we were disturbed to hear a foreign journalist say something ugly about the United States of America.
The journalist said the U.S. is the dominant world power today, not because of its democratic ideology, or Judeo-Christian values, or noble intent, but only because it's still armed to the teeth with live atom bombs, and willing to use them, again, to get its way.
And that disturbed us.
Not because some foreign journalist had the gall to say it, but because as our crazy world spins toward 2007, it might possibly be true.
It has been said that despite our media-saturated culture, Americans are the most ill-informed people in the Western world. We see ourselves in light of our ideology and the rightness of our cause, but fail to grasp how our actions are experienced by others.
The same journalist who made the galling statements also said U.S. foreign policy has become, and I quote, "Accept our Democracy, or we will kill you."
Nearly six years after 9-11, the American people still are motivated by a desire to seek revenge, to right the wrongs, and so the War on Terror continues. American troops continue to wage war. Bombs continue kill and dismember our troops, who, as in Vietnam, have been put into what seems even to the most patriotic Americans as a quagmire.
On the eve of 2007, U.S. troops from Marion County are in harm's way. Like Vietnam, they can't tell who the enemy is. But worse than Vietnam, U.S. troops can't tell which of the locals are wrapped in explosives, or where the roadside bombs are buried today.
Meanwhile, mothers and fathers are on constant vigil: Days spent anxiously searching for military news on the Internet, nights spent unable to sleep without medicinal aid.
These are patriotic families, who are not apt to complain. After all, no one wants another 9-11, and to prevent it, our government says this is necessary.
We honor our war dead by glorifying their heroism, and by immortalizing their sacrifices. We hand triangle flags at gravesides, and plant white crosses in rows.
On the eve of 2007, we dare not consider what it might be like for the parents of the young men and women on the other side of the conflict. It would be heresy to think that terrorists have loved ones who care about them. Put a human face on these, these "demonic animals?"
Unthinkable!
Un-American!
It would be unpatriotic and dangerous to suggest that we stop to consider that an entire generation of men in the Middle East feel so alienated from the world; or that for every terrorist who blows themselves up today, another is growing up with their life goal to take his or her place tomorrow.
Disenfranchised from the future, ill-equipped to deal with the shock of sudden change, their current ideal of a life well-spent is to die, gloriously, in a self-inflicted plume of bloody eviscerate.
Later in the broadcast, the same Middle Eastern journalist who vilified the U.S. foreign policy admitted that his personal dream for his own children was for them to attend college in the U.S., and find jobs here, and raise their children, and his grandchildren, as Americans.
Prayerfully, 2007 will be the year when parents and politicians on both sides of the War on Terror will begin see each other differently, for the sake of all of our children, and our children's children as well.
Happy new year.
— GRANT OVERSTAKE
