specially selected news

I have friends all over the world.  I have friends who have traveled and shared their adventures with me.  And I have this strange thing about caring too much.

I’m getting incredibly fed up with my Facebook friends and their… lack of awareness to the outside world.  DOMA was struck down last week in the US, and there was much rejoicing.  I’m with those smiling for sure.  Do I think homosexuality is a sin?  Yes, I do but no more than lying or premarital sex or stealing or cheating.  And not everyone subscribes to my religion and its doctrines.  In this country, you can’t force people to follow religious laws.  The State and the church shall be separate.  So my beliefs, though I may accept them as Truth, cannot be enforced upon other people who do not believe in the same things.  Just like their beliefs cannot be enforced on me.  The days of fasting in the Islam tradition does not mean that every restaurant in the country must be shut down or that I will be jailed for breaking the Islamic law.  The dietary laws of Judaism concerning pork cannot be forced upon my palate and my life.  Its one of the amazing freedoms we have in this country.

We also have the freedom to disagree and argue and challenge our leaders.  We get a chance to overthrow the government at least every four years, if not every other year.  We may not like the current President, but we know he won’t be President forever.  We may not like a Supreme Court Justice, but his/her vote won’t be the only one in making decisions.  Is it perfect?  Of course not.  But we could be a lot worse off.  Beating homosexuals could be legal and sanctioned, even enforced by a government run by religious extremists.

I heard a radio interview recently with a young Egyptian woman who spoke about the current protests.  She was in her mid-twenties, and like many Egyptians, is frustrated with her government.  She said she’s lived her entire life in a country that does not treat her like she belongs.  The interviewer pressed her for what she meant, and she said it was because she was non-Islamic.  She constantly felt alone and abandoned, except for the time she spent in Tahrir last year.  While some gains were made last year, she feels that the leaders have not kept their promises and things have only gotten worse instead of better.  She feels silenced and ignored and marginalized by the government.  Something struck me as the interview wound down.  Her references to the Egyptian government were never possessive.  I so often hear in America how people feel abandoned by their government.  "My own government thinks I’m a second-class citizen."  Its a sentiment that is often heard through the streets of America.  But imagine feeling so marginalized, so ignored and beaten down that you can’t even call the government your own.  That you have no voice, no vote, no input.  The interviewer asked the young woman if she was afraid to return to Tahrir, afraid of violence or even death, especially seeing how the military and police were being deployed.  She said that she was afraid, but she needed to return to remember what it felt like to belong, to be accepted, to be a part of something that will bring about a better Egypt for all Egyptians.  In my head, echoed the cheer from Tahrir Square.  "Lift up your head, you are an Egyptian!"  I guess I never really understood that cheer until a whole year later, listening to this young woman talk about belonging.  "Lift up your head.  YOU are an Egyptian!"  But my Facebook feed is filled with DOMA and DADT haters and lovers, all too preoccupied to see how lucky that they can chant "I am an American" with assurance.

Another one of the things flooding my Facebook are the posts from my East Coast friends, who are complaining of the rain that never ends.  It makes me angry.  Nineteen heroes would be alive right now if a tenth of that rain was falling in Arizona.  It should be noted that these East Coast complainers are also not experiencing anything near the flooding that happened here earlier this year, or the flooding happening elsewhere along the coast.  They are just annoyed that their Fourth of July BBQs and fireworks and festivities might not be able to be outside.  Honestly, they make me want to bash my skull against a concrete wall.  How amazing, how lucky are we to live in a place where our government provides a "hot shot" team of firefighters to battle these blazes.  How amazing, how lucky are we to live in a country that allowed the debate and the court case and the discussions and protests and marches which has led up to DADT and DOMA being revoked.  It may be annoying that such a court case and debate was needed in the first place, but I’d rather the debate take place in the public arena than the decision made behind closed doors.

I’m not touting America as perfect.  The government spies on its own people, crossing lines and breaking promises.  I don’t think Snowden’s a hero, but I think he did the right thing.  He brought to light the egregious breaks in trust and fidelity that our government promises us.  The Patriot Act is an oxymoron and the system of checks and balances is greatly out of whack.  And I don’t think we should sit mindlessly by ignoring all these issues.  Debate, march, protest, sign petitions, push court cases – I’m all for those things.

But the apocalyptic tirades are sounding more and more like a two-year-old’s temper tantrum.  The world won’t end if it rains on the Fourth.  The world won’t end if married homosexuals are guaranteed the same rights as married heterosexuals.  The world won’t end if homosexual couple are not allowed to marry in Texas.  The world won’t end if couples of any gender are allowed to marry in New York.  The world won’t end if healthcare becomes just a little bit more socialized in this country.  The world won’t end if homosexuals serve in the armed forces.  The world won’t end if I don’t get my way.

But for nineteen men, the world did end.  For their families and loved ones, it completely crashed down around their ears leaving bits and pieces spread across the floor.  For those killed in Egypt in the protests, the world did end.  For those still protesting and those still hoping, the world is rocking beneath their feet and for some, the world is ending.

Megan and I talk about how our bar for "not okay" is set fairly high.  It takes a lot for us to be so completely rocked that we will say "We’re not okay."  Its not to say that things don’t bother or affect us.  But bad things don’t always mean that our world is ending.  She and I have little patience for those people who break a nail and completely fall apart.  Or don’t get a text immediately back from a boyfriend and are distraught for days.

I’m watching the news from Syria and Egypt and thanking my Lord that change in this country does not have to come at such a high cost.  And it makes me angry and sad when others cannot see what we have and only see what we don’t have.

We got a call to write a song about the war in the Gulf,
But we shouldn’t hurt anyone’s feelings.
So we tried, and gave up, cause there was no such song,
But the trying was very revealing:

What makes a person so poisonous righteous,
That they’d think less of anyone, who just disagrees?
She’s just a pacifist, he’s just a patriot.
If I said you were crazy, would you have to fight me?

Fighters for liberty,
Fighters for power,
Fighters for longer turns in the shower.

Don’t tell me I can’t fight ’cause I’ll punch out your lights
And history seems to agree
That I would fight you for me.

So we read, and we watched
All the specially selected news,
And we learned so much more about the good guys.

"Won’t you stand by the flag?"
Was the question unasked,
"Won’t you join in and fight with the allies?"

What could we say? We’re only 25 years old,
With 25 sweet summers, and hot fires in the cold.
This kind of life makes that violence unthinkable.
We’d like to play hockey, have kids and grow old.

Fighters for Texaco,
Fighters for power,
Fighters for longer turns in the shower.

Don’t tell me I can’t fight ’cause I’ll punch out your lights,
And history seems to agree
That I would fight you for me,
That us would fight them for we.

He’s just a peacenik,
And she’sjust a war-hawk.
That’s where the beach was,
That’s where the sea.

What could we say? We’re only 25 years old,
And history seems to agree that I would fight you for me,
That us would fight them for we.
Is that how it always will be? 

Gulf War Song ~ Moxy Fruvous