- Mar 24, 2022
- 3 min read
"All beliefs are irrational and silly when you use logic to understand them."
Be the Change.
I am not winning any points this week on social media with patriots. Something about glorifying achievements made through war just never sits right with me. And it isn’t like I was not tempted to go down that path in my youth. Every high school boy is hounded by military recruiters to enlist after high school. They come to schools and peddle death. They are in the shopping malls to peddle death. Some of us even aspired to go to their elite academies of death. I know I did. I was enamored with joining the academy system. Thirteen years of government education and a lineage of enlistment does do that to a person. So, I get why this cycle is difficult to break.
BUT, I did break that cycle. I had my opportunity and I chose not to enlist. I also spent years as a government education employee believing by some ill-conceived notion that military enlistment might be the best solution for some folks to escape their situation. BUT, that is a fault in the system that we all need to fix. That children are choosing the opportunity to die in order to escape their situations is a major fault in the American system. That the only solution American society can offer is murder and violence as a solution only more deeply speaks to how much the system needs to go away and never return.
So, I get why I am not scoring any points with the patriots. They whole-heartedly buy into the system. The system that says if you work hard and follow the rules then you will make the American dream a reality. And frankly, that’s a bunch of bull shit to believe. That is the most preposterous thing to believe unless you are white. Then that makes perfect sense. No need to involve any more thought about government. Insert patriotic slogan, say your Magic Prayer, and salute your Sky Cloth. Thinking over.
BUT, if you aren’t white and the system is not set up for your success then you start to see some of the holes here. First, why is war still a thing? Second, why is the enlistment system targeting poor folks? Third, why are we bombing far away places to gain freedom? Fourth, how did freedoms get that far away from my home? Fifth, aren’t my freedoms more in jeopardy in Washington or any other state capital than in a desert or jungle across the sea? Sixth, why are schools promoting violence by allowing these folks in their doors? Seventh, would we let the mafia or drug cartels recruit in schools? And the list for me goes on and on . . . . Ad nauseam.
So, I get why I do not score points with patriots. They get so angry that I would deign to insinuate that enlistment is anything other than a dignified service, a benevolent spirit that bestows freedom upon the land the sun touches. Rather than it being an entitlement or welfare program that enlists the poor into fighting other poor people for the gain of private contractors that benefit off paying politicians overtly and covertly to advance their aims. How dare I insinuate that their child is off murdering brown people for corporate greed? How dare I ask that you not celebrate violence and murder? How dare I question the American dream? How dare I practice free speech that questions their narrative?
You see. Folks can melt and get angry despite the color of their snowflake. If your ideas don’t stand up to questioning and scrutiny, then are they really your ideas? Or did someone give those ideas to you? I don’t know. Believe what you like. Disagree or agree with me. Think what you think. BUT, at least think about why you believe what you believe? I have thought about it a lot. And I am pretty sure that a long time ago in a list the Most High gave a commandment not to murder. I tend to think that’s really a no brainer BUT the Almighty did have to spell it out to Israel and I think it still needs pointing out in America.
Have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you are looking for.