© Merle Harton, Jr. | About | XML/RSS
Wednesday, April 30, 2003
The real shock and awe in Iraq. It is one thing to enable a country to form democratic governance; it is another to create democracy by brutal force (which, I think, doesn?t really qualify as democracy). Until the Iraqis can figure outlike the rest of the Middle East, like comparable states in Africawhy they keep ending up with despotic tyrants, they will never succeed at growing their own brand of democracy. And we seem not to be able to give them that chance. Along with "democracy," we are also importing the very things that they abhor so much about the West: cheesy books, theatrical porn, satellite dishes, uncensored videos and CDs, liquor, and prostitutes. Can pork chops and bacon be too far behind? This is the best we can do? Really, wasn?t this decadent Western influence the very driving force behind Osama Bin Laden?s Al-Qaeda terrorist organization?
posted by Merle Harton Jr. |
12:10 AM |
Tuesday, April 29, 2003
Another AOL rant. Today I went to the PO Box in Herkimer to check my mail and found that I'd received still another AOL CD in a cool flat tin. I look around the small post office and see 3 cardboard racks filled with packaged CDs of AOL 8.0. The CDs are shrink-wrapped and not in the cool tins. I?ve seen the same AOL racks at the post office in New Hartford, so by induction these CDs are now in every post office in the US. I've even seen similar racks of free AOL 8.0 CDs at the supermarket, so things could get ugly. Maybe they'll be shipping these to Iraq next.
I believe the tins might actually be useful, so I'm starting to collect them. You can fit a small pita in themone of the mini pitas from Sahara®so that would be useful for carting around a snack. You couldn't stuff the pita with anything, so it really would have to be a small snack. But you can store about 5 CDs for archiving purposes, or a pocket-full of change. I gave my granddaughter Nyssa one for her crayons. If they can hold crayons, then you know they will hold paperclips, rubber bands, nails and screws, coupons, receiptsthe list goes on. I would rather put these AOL tins to use than have them stuffed in a landfill. I'm thinking about a use for the millions of AOL CDs now being offered to Americans around the nation. I don't think it's been a year yet since AOL finished handing out CD copies of version 7.0, and in another year we'll probably see AOL 8.1 (New Features! 2 Months FREE! Now Even More Exclamation Points!), so the rush is on to find a use for the AOL CD. In the old days they gave out 3.5 disks, and for several years I never had to buy any computer disks: I would just reuse an AOL disk and stick a new label on it. Now AOL wants to send us trash.
posted by Merle Harton Jr. |
11:46 PM |
Sunday, April 27, 2003
Patriotism trumps a moral wrong. My Christian friend Paul W., who coordinates the Christian Athletes group on campus, grabbed me in the hall on Friday and was lamenting the aftermath of the bombing in Iraqchildren with blown-off arms, hundreds disfigured or dead, other unmentionablesand all I could do was nod in bitter agreement and lament with him that our excursion into Iraq was a moral perversion. I didn't know what else to do or say. I think I'm beyond talking about it and can't seem to muster any more indignation at the Bush Administration's aggression. While it was happening, I felt like a participant in a Ionesco play: I didn't know whether I was an actor or a spectator; it was all of it a piece of surrealism. It's as if the mayor of the city has committed murder and mayhem and my neighbors all are going along with it. The shock and awe was a fireworks show! What can I say? Who do I say it to? Other Christians? Many of these have gone over to the side of the apostate church and, with the Bushites, are pushing onto the world a miserable blend of American-pseudoChristian-militarism. The world simply sees Christians behaving badly. The Americans in the apostate church see this all of this as a way of sharing our blessings with the world! Isn't that like being on Ted Kozinski's mailing list? Every gift we bring is a Trojan Horse.
And then there were the Dixie Chicks. They're on TV with Diane Sawyer and giving a kind of apology, but we aren't sure, and I was sad that they tried to apologize at all. Well, are they or aren't they ashamed that George W. Bush is from Texas? They were, but now they aren't? They were frustratedand now they're not? And there are still grumblings over Jennifer Aniston's comment (actually made in 2001) that President Bush is a "f--king idiot!" It's disrespectful, they say. I think that was the point. There are still murmurs over Michael Moore's remarks at the Academy Awards, and so on. And the argument continues to be that we should support our troops and support our President and support our nation, as we liberate a country from a despotic ruler and give them democracy (even if they really don't want it). Does this mean that it might have been wrong to embark on the operation, but once it got going we have to go along with it and show our unhesitating support for our military, for that is the patriotic thing to do? And so again I'm back to feeling surreal at the whole thing. Maybe this is like trying to get Christians to stop pushing Christmas as a shopping frenzy, or Easter as a time for giving kids Type II diabetes. I really do feel like an alien and stranger in this world, as Peter says in 1 Peter 2:11. As Christians, our citizenship is in heaven, but American Christians think that this citizenship must be an earthly oneas if the Lord's Supper were a kind of feast with barbequed pork ribs, hamburgers, hot dogs, beans, cold beer, and Coke. And to preserve this beautiful life, we must again water the tree of liberty with the blood of our patriots.
God can take all of our blessings away from us. That is my largest fear. But the fear is not for myself, but for my neighbors the Americans and the American Christians: Without these blessings, they have no life.
posted by Merle Harton Jr. |
11:37 PM |
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