It’s cold, grey, and yucky outside today, so I’m just going to blog on some stuff that I’ve had sitting in my chest for a few days…

Bad Attitudes
I was at a social gathering last week and someone made this remark: “9/11 was caused because we let too many foreigners into this country.” OK… this raised some red flags in me and though I was tempted to dopeslap him (and it literally took all my restraint not to), I managed to respond calmly. My response: “Actually, 9/11 was caused because of our attitudes toward other countries and the way our interaction with them has been negative at times.” Thankfully, someone then *quickly* changed the subject.

This happened over a week ago but it gets to me because there’s a bigoted, ignorant attitude in *some* (not all) of the people around here and I have to interact with enough of them in public to make me really cynical about the amount of nationalistic propaganda that we’re fed to make us think that the world actually likes us. Read Barbara Kingsolver people. Canada has much less strict immigration policies than we do and nobody hates them. They’re a free country and nobody has tried to blow up the CN Tower in Toronto. (If anyone says “they hate us because we’re free”, there will be much dopeslapping. Capeche?) I mean, when some troops were passing an Iraqi man, he called out, “Democracy! Whiskey! Sexy!” Do we *really* want to have the image in the world of being a place of vices? People had to be told *not* to send pr0n to U.S. troops (along with pork and propaganda) — what kind of image does that conjure in a culture (like Iraq) that is more reserved than ours?

I also come from a large city in California where quite a few of my classmates were… foreigners. There were times (especially in my honors and AP classes) where I was a very definite minority. I cannot imagine growing up in any other environment and know that I am blessed to have had Muslim, Buddhist, and Jewish friends while growing up. Having Persian food for Nawruz, Chinese food for the New Year, latkes on Channukah, and adoboh on various occasions gave me a love for different kind of ethnic foods and I lament the fact that there is no good Lebanese food around here. having people from different countries was indeed a blessing and was not the cause of 9/11.

The Fuss over Samaritan Purse’s Aid Involvement
I respect what Franklin Graham’s organization does — I’ve participated in “Operation Christmas Child” and my neighbor’s daughter has gone to Africa to give relief to some missionary doctors. However… I get leery when I hear them offering “spiritual aid” to the people of Iraq in addition to the much needed things like food, water, clothing, medical supplies, and other things. I would love if the nation of Iraq was to convert and follow Jesus — I mean, the Gospel needs to be spread. However… is this really the time to go in and actively tell people “you need Jesus”? Before I came to Christ as a 14 year old, it *REALLY* irritated me when people would come up to me and tell me that out of the blue. I mean, do those people (who would come up to me) really care about anything else other than the spiritual brownie points for “winning souls to Jesus”? Do they actually care about me as a person??? (Soul winning, by definition, is wrong because it implies that we have the power to change hearts. Last I checked, only God had that power.) There are other ways of witnessing that do not involve words. Friends of mine who came over to the U.S. as refugees became Christians because the doctors that healed them were Christians. Others saw missionaries handing out aid to people and saw God’s love in that. Those missionaries loved those people… and waited until an opportune time to witness.

There’s also the matter of Graham’s track record on speaking about Islam. Would you really trust someone who has called Islam “an evil and wicked religion that ferments violence” to go into a 97% Muslim country? His words really make the U.S. campaign in Iraq seem like a war against Islam, instead of a war against Saddam. It’s been commented upon that if he goes in, he needs to not do anything to make life difficult for the 600,000 Christians already there. There are plenty of *other* relief organizations that don’t have the reputation that Samaritan’s Purse has gained because of their leader’s words and could go in inconspicuously and witness while providing aid. (To be fair, I’ve read what Ken Isaacs, SP’s international director has to say and I can deal with *him* going in, just not the thought of Graham doing it.)

The Candy Bomber
A former Air Force pilot wants to drop a load of candy on Baghdad when the war ends. This would be good if it could be ensured that the chocolate was hallal (is there any chocolate that isn’t?) and it would definitely make the kids less scared of planes flying overhead.

Students Suspended for Confederate Garb
“I had no idea that anyone would be offended by this.” — Brook Armstrong. Chica, are you forgetting that the flag you are so proudly sporting was flown during a war that decided if a race of people was human? Are you an African-American woman? Can you understand the pain of the African-American community when seeing that flag and what it represents? Perhaps you might want to ask some of the African-American students at your high school why they are so offended. That flag is used today by Aryan Nation people and connotes a time of persecution. It’s great that you want to take pride in your Southern heritage. Might I suggest finding a more creative way of doing it?

I saw this story on CNN when it broke last night at 1:30 when I was trying to fall asleep to war coverage. (I know… I’m a freak.) It’s pretty amazing and I hope Pfc Jessica Lynch can meet this man when the war ends.

I also saw a pretty interesting thing on the “Today” show yesterday. A Marine was standing on a tank leading street songs with Iraqi children. It was definitely the lighter side of things although it was disturbing to see the children repeating his “Bring it on down! W00T! W00T!”

On politics, the Estrada filibuster is holding firm. I’ve written my senators and yelled at them for trying to end the filibuster. According to CNN, “Republicans have accused Democrats of treating Estrada unfairly because he is a conservative Hispanic.” Ummm…. no? I’m conservative and I’d love to see a Hispanic sitting in a high judicial position as much as anyone in the Latino community would — I’d like to see all branches of the government reflect the actual ethnic make-up of the USA. However, he is refusing to answer questions about where he stands on a lot of issues that are important to me, and I can’t support the nomination of someone to a position like that if I don’t know that my rights as a woman are going to be respected. (Oh yes… anyone calling me a “rabid feminist” had better be female, because I will dopeslap the first male who says that to me. Capeche?) I’d like to know that Estrada isn’t going to side with logging companies to clearcut forests and I’d like to know that Estrada isn’t going to shoot down any abortion cases that go in front of him. (For those who want to call me a butcher because I happen to believe that it is MY body and MY right, I supported the Indiana legislation to have a waiting period between counselling before the abortion and the procedure itself.) I mean, I would not support nominations to the courts by any president who will not compel their nominees to answer questions about where they stand whether it was Bush or Clinton.