I heard it on the news

"Militant".

One word to strip a man of his life. One word to make it right. One word to erase history. One word to understand. Mahmoud--23-"militant". We knew him. He was wrong. He would not be moved.

Another face. Without life, without family, without home. He never loved, never cared, never cried. A sorry soul who rejected all that we offered.

The beauty of life...we were created to love and to destroy those who do not. Complexity is a pseod...the creation of drugged up hippies. There is no life behind those eyes. There never was. Praise be to God for granting us the victory of truth...judgment.

Words

Words have this way of communicating... http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/index.jhtml?ml_video=23651

Cries for Life

I remember when I was in Palestine. Faces aching for tomorrow...for a day when their children would be safe to walk down the street...when they could walk in their town without a gun barrel staring them in the face. I remember farmers staring through a fence...an old woman looking at her field...no longer hers. Americans have a difficult time comprehending occupation, annexation, check points. I know I did. Its an unnatural thing to us. Today as many people go the gas station to complain about their gas prices, relatives mourn the loss of a mother, aunt, wife, daughter. As more families lose their livelihood to walls and fences, Israeli "negotiators" claim there is no partner for peace. Perhaps they have all been shot.

Actions create reactions. Some will rise above evil, other will follow in its footsteps. As you take in the CNN scenes from Israel and Palestine today and are convinced of Israel's moral superiority, remember that someone told you different. Remember that the news falling through the cracks are lives of people you never knew...children, fathers, mothers, "terrorists" or as I like to refer to them...people. I don't know why I meet so much disagreement in my homeland on this situation. Maybe God has spoken to my counterparts, giving them the divine scoop on a land they have never witnessed. I never thought God told his followers who they were justified to ignore. Please remember the faces you have never seen...or you may never have the chance to know just how beautiful they are.

Some days I just wonder, is today the day? Is it coming today...the big push to accuse, to demonize, to legitimize aggression? So far its been slow steady hints with an ever sharpening tone. I guess it would be nice to be number one in the world...It would be nice to be morally superior, to speak and demand with pure motive, thought and action. To have judgment so precise and righteous to make clear to rest of the world their wrongs. Isn't it great America? Isn't it fantastic to be the true keepers of truth and justice? No, maybe it comes to you as a burden?

I once understood that way. That was before stepped off American soil. I can't take everyone through the journey I've made in my life. I'm glad people have different experiences, it will always keep me in check. I just want to ask my friends, family, acquaintances, etc. please imagine for a moment that you weren't born into the life, religioun, nation you were...imagine you son or daughter born into another life in a land you have come to understand as your enemy. Think about what you could do to understand them as something other than enemy. I don't know why people are gifted with the lives they are in different places. But I do know that I feel an inherent responsibility to live my for my joy and the joy of others. I cannot do that when I do away with the others. I don't see a way for me to easily stop unnecessary wars..wars fought on the the thought of moral superiority. Democracy could be about hearing the voices of everyone, not just those with money. Christianity could be about loving, sacrificing and forgiving, not crushing the evildoers. We could be about hospitality, justice, and love, not convenienc, effeciency, and self-justification.

I'm very concerned about the situation in Iran...if you haven't happened to notice. I just wonder what it will take for America step towards actual diplomacy... not just a quick pitch and throw to missiles. I was taught to talk to people if I had a problem. Mouths are amazing...as I find more and more in teaching. I like to eat with mine. But I can also ask questions and hear from people thoughts that I have never considered...events that I was never aware of. And more than informing others and shaping them, I am shaped by what I hear as a result. Im finding so much that most of my conflicts are solved in myself before I make a decision to go on the offensive. Not to say that I manage and diffuse beautifully all my personal conflicts. But I'm convinced Im not taking the wise path towards peace by breaking someones nose. That's just me.