I incorporated give love:get love into my blog about a week ago for good reason; Arthur Coddington makes a great point in his September 13th, 2001, post:

"It's important to understand that it's not the Good Guys vs. the Bad Guys. The US has made mistakes. It has killed civilians when attacking its enemies. It has trained terrorists, including Bin Laden. It has backed sides in volatile conflicts that have inspired people to violence. This doesn't excuse the violence in New York and Washington. Most Americans, filled with shock and grief and feelings of being victimized, aren't ready to see that it's a more complex situation than their government wants them to believe. This article from Great Britain scratches the surface of why people hate the US."

One of the links Arthur has it to Michael Moore's website, where there are different links to other quote "conspiracy theory" articles and websites. It's actually worth reading, or a quick look at anyway.

I think it's really disappointing that Senators and House representatives have to make public announcements against racism and violent outbreaks toward people of Middle Eastern descent.

I also find it a bit overwhelming this rash of pseudo-patriotism everyone suddenly has. I'm almost persuaded to join the bandwagon and blindly/faithlessly wave the flag - ME, the poster boy for Anti-4th of July, the Naval-Nuke dropout (haven't talked about it yet, but I was in the Navy for 7 months)! It's also nauseating listening to this not-so-sudden elitist hegemonic paradigm so pervasive in the media. "America is the greatest nation in the world." Oh yeah, right.

I heard a report that 96% of Americans are Christian - I seriously doubt this statistic. If it were true, why is crime and race/class distinction and other un-Christian injustices so rampant? It certainly isn't the other 4% perpetrating these actions. I am going to quote myself from last night's conversation with Troy about his ongoing psycho-drama with Matt:

"I do not blame; I assign the truth."

I also have a quote I made from several months ago when my friend and I were playing the "PC-terms" Game:

I do not lie, I manipulate the truth."

I glad people have their gods to give them comfort and to seek solace from, however, it's ironic that the One from whom people seek solace is also the justification of so much violence. Right now, I don't have faith in much of anything. Will the sun rise tomorrow? I wouldn't be surprised if it withered from a broken heart.