DeeEl's Mo Chroí Scríofa

Is It Really Justice?

On Sunday, May 1, 2011, United States President Barack Obama went on national television to announce that the world’s number one most wanted, Usama Bin Laden, had been killed in a late night raid on a compound in Pakistan.  The raid took all of forty minutes and left the infamous terrorist with two bullet holes in his head courtesy of a US Navy S.E.A.L.

Not being awake at that hour, I received the news as soon as I got up and turned on the television for my morning news fix.  I sat on my couch with my tea watching in stunned quasi-awareness while the reporters provided information as if a mama bird feeding her hungry hatchlings.  I could not believe that Mr. Bin Laden’s reign of terror was finally over.  Still in the back of my mind, I knew his people would pick up the torch and carry on in his ways.

It has now been six days and everyone keeps saying that justice has been served and this is a United States victory.  I beg to differ.

Don’t get me wrong, I was completely devastated on Tuesday, September 11, 2001 when the announcements came through my radio speakers telling of the planes crashing into the towers in New York City.  I spent days watching in horror as all the details began coming to the surface.  Being as patriotic as I am, I finally had to shut everything off. I could not watch the news or even read my newspaper.  In fact, I saved those papers to read at a later date.  I still have not been able to read them.  I felt as if someone reached in and ripped out my heart and left me bleeding on the inside.  I cried every night after coming home from work knowing that someone came in and hurt the country that I love.  On September 16, 2001 I finally finished the song I wrote about it called Unity.

But, has justice really been served?  I cannot say that it has, in my opinion.  To me having justice served means the perpetrator, in this case Usama Bin Laden, will be arrested, stand trial, be found guilty and then be sentenced and serve that sentence.  There are many who are disputing the reports that Mr. Bin Laden is in fact deceased.  They feel seeing photos will provide the needed proof of his demise.  Photos have been faked since photography came to be.  However, a trial and much witnessed sentencing would have been true justice providing more belief throughout the world.

Speaking of the world….My other issue in all of this as it being a United States victory.  Yes, Usama Bin Laden was at the top of the FBI most wanted, but he was also at the top of the world’s most wanted.  This man did not just terrorize the United States, he terrorized every country in the world.  It may have been an American that pulled the trigger, but the victory belongs to the world.  Furthermore, this is only a minor victory.  The head has been cut off, but this species of snake has a way of continuing on and growing a new head.

True victory will come in the form of real world peace.  This will only come when we, as human beings (and yes the terrorists are also human beings) begin to accept each other and our differences and find common ground.  There are those who may say there is no common ground between Al Qaeda and the rest of the world.  But there is one thing we all have in common, WE ARE ALL HUMAN BEINGS.  Just because we have different skin color and beliefs doesn’t mean we are unworthy of each other.

There was a line in a song in the movie Oklahoma that keeps running through my mind, “I’m not saying that I’m better than anybody else, but I’ll be danged if I ain’t just as good”.

True justice isn’t necessarily served when one man (even if sanctioned by the leader of a nation) takes the life of the one being sought.  And one nation has no right to claim personal victory when the capture (or killing) of a terrorist belongs to the entire world.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day in the United States is celebrated on the last Monday in May.  To many this is a day to depict the unofficial start of summer.  They think of pools and beaches opening, backyard bar-b-ques and having an extra day off of work.  It is time, however, for people to have a rude awakening.  This is NOT what Memorial Day is all about.  Let’s go back and remember, lest someone makes sure we never forget.

Winston Churchill once said, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”  I have always liked this quote until I read an update but cannot recall who said it.  This has become my favorite quote; “Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it.  Those who fail to learn history properly are just doomed.”  I will not get started on all the ways that we as American citizens have distorted history to suit our own desires.  That is not what this is about.  Here we will remember.

After the Civil War ended, Reunification Day was celebrated.  It was near this time that the country first enacted a day to remember and pay honor to all the Union soldiers who gave their lives in the war between the states.  At first this day was called Decoration Day having the first national observance May 30, 1868 and the graves of the fallen soldiers were decorated.  Later this was extended to include all US military personnel who died during WWI.  With each war the United States entered, the fallen during the war were to be included in the remembrance of Memorial Day (a term first used in 1882).

Years ago I wrote a song about how we gained our independence.  It was the blood, sweat and tears of so many who lived and died before us.  These are the ones we pay homage to on Memorial Day.  Had it not been for the brave men and women who put on a uniform and went to battle and died, we would not know this life we have today.  I say uniform, but it is a broad term, because during the Revolutionary war, most of the colonial soldiers just wore their every day clothes.

So often today people confuse Memorial Day with Veteran’s Day.  Veteran’s Day does not afford us the summery day off from work.  In fact, most companies do not observe it as a holiday at all.  No matter the observance,  it is still an official federal holiday set aside to honor ALL US veterans of ALL wars.  Those living and those gone on.  This weekend, we pay special tribute to those who have given their lives on the battlefield to make sure we have the freedoms we now take for granted.  In short, they all died just so we can eat grilled hamburgers.

I have been wanting to write a special poem for Memorial Day and to include not only US soldiers who have given their lives to defend this country, but I wanted to pay homage to the fallen in all countries who have bravely and proudly entered battle to defend their homeland.  After watching the PBS special National Memorial Day Concert I knew the direction I wanted to take.  I wanted to pull up the fight songs of each of the branches of the US military.  I stopped after reading the lyrics to the first song I pulled up – The Marine Corps Hymn.  The last stanza really struck me.  The last four lines in particular; “If the Army and the Navy, Ever look on Heaven’s scenes; They will find the streets are guarded, By United States Marines.”  I knew I had my poem for today.  I remembered watching yesterday as they showed scenes of the military burial sites around the world where fallen US soldiers lay in rest.  From all of this I wrote the following:

Gone On To Eternal Duty

Lost in a dream
of days gone by
Searching for answers
through heart’s eye

Up and down
neatly groomed rows
trimmed with flags
sprinkled with bows

The names and dates
all a blur to me
looking out across
a flag waving sea

Stepping sure, crossing
barriers of space and time
no more markers or flags
but, soldiers in line

Wearing uniforms
both new and old
they died for others
as history’s told

They entered battles
as men full grown
they fought hard, reaping
what others have sown

I study the faces
reason to find
they are all the same
it boggles my mind

Walking up one
then down two
in a distance I spy
an ocean of blue

Turning to see
the picture full
my heart is pricked
there’s a tug and a pull

From every nation
they stand as one
their tour long past
but yet just begun

These soldiers gone before
stand on land and on sea
they guard the world around
they guard you, they guard me.

May 31, 2010
© DL Bach

We ARE At War!!!

A year ago I came to learn of a song.  It isn’t a new song by any means.  The song “War Is Over” was written by John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, in 1971.  With the US in the midst of the Vietnam War, John Lennon was very vocal in his anti-war beliefs.  At a time of war it is usually construed that Anti-war is the same as Pro-peace.  Pro-peace is so much, much more than just being against war and violence.  Some say that true peace can only come from Yeshua.  Others believe good Karma and meditation are the path to real peace.  All of this is good and so many other things as well.

I came to know this Lennon song after losing my hearing.  I knew I liked the music but didn’t know what the words were saying.  I did know it was played in the course of a Christmas segment of some sort.  I had a conversation with a friend who loves music and is a wonderful DJ in Second Life™.  I told him some of the words and finally he said it sounded like I was talking about John Lennon’s Happy Xmas.  I promptly went to Google and found myself listening to the song streaming on YouTube with the lyrics showing on the screen.  I listened and read for about 3 hours.  Yes, the same song for three short hours.  I cried so hard as my heart listened to the words as I read them.

War Is Over speaks of reaching out to others; other races, cultures, ages.  As humans we pride ourselves in 20/20 vision.  Perhaps if the entire world population were blind and deaf we would stand a better chance for peace.  We learn to disapprove and even hate those who are different from us.  We are so intent on revising and editing each other to chisel out a world-wide society that is identical to us.  We are alike.  Every human-being all over the world.  We all have bones and blood beneath the skin and hair that holds us together.  We all have hearts that beat and pump the blood through our veins.  We breath air into our lungs.

Where we differ is in our appearances, our beliefs, the way we think.  Yes, some of the ideas we hold are in error (i.e.: thinking ourselves better than everyone else), but not all of them.  It should be out differences that bring us closer together and give us the opportunity to learn from each other.  Perhaps I don’t like to eat pig, does this make those who do evil for doing so?  My skin is pale and I have green eyes.  Does this mean that a person with olive complexion and dark eyes can’t be a good person or my friend?

There is a war that we are all involved in.  It doesn’t matter our age, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation.  WE ARE ALL AT WAR.  The war is for peace.  I will post later regarding fighting.  But when we say we are a peaceful people, we should live it.  Thanks to the wonderful world of Second Life™, I have made friends with people all over the world.  They are of different races, cultures, religions and even sexual orientations.  We met on a different plain and got to know each other and accept each other as human-beings without adding prejudice and bias.  On this last day of  Chanukah, I hope those who celebrate it each received a set of blinders.  I hope those who keep Xmas will also receive some and then for Kwanzaa the same.  Put on your blinders and use ear plugs to fight this war.  Use your heart to get to know other people who are not like you in the way you think and believe.  No one says you have to change your ways and believe as they do.  Education, understanding and acceptance will be our weapons.

Listen and watch John Lennon and do so with your heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvNRHrKyaX4