And Political Correctness has gone too far!

There has been a movement of change in this country, for the better, I think. The movement concerns racism, sexism, and tolerance for those unlike you. The movement, as it is, is of political correctness and has been going on for some time, to the chagrin of racists, bigots, misogynists and homophobes everywhere. With it in place, it further exposes who they are to non-like minded citizens when they speak. They want license to say what’s on their mind, even if it’s morally wrong.

Usually the one’s who are stating that political correctness has gone too far are men, because they want to retain control. They fear and thus need a method of controlling others. Words have a wonderful habit of making their way into social practice and political policy. 

I’ve heard many claims it has gone too far, and I agree; it has. But not for the reasons I mentioned above. 

Under the Bush Administration, free speech is all but gone. People pander to the President and his agenda, as if none of us have a say in how our government ought to be run, or which policies we ought to adopt. Scared to stand up and speak, as if a new Gestapo will come and arrest them. It just might. 

After 9/11/01, many scared citizens and cowards, like Congress,  who passed the U.S. Patriot Act without reading it, adopted the idea that criticizing the government was taboo. That President Bush was now a wartime President, and therefore sacred.  While he told Americans to be strong, go about their business and not sacrifice anything, that it would all be taken care of - it was, behind the scenes. And American’s could have cared less. 

And when social satirists like Bill Maher critiqued the war and its warriors, they were socially demonized. 

And when Clear Channel took some one-hundred sixty five songs that referred to peace, fire, introspection, explosions, mortality, or revolution off the air, because someone felt that American’s couldn’t handle any lyrical content that would remind them of the terrorist attacks; they were banned from the radio for years. Look at the list and judge for yourself why this was done.

And when citizens began to understand that Bush had fabricated this entire war against Iraq and protested him lawfully, they were arrested during his speeches. And when Bush, Gonzales and the NSA decided that peace groups posed a threat, they broke the law and spied on them. Then it was revealed that they were spying on everyone…but it was for our own good. If you have nothing to hide, the policymaker’s stated, you shouldn’t worry. And many people bought it. 

I thought Americans were supposed to be strong, could handle the truth, and overcome any obstacle; but it’s really a lie, isn’t it? We’ve grown fat, lazy and weak because we refuse to grow fast enough as a Nation, as a people and as a culture. Political Correctness has gone too far. And so have our actions.

In Mourning

Some were gone before I was born, but the sad truth remains; I have few heroes left alive in this world. To chronicle those I admire: the social satirists, the political revolutionaries, the brilliant philosophers, artists, comedians and mythic heroes, would be a comparative short list to those whom I’ve known, and whom polite society has told me I ought to endear.

A few weeks ago my greatest inspiration and hero was taken from me. Someone I had grown to admire, respect and reflect upon for years. I looked up to Captain America, he was like my own alter ego, who I aspired to be. In place of a father figure from an early age, he helped guide and inspire me to do the right thing. He held true to his beliefs and never wavered from his cause.

As Captain America, Steve Rogers was the epitome of the underdog serving his country, doing so because it needed him. He was a selfless and moral man.

His death seems to serve no purpose, as it came on the heels of Marvel’s Civil War; a seven month long sweeping tale encompassing nearly every character, pitting one against another, for the sake of national security. It mimicked our so called “war on terror” well. Cap could not conceive of a loss of liberty for Americans, nor the heroes who served it; he chose to stand against the government.

To think that Cap isn’t a real hero, a real ideal or his death is a real shame is beyond words. He has been inspiring people since before our involvement in World War II. Captain America couldn’t live out his days as an old man. No, he had to die a violent death as a martyr. That’s what happens to all who try to bring change on this sad little ball of mud: violence.

Instead of being able to hold onto an ideal, Marvel had to mire my eternal memory of my most beloved hero with a tragic end at the cost of their increase in sales and PR.

It was a timely issue, and brilliantly written, but Cap’s death had no real connection to the war and felt dirty. In the end, it was done for sales. What saddens me the most is that Marvel insists this is the end for Steve Rogers, but in comics, this is rarely true. In all likelihood, I’m just living without my hero for some unspecified time period, until the behest of angry fans demand his return or this marketing campaign has run its course.

I understand that Marvel Comics is a business, and that their Editor-in-Chief is trying to single handedly kill their loyalty base of older readers, but killing off Captain America is tragic. Sure, Cap was a man out of his element, stuck morally in the 1940’s, but living in a modern world; but there must have been a reason to kill him. Marvel didn’t kill one of their biggest cash cows since 1940 forever; maybe they killed him to show that when we need him the most, he’s not there.

I miss him already.

I’m not really liberal (This one)

I’m not really liberal. Growing up, I was all for the American dream and what it represented. I believed in right and wrong, and a sense of fairness. I could see balance and thought voting for the best candidate for the job was best, regardless of Party politics. I considered myself a centrist with an open mind. The ultimate devils advocate; I was able to see both sides of any issue. I thought it was a gift.

Change is a constant of the universe, and a part of our lives. America is always changing; it’s a fact that people of all demographics must reconcile. In the time when I was coming of age, Conservatives wanted small government, and I was all for that. Liberals wanted civil liberties, I certainly wanted that too. Then something strange began to happen, like a cancer had been spread across our nation. Conservatives who didn’t want these liberties were fundamentalists with no concept of equality, and those who had no use for them already had them due to the wealth they incurred on the backs of the poor and disenfranchised. It became clear to me over time that our government was expecting a lot in the form of taxes, but not returning much to its citizens. Oh, we spent plenty on the Cold War, as if the Soviets were ever really going to attack us after the Cuban Missile Crisis. We couldn’t possibly take care of the poor or infirm. Democrats were weak on defense, you know. That war machine had to be fed, and congressmen had to line their pockets with their own self interests instead of those of their constituents. Serving your country used to be an honor, as it was about sacrifice for the nation, not the country serving you.

There were a few defining junctures in my life where I had epiphanies about these issues. I realized that this whole tax and spend liberal nonsense was not only untrue, but it was a setup. Republicans destroy the system, lets use an example, like healthcare, education (no child left behind?), poverty, or welfare, and you can quickly see that Democrats, or Liberals as they are so often called, are called into service to clean up the mess. Unfortunately, this also often requires money as well as manpower and good ideas. When the next election cycle comes around, you can be sure of three things that Republicans will bring up: how flag burning and gay marriage should be outlawed via a Constitutional Amendment, and how Liberals tax and spend. Count on it like Mondays.

Currently, they are twisting this tactic for another reason: the War in Iraq. The President and his blind mice have issued statements with just enough truth to them that the average uneducated citizen will fall for the Party Line. That if we “cut and run,” they will “attack us again at home.” And they are right on this point.

With such a damaging foreign policy in place, eventually, we will be struck again. Ten months from now, or one-hundred years from now, we will be struck again.

I can no longer see both sides of the political argument. Conservatives have mixed the playing field intentionally by tossing in religion as it’s base. When you take logic out of the equation, how am I to make a sound decision? If you’re not with us, you’re a terrorist. If you’re not a Christian, you’re a heathen. If you’re not a Republican, you’re not for the Republic. It’s actually a great strategy, as it has thrown the Democratic Party into dysfunction. Why? Because it works. Because there are that many simple minded folks in this country who do not think logically, and how else do cowards like Hillary Clinton and the most of the Republican base vote? On fear. You can’t argue your way out of fear.

There is so much blood and guilt on the Republican Party’s hands, that I am sick inside. And to be sure, the folks who support the Party, actually think its just that, a party. That our troops should die some more, just so the ones who have died ought not to have died in vain. And then, the ones who die avenging them?

At some point I decided that I was Progressive, because that’s what this country was founded upon; Progressive ideals.

How we react to each situation is important, which brings me to “patriotic folks” stating “our troops are fighting for our freedom,” or “dying for us.”

No, they aren’t. In fact, more civil liberties have been lost since the Bush administration took control of the United States and proved that Republicans were weaker on defense by ignoring the signs that we were going to be attacked prior to 9/11/01. Our liberties are disappearing on our own soil while our troops are dying trying to bring democracy to a people who don’t want it. What Conservatives strangely forget is American history. British citizens in America, inspired by French Philosophers (inspired by ancient Greeks Philosophers) became traitors against the state. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were all terrorists. The Boston Tea Party: An act of terrorism. The American Revolution? Most certainly an act of war. American Minutemen? Insurgents. If you’re uncomfortable with that thought you’re probably a Conservative living a lie. Real Conservatives would have been Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Geronimo, Red Cloud, Chief Joseph, and Tecumseh. I would have joined that Party in a second. Think on that for a while.

Public Intellectual Moyers continuation

Reading and giving further thought to Bill Moyers  Discovering What Democracy Means, it gave me pause. Being an artist and always in favor and support of the arts, knowing what they do for our society and for the spirit of mankind, it has always surprised and concerned me that conservatives have wanted to cut funding for the arts.

I would like to think they were open minded enough to understand that what we leave behind is a reflection of who we are. How we relate to our past is a reflection of who we are. How we stand on our ancestors shoulders is a gift to our progeny. To be able to see works in a library, on public TV, or in a museum is a wonderful experience. A gift that few enough take hold of and utilize. 

Instead of finding ways to bring people into these projects and even help foster community care and involvement, our government has done its best to kill them by under funding or not funding the very programs that are the bedrock of our civilization.  I do not believe we can expect great thinkers to rise to the challenge without support. I do not believe great leaders will appear in a vacuum. I do not believe that our nation will prosper without fostering appreciation for the arts in all forms. 

Perhaps a fitting title for our Liberal Studies Capstone would be Public Discourse and Civic Engagement Practice.

300 and the Co-Opting of Film

http://home.comcast.net/~phoenixflames/300.mp3

By looking at our past, we can see elements of ourselves that are just human nature. It is our natural inclination to look for things we identify, but we shouldn’t try to find what is not there.

The film 300 opens on Friday, March 9, 2007. It is a true, but fictionalized account of the Battle of Thermopylae some 2,500 years ago between the Spartans and the
Persian Empire. It is an underdog story; 300 men against a million. Based on visionary Frank Miller’s Graphic Novel of the same title, Director Zack Snyder recently told ABC News, “I took the battle of Thermopylae and turned it into a myth. I think my movie is the way a Greek would tell the story of Thermopylae months after it happened, not with 2,000 years of hindsight,”.

“In ‘300,’ the Spartan king Leonidas faces off against the Persian tyrant Xerxes. Some media reports speculate that one or the other is supposed to represent President Bush. Snyder, who also co-wrote the screenplay, says that he began the script long before Bush was elected, and that any connection is purely speculative.”

I’ve heard this before, this notion of mixing current politics with movies. I’m not talking about something like American Dreamz that was released in 2006, I’m talking about films like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, in which the same sort of analogy was made. That President Bush represented someone in the movie, or that the movie was pro-war, pro-American and pro-Christian. These sentiments reminded me of a “kind-of-one-in-the-same-lately, right?” presence in our country ever since those attacks.

This has always bothered me, because it was another part of that jingoistic faux nationalism that was sweeping our country shortly after the terrorist attacks. Instead of doing research or reading the books, people just spouted ignorance, or what they thought they knew about The Lord of the Rings. The books were written far before this war on terror. They are not pro-America nor are they Christian in nature. They most certainly are not pro-war, in fact, quite the opposite if you pay attention to the writing.

So here we are again a few years later, and yet another wonderful movie is about to be co-opted into the wrong ideology. Worse yet, the history it teaches us is about to be corrupted by viewers who mistake the glory and honor of fighting for a way of life to a global war on terrorism. War is always terrible, and there is little good that ever comes of it. Which is why the Bush administration has done their best to blur the lines and makes us believe we are fighting for our very lives with slogans like, “we’re fighting them over there, se we don’t have fight them here.” A war on terrorism that has precious little, if nothing, to do with our country here at home is not what people should be comparing this film against.I assert that most people don’t want to learn the lessons of the past, but rather, want the easy way out of any given situation.

Sadly, the maxim is true that anything worth having is worth sacrificing for.

Thank goodness your liberty has already been paid for.

When you watch this film, instead think on their passion for living and dying. Think on their sacrifices for their countrymen.

Thank your veteran’s for their courage and commitment, regardless of when they served.

By looking at the past we can learn lessons. King Leonidas created a plan literally overnight and thwarted the Persian King Xerxes with a mere 300 men. It is too unimaginative to equate our situation to that of Sparta, simply because we are at war with someone who is in the same geographical area as Persia. In our current war, we are outnumbered, in foreign territory with a leader who is stubborn and hell bent on vendetta; and lacks the intelligence to get us out of the situation he put us in.

Thank him and those responsible the next time you vote by voting for someone other than a Republican or Democrat who put us into this mess. If we can learn from our past by learning lessons, we’ll all be better off for it.

2007 MAC Michiana Addy Awards 2nd wrap up

Thanks to all that attended the 2007 MAC Michiana ADDY Awards!Now that the votes are cast and the winners are decided, it is time to show the pictures from the event! 

Here is the candid shots before the ceremony. Here is a link to the pictures of the cermony. Here are shots of the award winners.

Photos provided by Marty at ME Photographics. 

Here is one of the 2006-2007 MAC Michiana Board of Directors (one member absent).

  

ADDY Recap
To view the complete list of winners or view/download the ADDY presentation, visit: www.macmichiana.org.

Winners: Please email Chris Sallak (csallak@yahoo.com) by Friday, March 16 if you would like to order additional copies of your 2007 ADDY award. They are $80 each.
 
All gold winners have been automatically forward to the District 6 competition. If you haven’t done so already, please contact Chris Sallak if you would like to also forward your silver winner to the next level. 

Christians, you can’t have it both ways.

Christians, your use of science puzzles me. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. You can’t be a conservative fundamentalist Christian while using technology to back up your faith. Because technology proves the opposite of your belief system, and you cannot cherry-pick scientific data no more than you can be a cafeteria Christian.

For years, I’ve watched as The History Channel and networks like it have appeased religious groups and gained revenue through advertising dollars by airing claims that they had found areas mentioned in the torah and bible. By that, I essentially mean, the Old Testament. These examples crop up every few years and Christians are excited when scientists use their technology and brains to prove their faith. But doesn’t faith, by its very definition mean that you do not have to have it proved, or at least, should not? Yet that’s what is done, in the name of science, but under the guise of religious faith. These activities are usually sponsored by religious groups in order to draw more attention to Christianity’s cause.

So when it was announced recently that James Cameron has sponsored a documentary on The History Channel about the historical find of the ossuary of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and their son, Judah, Christians for the most part, tried to distance themselves from the debate. In most cases, if you are a Christian, would be happy that the evidence would be found to support anything in the bible, or affiliated with it. Not this time. Why?

Perhaps it is because Christianity hinges upon Jesus’ resurrection. If he did not rise from the dead, then that whole messy Council of Nicaea business, at which, the winning viewpoint in whether Jesus was the living son of god was determined by a fistfight, really is a philosophical problem. This would be a problem that should be looked at with open eyes. With discourse. With scientific analysis. I mean, if science proves the man’s DNA in the ossuary was that of Jesus, and we take it on faith that it was the messiah, then what is there to lose? Because the bible states that he literally rose from the dead? It’s a messy thing, literal interpretation.

Understand that if Jesus was not the son of God, his message would still be valid. His words would still be wise. If anyone actually lived by them, that is.

Understand that when Jesus was born, Mithras was the predominant god in the Roman Empire. He followed a long line of gods son’s who were fashioned in their god’s image, such as Gilgamesh before him. The Mithras Cult saw rise to a new cult, one of a Jewish extremist group in the First Century, called Christianity. Now, I know that sounds like a radical idea that Christianity was a cult, but that is the truth. It’s the main reason why early Christians were persecuted, was because their cult was misunderstood by the majority.

If you look up the word cult in the Webster’s dictionary and this is what you will find:

Cult

·         Noun

1. Adherents of an exclusive system of religious beliefs and practices.
2. An interest followed with exaggerated zeal: “he always follows the latest fads;” “it was all the rage that season.”
3. A system of religious beliefs and rituals.

It’s kind of an ambiguous definition, and it’s meant to be that way by definition. Not all cults are bad; some are quite peaceful, like the Ghost Dance Cult of the Lakota Sioux Tribe in the 1890’s. Others are just seen that way because of tragic events like Jim Jones in Jonestown, or David Koresh in Waco, TX. Public perception has changed of the word, but the definition has not.

Further, in the United States, the statistics prove that you must announce your faith in order to run for government service; of which, requires a separation of church and state. If you think about the logic of that for a moment, it might not make sense, and that’s because it doesn’t.

See the moral dilemma? See the quandary? See the confusion why religion should be, if one must practice it, a personal thing and not of a public nature?

This problem could not be more evident with our own President Bush, a devout Christian, who actually believes that he was chosen by god, to sit in The White House. He is also of a conservative evangelical persuasion who thinks we are living in the “end times.” But he has this habit of changing scientific facts concerning global warming, to name just one item, to suit his own personal agenda. Off hand, one might wonder what this agenda would be. Why would a sitting President of the United States of America deliberately sabotage the entire global population? What would President Bush’s reason be to push us into a self-perpetuated biblical Armageddon? What would anyone stand to gain?

I’ll just tell you how it looks. It gives Christians a bad name.

Now Christians will distance themselves from this terminology and use the term cult to demonize extremists, never considering that they themselves what they are defining. No, Christianity couldn’t possibly fit that definition. It’s easy to do that, because that’s what your parents and clergy taught you, so you believe it. It’s easy to shy away from the truth, because Christians are the majority in the western world.

I’m not saying Jesus and his family’s bones are or are not in the ossuary. Who knows? However, it would be irresponsible to not pursue all paths and keep an open mind. It would be irresponsible to tell me that you will respect our Constitution, and then claim that your faith is not just a big part of you, but that you will base all of your decisions from it, even though a separation of Church and State ought to prevent you in good moral conscience from working that way. It would be a betrayal to find to wake up and find extremist has gained control of our Government and done something irreversible and irreparable to the world.

Christians should not use science to prove anything existed in the bible in order to re-affirm their faith; if when science proves them wrong or the possibility that they are wrong, they ignore it. 

Otherwise that’s bad judgment. You can’t have it both ways.

I’m supposed to support our troops.

I’m supposed to support our troops. I used to be one; I ought to know how it feels to be left behind by budget cuts and red tape. I know how it feels to be among the honored who served our country, and then need help from the V.A. Retreating from battle just doesn’t seem American.

 

Yet, when we stood upon the precipice of war yet a second time, with a dictator whom we supported and supplied no less, instead of listening to Saddam who told us he had no WMDs, we ignored diplomacy and chose to yet again impose our boots upon the necks of innocent people and remove a leader from office. I often find it amusing, for lack of a better word, when those who find Saddam’s crimes reviling speak up about them in the U.S. They never spoke of them before. They were woefully ignorant. They instead sung the praises of President Ronald Reagan, who was one of the main suppliers to both the Taliban and Saddam. But times change, and so too must regimes.

 

Night after night, I hear of heroes from 9/11/01 and from the wars on my evening news. And I’m tired of people doing their jobs and being called heroes: Firemen, policemen, soldiers. I understand that one of these people might be a personal hero to you. I’m cool with that. But you know, in the grand scheme of things, heroes are the people who prevent tragedy, not killers or people who just do their job. People are so desperate for heroes that they made up so much information post-9/11 because they needed something.

 

Ground zero was a lexicon term exclusively used for nuclear detonation. It was co-opted for a scare tactic to burn the iconography into the American collective mind. And it worked. But not on me. Because times change, but the meanings of our words shouldn’t change.

 

It has been said that it’s easy to play Monday morning quarterback about this war, but I say not if you’ve been paying attention all along. The signs were there, the proof or lack thereof was always there, and now the bloodshed is here to stay. But times change, and so too must our thinking.

 

I’m supposed to support our troops and rally around the flag. I’m not supposed to think about it. Supporting the troops really means not getting them in harm’s way to begin with, not being a Bandwagon Patriot since 9/11/01. But times change, and thinking and using diplomacy just doesn’t seem American anymore.

2007 MAC Michiana ADDY Award Media Release: Follow Up

Here is a simple list and press release for the winners of the 2007 MAC Michiana ADDY Awards. This was sent to the South Bend Tribune, Elkhart Truth and Michiana Shopper.

Media Release 

For Release January 16, 8 p.m.

Contact:  Christopher A. Sallak Vice President of ADDYs

574-284-4625    csallak@yahoo.com        www.macmichiana.org 

Ad Club Presents 2007 ADDY Awards  SOUTH BEND, Ind. –  The Marketing and Advertising Club of Michiana (MAC Michiana) presented its 2007 ADDY Awards for advertising creative excellence Friday night at theMarie P. DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts, with more than 160 members of the local advertising and marketing community in attendance.Conducted annually by the American Advertising Federation, the ADDY Awards represent the advertising industry’s largest and most representative competition for creative excellence.

Best of Show for print advertising went to Todd Allen Design, for its Renegade product brochure. Martin’s Super Markets won the Best of Show for electronic advertising for the Want It Fast/Want It All/Meat To Eat television advertising campaign.In the student category, Ellen Needham Imbur of Ivy Tech Community College South Bend received the Best of Show Student Print award.

Todd Allen Design received the most awards — a total of eight trophies. This includes two Gold ADDYs for client Dansr and one for Kibbi LLC, and Silver ADDYs for clients Big C Lumber, Crown Audio, Inc., Explore Media, and two for Goshen Health System.

Richard Harrison Bailey/The Agency received four awards, including Gold ADDYs for Warner Pacific College and Nick Bailey and Lauren Swihart, plus Silver ADDYs for clients University of Illinois and Warner Pacific College.Whirlpool received three awards, including two Gold ADDYS for Whirlpool and Gladiator product brochures. The agency was also awarded a Silver ADDY for its Maytag Epic Tradeshow brochure.

Fish Marketing Inc. won two ADDYS, a Gold and a Silver ADDY, both for their work on for work on behalf of Hacienda Mexican restaurants.Pathfinders won two Silver ADDYs, for their clients Supreme Corporation and Global Access Point.

Burkhart Advertising also won a Gold and a Silver ADDY, for their self promotional work and work with Value Center Big & Tall Outlet, respectively.Other winners were Grass Roots Media, Fish Marketing, TaigMarks, Inc., and Phisz Designs, Inc., each winning one award each.

Student ADDYS were awarded to Ivy Tech South Bend students Raymond Johnson, Scott Boehner, Axel Hernandez and Ellen Needham Imbur.

Judges for the ADDY contest were Bill McDonald, creative director, One Alliance Communications, Lexington, Ky.; Toni Bloom, visual communication assistant professor, Gateway Community and Technical College, Cincinnati, Ohio; and Clark Most, freelance art director, Midland, Mich.

A local affiliate of the American Advertising Federation, MAC Michiana promotes and protects the well-being and advertising through a number of programs including the ADDY contest and monthly luncheons featuring leaders of the advertising and marketing industry. 

-end-

Stop this War re-write

Our freedom, it is said, is won with the blood of brave soldiers. But as a thinking person, I have always maintained freedom was best maintatined by peacemakers, and by soldiers as a last resort. As a veteran, I know that our soldiers always need support, in times of conflict and not. As a disabled veteran, I attest that the system is merely set up to send men to die and to be mutilated, but to receive little support from their government and it’s people when they get home. One of the things about war is that it tends to bring out what people call ‘heroes,’ disabled veterans, and dead soldiers. If you really support the troops, you do so with funds, not empty slogans and jingoistic ribbons on vehicles.

When I was a child, Vietnam was the same issue as it is today. The very same people who fought for ending Vietnam who ought to know better, are now now proud to “show their support of our troops.” Supporting the troops would mean having them home with their families making a decent wage and being taken care of, not being put in harms way in a civil war with no end. It seems a shame they didn’t learn anything thirty some years ago about warfare and government slight of hand.

What was once black is now white. Now people give away their freedoms for a glimmer of a false sense of security and are willing to send others into harms way to garner that feeling.

The right wing agenda is to follow an old testament standard of an eye for an eye to make them pay. How many have we killed? What have the Iraqi people done to us? Were we right to go there to begin with? We have decimated their country. It is unforgivable. Bandwagon patriotism is not the answer, nor blind obedience to an administration that has gotten every single intelligence issue incorrect.

President Bush continues to wage his own personal agenda and war instead of listening to his constituents who are actually paying the price, while he continues to smirk his way through press conferences. As if people dying was something to smirk and joke about. I want my elected officials at the top branches of government to know that when I disagree with their policies, it is not up to them to carte blanch ignore them. Bush, for example, represents the American people, who, through a majority, support an immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.

The only way to support our troops is to bring them home. Not send more of them into harms way. The thought of that Republican strategy, for lack of a better word, is sickening. More people should die so their sacrifice wasn’t in vain? And what about those deaths? Will it ever end? Will we ever give peace a chance? I’m sorry to be the harbinger of bad news, but folks, every Soldier and Marine who dies in this war is dying for Iraqi freedom, not ours. And it’s for a freedom they do not want. This might be a hard pill to swallow, but it is true. You nor I are any safer because a serviceman died in Iraq. Terrorists do not hate us for our freedom, Middle-Easterners (and thusly Muslim peoples) have never shared our way of life. It’s that simple. It is time to re-focus our priorities and for our President to stop using our citizens as cannon fodder.

No one wants to take away funding for this war because it will look like they don’t support our troops. It isn’t like we’re going to leave them behind without what is necessary, they will be here at home. But that’s how the strings are manipulated. If you want to support the troops, support the money.

No one ever stops and thinks of using diplomacy in this country. We have a great deal of weapons at our disposal, but not arbitrators or diplomats. If we spent a fraction of the time and money we spend on peace that we do on war, we wouldn’t find ourselves in the complicated mess we are in right now and will be in the foreseeable future. Peacemakers are the real heroes who should get medals of honor, not people who just follow blindly in times of war. People who stop bloodshed before it happens, not who enable it. Under orders or not. What good is a freedom that’s bought with a gun? Diplomacy works much better and costs less, pound for pound, for the bombs we drop and the blood that cakes foreign soil.

Someday, when the war is over, people will inevitably want to build a memorial to all of the servicemen who died during the conflict. And tons of money will be poured into a design and land. And you know what? I won’t contribute a dime.

Because I’d have contributed to a peaceful resolution.  Because monuments to dead soldiers who followed orders is not as great a deed as someone who would have prevented this travesty to begin with. No, instead, I’ll be giving my money to fellow disabled servicemen and women who have been left behind by a government that didn’t think far enough in advance to treat outgoing soldiers very well. Because they so desperately need, and righteously deserve the best health care they can get instead of being in a war without meaning.

If getting out of Iraq now means stopping the funding for this war: Stop the funding now.