Hello. I want you all to meet my Soap Box. I don’t let him out very often, but today I have decided to enjoy his comforting presence. May you all be comforted as well.
I’m tired of seeing and reading things about Muslims. I’m tired of reading and seeing things about Jews. I’m tired of reading and seeing things about “a people”, be they Americans, Russians, Germans, French, British, Arabs, Chinese, etc.
When did we start attributing one person’s madness to a people? How can you say, “I hate Muslims?” You can’t possibly know all the Muslims in the world. You get to see a small sampling of newsworthy Muslims, but I am quite sure that they in no way pertain to the majority. The majority are not newsworthy.
Anyway, hatred is bad. There are always two sides to every story.
What really gets under my skin is when we (as Americans) call people stupid idiots for using improper English. How many languages can most American’s speak? Most Americans have no right to call anyone from another country stupid.
The Gaza/Israel thing is my latest foray into all encompassing people hatred. I don’t know how many people I’ve spoken to have said that Israel should just wipe Gaza off the face of the earth. The strange thing is that we, in America, hear the Fox News version of the story. People in other parts of the world, hear a different version of the story.
We’ve been told that the Hamas have been firing rockets randomly at Israel for the last 8 years and now Israel is finally retaliating. I’m thinking this can’t be even close to the whole story. Other parts of the world see things rather differently.
I’m saying I don’t know. I know that if someone was throwing rocks at me for 8 years, I might end up blowing them up with plastic explosives and a jock strap, but that’s just me. The media would probably ignore the rock throwing. A scrape here, a scrape there. Who cares? It’s not newsworthy. But when I splattered their balls across two city blocks and struck some innocent bystanders with body parts, then the news would be all over that. As far as the media watching audience, I would be the aggressor. Is that what is happening here? I don’t know.
Why would the people in Gaza not want Israel to control the area? Israel seems to have more wealth. There doesn’t seem to be as much poverty. It seems to me that if I were living in Gaza I’d want a more stable wealthy government. How much would you be willing to give up to remove yourself from poverty? Gaza was controlled by Israel for 27 years, but they forced Israel out. If Israel is that good, then why force them out?
There must be more to the story. We have to carefully listen to both sides and see what’s wrong. We can’t hate one side or the other. Everyone in the world must be willing to walk in the other guy’s shoes. If you are not willing, then you are part of the problem.
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