Open letter to Trix

From http://walktokaw.blogspot.com/2015/02/on-bridge.html Trix said:

Another gorgeous sky photo. I'm sure the folks in Copenhagen wonder. To disrupt a freedom of speech event with gunfire. Something is truly wrong. Take care, Bert.

I want to make sure you understand that I completely agree with your 'frame' and then I want to take a step back. One thing should not be used to justify the other, but it is also fairly routine and it rarely actually disturbs me that unmanned drones kill innocent Muslims in the attempt to kill 'our' enemies. Governments kill with as little notice as they can manage; terrorists kill for maximum exposure. The terrorist leaders are cold-bloodily trying to terrify and enrage us. Many of their 'drones' are misguided human missiles.  We, the so-called innocent, are increasingly terrified, but of what or who should we be? For those of you at home keeping score of innocents killed - well, it's all bloody horrible.

My father-in-law, for one, thinks that we need to be at war against Islam. Kill the evil at it’s root, he says. As far as I can tell, with the aiding and abetting of Fox News, the terrorists are essentially winning his heart and mind - from their perspective. His eyes have been bloodied and he cannot distinguish who means him harm from the billion that do not. It never clearly crosses his mind that it’s a relative handful of fanatics who actually believe in wiping out all of the unrighteous. But people with my father-in-law’s mindset and actual power will increasingly clamp down on Islam in the name of peace. And unwittingly, they will drive more drones into the camps of the fanatics. Yes, it is a vicious circle.

I do not know how to clarify the distinctions for people. Other’s are trying more diligently, but the screaming - that is so quickly amplified by the media - tends to drown out more deliberate thought. And, I think it must be recognized that it is to the middle, where the political tipping point lies, where these kinds of explanations need to be directed. Time to face facts: none of the friends I talk to are in the middle. We are all outraged and ineffectual lefties. Damn all our confusion.

So I consciously give much more of my attention to the sky instead of world events or circumstances that I am powerless to change. Back in the nuclear weapons day, when the Union of Concerned Scientists had their minutes to midnight clock, I looked to the sky and wondered -for a second or two every time a siren sounded - if the world was coming to an end.

Now, in my thinking, each person wears their own watch. Many more people are looking at their watches and asking themselves whether they should keep what they think to themselves. (And frankly, so often we should keep our careless and stupid opinions to ourselves instead of blurting out like six-year-olds). And so very many others are checking their metaphorical watches and wondering if they will survive other threats, like polluted water supplies or insufficient food or health care – threats forgotten under the radar. And might not so many women fear men whom false gods have given those men so much power over women. The G-D-M-F ers.

Let’s not speak of the children.

Perilous times, my dear and good friend. My intent these days is to make people more aware of the beauty and wonder of life so that more of us will be less inclined to blow it all away. If my time and my life is to be an entire waste (and I do hope for more than breathing in and exhaling, but I will not take even that for granted), at least I will make myself more aware of the beauty and wonder of life and not think about brutality so much. So my life is more art than media.

But some things are too hard - and I am one of the fortunate ones. Could you find someone to give yourself a hug from me. And I’ll assume that the next hug I get was meant from you.

There is a time for weeping,

but blessed are the bread bakers,

wine sellers,

song singers -

for they shall find joy in living.