Posted by
Slavic Mike on Friday, December 08, 2006 10:15:19 PM
Life is Beautiful
I am happily married (more or less, apologies dear beautiful wife, it is all my fault) and my family is blooming. I am the product of my attitude, my religion, my education, and choices I have made during my short lifespan. Although I am not the most learned of individuals, I was fortunate enough to grow up in a generation that was provided a knowledge of history, and urged by my teachers and elders to develop a sense regarding how history is relevant to our times. I intuitively understood that I must supplement the history lesson taught with additional reading and dialogue among family, friends and acquaintances to further and better understand our place, my place, and my country's place on this wondrous, spinning, sphere our scientists call Earth. Perhaps I could call it a search for one's destiny.
Now sometimes our times require a self-analysis, a sort of forced focus prompted by events we find ourselves surrounded by or drowning in. This moment is one of those times--a time of great danger, stress, forced self-analysis. Why? Because people are trying to kill me, and if not me, my family, and if not my family, my neighborhood, and if not my neighborhood, my country, my known way of life. I saw a white-turbaned, thick-bearded, chubby, average looking man, on television, speaking a tongue unfamiliar to me recently. The TV voice-over interpretation told me how much I deserved to die. It was clear why the man evoked this concept. I was supposed to die because of who I was--a Christian, an American, not Muslim. From the voice over, there was no mincing of words. On my own analysis of what I was hearing, I did not seem to be able to read into the words any hidden meaning. The words seemed to have only one meaning-that I should die, my family should die and my country should die. There was no room for interpretation, unless for some reason, I should think the man was not talking about me, or he was making an idle threat, or I simply did not, could not or would not believe his meaning. There did not seem to be any way to "rationalize" what he was saying.
Now back to my search. The search for destiny lead me to read books about American democracy, which led me to remain curious about why men and women would give up everything for the goal of achieving Liberty and Freedom. I came to understand that Liberty and Freedom definitions can vary depending on who is defining and interpreting them, but one element of these goals stuck out like a bright light in the night sky. Liberty and Freedom were defined by those who have the willpower and the courage to explore ANY possibilities. The achievement of the goals of Liberty and Freedom helps us to better see how life is beautiful, because the search does not eliminate any possibilities. Perhaps if I had searched from another perspective, such as a non-American perspective, I could find what might be characterized as insurmountable boundaries to the meaning of Liberty and Freedom. An example cries out-such as, all men are equal, except men of certain races or religions; or all men are equal, and women are not equal to men, would constitute the boundaries to a Liberty and Freedom search, unless I start from a perspective which requires no boundaries.
Some current thinkers suggest we should search elsewhere for Liberty and Freedom, such as from the perspective of other nations or ethnic groups or religious beliefs, and these thinkers further suggest this search will lead us to the conclusion that the American way of thinking is inferior, flawed, and even hateful. After my many years on Earth, I think I can confidently conclude that such thought perspectives are wastes of time. They are a waste of time because these other perspectives always start out with insurmountable boundaries-limits to the elements of the human condition (i.e. speech taboos, gender biases, religious hatreds born by non-sensible absolutes). Throughout world history, every single attempt, over time, to explore and define Liberty and Freedom for the individual has succeeded in enhancing and preserving the two inalienable rights of human existence, further enhancing our vision of the beauty around us. And every single attempt to destroy or quash the concept and the lifestyle afforded by the belief in these goals, has been crushed. Examples of Liberty successes are the formation of the United States of America; the many attempts at partitioning and destroying Poland which have failed, the subjugation of Slavs and Asian peoples through Soviet communism; and the reformation of nations such as Japan and Germany when these citizens were challenged by Imperialism and Fascism. There are many more examples going back to ancient times, but this writing is not a history lesson. It is merely an expression of what is already known-a truth so powerful, so basic, and so certain-it has survived the test of time, tyrants, natural disasters, and kooks. So let me restate this human truth, for those who have not yet discovered it, or who hide from it, or for those who would like to pretend it does not exist:
"The best way to view and experience life's beauty is through the spectacles of Liberty and Freedom."
This writing is intended as a warning at best, and a suggestion at worst. The faction of the world of Islam which teaches and believes that political and religious expansion, under the sword, will some day succeed in world domination is doomed to failure. That conclusion is more than just a view. It is a conclusion based on historical fact. Our understanding of the facts of our own planet's world history bears out the evidence. The human community has existed for 150,000 years. No nation of people has ever succeeded in dominating the entire globe. It is against nature, as it would destroy the elements of humanity which reflect the beauty of our lives and our world--our differences, our different perspectives, which are needed to continue the exploration of our existence on Earth.
I think our religions, sometimes through trial and error, and properly understood, explain why such an attempt at world domination is not only fruitless, but counterproductive and wrong-headed. God has blessed the earth with people of many ethnicity's, races, religious beliefs, I believe in an effort to help us discover the absolute beauty of our environment. To destroy the delicate balance of what humanity has achieved intellectually and in more cases than not peacefully, is anathema to the human condition. But caution here: the pursuit of Liberty and Freedom must be cherished by a certain number of world citizens, who are willing to sacrifice and die to keep the vision alive which will allow our ability to see, to experience life's beauty. Poland under Hitler; the Jews and Catholics under Naziism, and Russia under Stalin are cruel reminders of the times when we were not willing to make the sacrifice; times when we allowed our vision to become clouded.
Humans worldwide recognize a right of self-defense, whether it be word vs. word, pen vs. pen, sword vs. sword, bomb vs. bomb. Whichever is the case, the pen/sword supporting Liberty and Freedom, over time, has relegated the violent, anti-freedom forces to "the ash heap of history." Liberty has trumped forced subjugation every time. They will beat their swords into plowshares is not a prediction-IT IS THE MORAL OF THE STORY. I and my family and my country are not supposed to die. We are supposed to live in Liberty and Freedom, and because of our birth, as Americans, we have been chosen as keepers of the flames the burn Liberty and Freedom brightly. We can welcome the differences surrounding us, and defend ourselves against violent attempts at subjugation. We will not go gently into that good night.
So it is written, so it will be done.