2001-10-11 - 2:54 p.m.

Patriots All Have Flags ...

It is kinda sad that over a month ago I rarely if ever watched TV. Occasionally I'd rent or borrow a DVD or watch a video tape (like The Empire Strikes Back), but I really never cared for TV much. It seemed pretty much like a time waster.

...If this evil force can be stopped. If this evil force can be stopped and destroyed. If this evil force can be stopped and destroyed, then the universe will be safe ...

I stole that from Funker Vogt's "Funker Vogt 2nd Unit" from their We Came to Kill album. It all ties into the same discussion I've found myself in with many of my friends lately, blind patriotism and Fortress America. The last thing most of us here want to see is a substantial loss in our civil liberties.

Americans have been excused of being overbearing and spoiled, but as true as it was for my grandfather's generation it remains just as true today. Americans are not people I really want agitated in any fashion or form. Frankly, it makes me sick to be watching CNN and see commericals advertising, "Support your country and buy our 2 for 1 American Flags!" There are patriots, but unfortunately too many capitalists are taking advantage of people's insecurities right now and are blizting street corners and TV commericals with what I call arm chair patriotism.

In less than a month Americans hold our annual elections. Last fall we attempted to elect a President, so for many communities there will only be local measures on the ballots.

Last year instead of working the polls (which is just a little volunteer thing I do every election) I was visiting my dying grandfather. This year I hope Americans turn out next month for their local school board elections. They might not think they are fighting the good fight, but electing a school board member goes a lot further to fight terrorism than flying a stupid little "God Bless America" flag. Those things just piss me off, because it is like you can purchase your way to being a patriot.

Where were all these people who cared about their country a month ago?

The Future

Naturally I'm concerned about the long term future stability of the world. In high school I was active in a Model United Nations program. While I lost my respect for the UN after meeting some of its higher ups (they were complete boobs), I'm now convinced that the United States needs to start raising the standard of living in other nations, even if that means lowering our own standard of living.

But that is not an easy thing to do. We (Americans or other industrialized people) have no business supporting governments that don't share some of our basic systems of belief. Though some would point out that it is culturally insensitive of me, I think it is complete bullshit that some societies don't yet have universal sufferage. Any society that only recognizes one half of its adult population as being human and capable of making decisions is just something that terrifies and amazes me.

He Was Choosen By Allah

For the past several days I've been listing to some of my old industrial mix CDs that I made last year. Damn, a year ago I listened to some pretty thumpy EBM music. Now I've started exploring my crunchier experimental side. But one song that I just feel this need to play over and over again is Leaether Strip's "Knomeni".

I wish I could find the lyrics and share them. Frankly, there is little difference between this song and the words that are being spewed forth from a very small handful of terrorists. The true shame is that these individuals are no better than the "arm chair patriots" I've complained about. Maybe even worse. They hide behind religion and brainwash children into doing their killing. Here is some of it ...

People die for their belief. People hate for their belief. People kill for their belief.

I really just have one question to ask everybody, where do you want to stop?

-=-

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