First Think, THEN Ink.

It's hard not to get caught up in the excitement of the Olympic spirit. Even the Queen of England (parachute) jumped at the chance to be a part of the fun in her Opening Ceremony segment with Daniel Craig's James Bond.

The Olympics are one of the greatest things we have done with our humanity. It demonstrates that we, at least for a couple of weeks once every two years, can co-exist with people from other places on the planet, compete and do our very best and do it in the spirit of understanding and kindness and friendship. Yeah that sounds like PR copy written for some commercial advertising a product that is destroying the planet, but it's actually true!

Which, of course, lead me to thinking more about World Peace, as these two things are dynamically connected. The Olympics and World Peace are often joined in concept because of that element I just mentioned. We can get along for a couple of weeks while these competitions are taking place. Why can't we make that last not just year round, but forever?

The answer is, as I'm sure you might guess, far more complicated and far more simple than you would expect. The short answer as to why we can never achieve World Peace is because we don't want it. Okay, that's a little too short.

The question one always has to ask when someone is doing something that is clearly detrimental to both themselves and to people around them is: what are they getting out of it? And the answer goes back to something I have stated in this journal many times before, for a lot of other reasons. The adage:

In life, things are always easier when you know what you have to do.

And, much like the Olympics, in war, the concept of what to do is pretty clear, and that's defeat the enemy.

Now, there are other reasons to attack a particular enemy. They attacked you first. They have something you want. They are an easy target. We could go through every conflict of every war that has been fought before and every war raging on now and pick out the reasons some of these things occur. But, for the most part, having a war is a way of avoiding an even more devastating circumstance: facing life without a war.

The one type of war that is a bit different is the aptly named "Civil War," where people of the same region, territory, country, are fighting against each other, within their own borders. Usually those sorts of wars have overriding circumstances that make them an exception.

But war is a constant simply because not having a war means that void must be filled with something. And what will it be filled with, from day to day and year to year? Having to actually examine life, to learn about the elements, to examine our own minds and motivations, to reach a different level, a higher plane of consciousness.

That's some scary, scary stuff.

Imagine a 5 star general, now unemployed, having to sit down and deal with feelings? Isn't that enough to make someone charge into battle?

War also has a level of importance. It makes people into heroes. It wins people ribbons and medals, which is another parallel to the Olympics. War matters because it is life and death. It's legal murder. And it's done in the name of Patriotism. Or Religion. Or Both. Or neither.

It's not a coincidence I'm posting this on August 6, the anniversary of the Atomic Bomb over Hiroshima. That horrific moment in History, followed by the similar blast over Nagasaki, is something we must always remember. In war, people who have nothing to do with the process end up dying.

But in the end, that is what justifies it all. The other people can be outraged and can plot their revenge. War perpetrates itself because people are afraid of what will happen without it.

When we lose the fear of not having war, when we realize self-examination is part of the process of being human, when we truly start looking inward to discover the sources of our dissatisfaction instead of outward at the people we have been taught to hate, then will we truly light the flame that will burn not just in an Olympic year, but for all time.

http://tennessean.com/government/archives/04/03/48099754.shtml?Element_ID=48099754

Above is one of the more inane examples of why life really sucks right now.

Here's the thing. When people are unhappy, even the least little thing will annoy and provoke them to anger. It sure seems like there are a lot of unhappy people around here.

The joys of reality television and glossy gossip magazines can only divert the general population for so long. Eventually they'll come back around to their homes and/or the news stories of the day, they'll get depressed about the state of the world and the state of their personal lives and not really feel capable about doing anything to change it. Maybe they'll write to their representatives. Maybe they'll go shopping. Maybe they'll pray. The Status Quo wins again and the march towards the inevitable continues, unabated.

"Control the things you can," says the adage, but people are discovering that there's less and less that is in their control. Doesn't such frustration mean that we are heading for a new wave of violence? After all, when there are fewer and fewer choices to be had in their lives, frequently reactions explode, people are hurt, or worse, and those that remain have to clean up the mess... one more story for Tom Brokaw's final year on the air.

I still can't help but feel that in this time, the early part of this new millennium, we weren't supposed to be having a debate about "free speech." I mean, I thought we settled that in 1790! Why aren't we focusing on things that can help take us to the next level up? Why aren't we working to discover solutions to benefit the world as a whole become a more wonderful planet for everyone, rather than trying to alter one of the few things that had been working for over 200 years?

The United States has a history of doing insidious things to other countries in order to get what she wants. It goes all the way back to before this country was a country, and no one can deny it. Are the chickens coming home to roost? Or is there a way for us to play a positive role in the world again, as we did during the World Wars?

Or perhaps, that's actually what some are hoping for: another world war to allow the USA to demonstrate that military might, to boost the economy (since every war has done exactly that), and to make us look like heroes to our allies again, instead of being street-tough thugs who can run over countries the way we ignore the United Nations.

Our current Middle East policy will assuredly cost us thousands of lives, both military and civilian. It's already done so. But there will be no change in that. There's no battle if there's no "us v. them."

Admittedly there is no us v. them. We're all humans and we're all here. But the competition is what helps to create this illusion, this game that's being played to manipulate feelings, to control money, to inspire patriotism, to keep everyone in line. This is why Christianity has come to the fore so strongly! We are nothing like those heathens! Bombs away!

I guess I'm sounding like some sort of conspiracy theorist, but the timing sure is perfect.

Let's be fair. The other side is using the very same tactics to keep their people in line. To them, we are the reason their lives are miserable. They are being taught to hate all the things we stand for. So the game is on.

Back stateside, if we didn't have to take up such issues as a clearly unconstitutional bill (that passed the House by a fairly wide margin) to assess fines for "dirty language" against media outlets and the performers who appear on them, maybe we would have time to ask some questions. For example, no one has spoken of the communications breakdown that took place with the CIA that might have prevented 9/11. That's the dirty language that everyone should be calling for today. Instead, we have to rally the troops and defend the Constitution.

Lyndon Baines Johnson was another non-elected President from Texas who got us buried hip deep in a war that seemed crucial to the United States at the time, but probably shouldn't have happened. Sure, Vietnam seemed like the thing to do, since the US was trying to prevent a "Domino Effect" of communism across Asia. Just as, at the time, moving in on Iraq was the very thing needed to do in order to prevent more devastation and disaster across the Western world. All those Weapons of Mass Destruction could be used against us at any moment.

Back in the 1960s, we were simply not prepared for what was going to happen. There was no good way out of the situation, and patriotic pride refused to let politicians do an about face while there was an opportunity to do so with a minimum of human sacrifice.

This time, instead of a swamp, it's a desert, but the war is basically the same. We are attempting to "rescue" a group of people who want no part of our efforts. It is a no-win situation. Even if everything went according to plan (assuming there is a plan), we would still be despised by the people of that country, seen as carpetbaggers, outsiders, the enemy.

So, we are offering Iraq the freedoms that the USA has become famous for, while we are attempting to take those very same freedoms away from our own society. It's enough to make Alanis Morissette sing.

The truth is we aren't actually trying to "rescue" those people. We have our own agenda, our own vested interest in seeing things go the way we would like, just as we did in Vietnam. And we've got the $Billions and the cannon fodder to make sure that it does.

But checkbook diplomacy got us to where we are now. Forget your party lines. Every administration has screwed up in the Middle East. That may be due to the power and arrogance that the US has, being the strongest country in the world, dealing with these disorganized dustbowls. Why not just drop nets and carry everyone away to some island? Or might the rest of the world raise an eyebrow at that?

The future for all of us is in dialogue. It's in breaking down the barriers that we have constructed... not by force, but by word. No one is leaving, not the Christians, not the Jews, not the Muslims, not the Spanish, not the Iraqis, not the Americans. We are all here. Until we can get something bigger than a Mars Rover up there, we all have to share this place. We need a new policy. We need a change. We need it now.