Saturday, April 26, 2008

Venting...best to avoid this one

The hands of time need to slow down a little. My daughter is older than I was when she was born, and that was only yesterday in some parts of my mind. In the years that followed her birth, the speed of times passing steadily increased, until it reached the point where Monday seems to be followed by Friday, which is just as amazingly followed by Monday again. Everything in between evaporates into tiredness and a growing list of things I should be getting done.

I apologize in advance for the following diatribe, feel free to skip it.

I saw the movie Stop Loss; it was not a good movie, neither happy nor enjoyable. It did make me think about the war in Iraq, which is a quality I always appreciate in a movie. It's really a mystery why we are still there; I don't see any good coming from it in any way. I think our arrogance misleads us: our way is the best, and everyone else should want the same things that we do. When we are no longer in Iraq, they will go back to living the way they prefer; the region has been politically and religiously unstable forever, so it must be the way they like to live. Also, a soldiers life has more value than this war assigns it, and yet we won't let these willing volunteers go home when their duty is done? What about the lady who protested her son's death in Iraq? she was simply labeled a fanatic and anti-American. The fact that she was able to protest outside the president's ranch is why being American has so much value, and this war is doing nothing to protect that value. Let's just state that terrorists and the countries that harbor them will be held responsible for their actions...enough said, we're done in Iraq.

If the government really wants to help our country, stop sending our jobs overseas. (Except Steve Jobs, he can go to Taiwan and oversee the production of his products) My company has sent many jobs to China and Mexico, we had to in order to compete with Southwest and JetBlue, who both sent many US jobs to middle America and are heralded as "The Perfect Business Models." We have been reduced to consumers in the US; the industry that made our country great is now making China great and Wal-Mart is a showcase for their talents. Perhaps the coming recession will make us appreciate hard work and sacrifice again.

I believe that we live in the greatest country in the world, but we have our flaws and need to recognize them to improve ourselves. Life has been too easy for us and we're out of touch with what's important.

1 comment:

Echo said...

I don't know anything about the movie "Stop Loss" and have decided that maybe I know enough. If it affected you so strongly, I have no desire to experience its affect on me!

We do live in a great country, and venting frustration encourages people to listen and care.