HAVE MERCY ON US

There have been some stories on AOL that have invited a lot of posts. The poison pens are out in force. I know, I know. More than one of you have told me to just stay out of the chat rooms. It’s not the feeling that I’ve been swimming in a middle-ages style castle moat at noon at high summer that’s bothering me. Although some of these folks could stand to have their mouths washed out with a good bar of Ivory. Talk about potty mouths. It’s not the cussing so much, but, sheesh folks can’t you come up with something new. Go read Shakespeare or something. Now, there’s a man who could curse. He came up with some stuff that would make you proud to be on the receiving end just so you could admire the creativity.

 

The first thing that’s bugging me is the calls to “nuke this place” or “nuke that piece of real estate.” Up to and including inside the US. Just out of curiosity, what exactly do you think these weapons are? Just bigger and better conventional explosives? Because if you do, boy do I have a movie for you. Back in the eighties there was a made for TV flick called The Day After. Scared the bejeesus out of most of ABC’s audience and has been pretty much off the radar ever since. Kind of hard to sell breath mints and new cars during a movie that’s just reduced large portions of the country to radioactive slag and leaves most of the survivors envying the dead. For anyone who thinks nuclear weapons are just bigger, better conventional bombs, this will be an eye opener. And if you do find a copy, watch it in the afternoon. Or at least a night when insomnia won't be a problem. This ain’t no bed time story.

 

Nuke LA to get rid of the illegals and everybody upwind gets to glow in the dark too. There are quite a few Californianos of Hispanic or mixed heritage in southern California who just happen to be citizens. Including my cousins and their kids. Yeah, fourth and fifth generation. So be careful when you start deciding who should be reduced to a shadow on a wall.

 

Nuke Manhattan and everybody goes, not just the Jewish population that seems to bother you. If the wind is coming in from the northeast, there are a whole lot of folks along the Great Lakes that are going to be throwing up their toenails too. And let’s not even get into what the contamination will do to the freshwater lakes, the Mississippi or the breadbasket of America. Same with Detroit to get rid of the “niggers.” No weapon comes with a switch only kills the people we don’t like. And God help us if we ever figure out a way to create one. We would truly be in hell.

 

We won’t even go into the “fallout” of using the weapons overseas. And yes, I know people will say things on line where they don’t have to look people in the eye. But, like Mel Gibson saying “the booze made me say all those horrible things,” being anonymous doesn’t put those ideas in your mind. It just lets you feel safe enough to let it all hang out. Merciful Mother, do they let it all hang out. Is there anybody some of you don’t hate?

 

The other thing that really stands out it the complete lack of empathy for the people on the ground in Lebanon and Israel who are stuck in the middle of this continuing mess. The Lebanese are not the enemy here. They were putting themselves back together after nearly twenty years of civil war. Our Civil War lasted just over four years and devastated large areas of the south. I wonder how we’d react if it had lasted nearly five times as long and affected the entire country. Don’t even want to imagine it do we? One man lost reportedly lost fifteen members of his close family. If I leave out my cousins' spouses and kids, I’d be down to about ten people in the crash of a missile. Imagine yourself the only survivor of your immediate family. No parents, no kids, no brothers or sisters, no nieces or nephews.

 

I think it’s distancing behavior. Once we admit the humanity of the people on the ground on both sides, it’s too easy to put ourselves in their place. And imagining how we’d feel if it were members of our families being pulled out of the wreckage of their homes would be too painful. We might have to admit that nobody “deserves” to have this happen to them or their families. Oh, and this is a universal everybody. I’m only to happy to put Americans calling Muslims ragheads,Shiites who believe Sunnis aren’tfit to live-no matter how little they are, and everybody in between in the same tent. God/dess help us all, because we sure as hell can’t help ourselves.