I promise I will talk about something other than military conflict soon. I just thought this had some nice animation.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Dehumanization Leads to Violence and Violence Leads to Dehumanization
Recently I viewed the documentary: "The Blood of My Brother" by Andrew Berends. The basic premise of the film is the story of a Shi'ite family living in Iraq during "Operation Iraqi Freedom." The family suffers a terrible loss when the eldest son, caretaker, and father figure of the family, is shot by an American soldier while guarding (unarmed) the local mosque. Although he is heralded as a hero and a martyr, the family he left behind is left in shambles. Ibrahim, Ra'ad's (the deceased) younger brother, is left in charge of providing monetarily for the family and running the family "shop". It is quite apparent, however, that he is still too immature to take on such responsibility and the family's emotional and financial stability disintegrates. Many times throughout the film Ibrahim states that he would much rather be avenging the death of his brother and even die a martyr, than tending the family shop. Repeatedly, he states that anytime he sees an American or Jew, he wants to take their life for what they did to his brother and his family.
This depiction of the Iraq War opened my eyes even further to the grotesque nature of the violent and irrevocably destructive nature of this conflict our nation is engaged in. Scenes within the documentary allow you to: eat with this Shi'ite family, laugh with them, cry with them, ride with their neighbors wielding Kalashnikovs, shoot down an American Apache helicopter, hide in houses peeking out at the monstrous American tank scouring through the neighborhood, attend a mosque, protest the Americans presence and watch as a friend screams after receiving fatal gunshot wounds for his participation in the peaceful protest. This journey, allows you to relate to the people on the other side of the American M16. You understand who they are, their emotions, and ultimately and most importantly their humanity.
I'm afraid we have lost sight of the effects on humanity that our decisions create; the decisions we allow our nation to be engaged in have an eternal consequence. I know that some Americans are apathetically uninformed of the disgusting occurrences that happen in a nation on the other side of the world, but why? Why do those who are uninformed of the reality of the situation choose to not seek the truth? My hypothesis is that we have allowed ourselves to dehumanize those who do not bring us any personal satisfaction. We have become so busy thinking about our own personal benefit that we have lost site of the beauty of the ordinance Christ gave us to: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Let us ask ourselves, like Jesus ordered us to, whether we would want a tank in our neighborhood, our brother to be killed for standing outside of our church, or whether we would be upset with a foreign soldier busting down our home's door in the middle of the night and arresting us for owning a weapon. It is not right. Try to imagine containing the fury inside yourself after your wife was killed by a stray bullet. Ask yourself whether you would go into your house, pull out your shotgun, and have your revenge. This sort of action isn't justified, but imagining the situation helps one to have compassion on those who feel violated and respond out of deep emotional stress. Instead of facing the humanity involved in this issue, some Americans throw Iraqi's into a category that says: "All of those damned Iraqi rebels are Bin Laden supporters, they just love killing people, and they are evil to the core." This mentality, is what is evil to the core.
What brought me to this film and ideas was a recently acquired friend. My friend is originally from Libya, but now lives in the states. He served a four year term in the U.S. Marine Corps with whom he played an active role in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Needless to say, we have discussed on many occasions his thoughts on the controversial military engagement. For the sake of confidentiality, I will refer to him as "the translator."
The fact that the translator is an Arab and fluent in Arabic landed him in a infantry unit working as a translator. Mostly, the translator would move with his unit as a kind of reconnaissance team. On these recon patrols, situations would sometimes arise that were an opportunity to gain valuable military intelligence by extracting it from the local people.On a number of these patrols the translator was ordered by his commanding officer to tell those being interviewed or interrogated that they would be killed if they didn't provide valuable information. The translator reassured me that he wouldn't, couldn't, follow such orders. His struggle with carrying out such orders surfaced because when he looked at those being questioned, all he could see in their faces were the faces of his own: aunt, grandparents, brothers, or father. He saw the humanity of the situation. He saw the humanity of the humans. He could relate to them culturally, physically, lingually, and spiritually. For his compassion and care for the Iraqi people he was ostracized and socially secluded from his American comrades and labeled as a "softie". His comrades still saw the Iraqi rebels on the other side of the conflict as a bulls-eye in target practice, but the translator saw the enemy soldiers' lives, families, emotions, and turmoils bleeding to death in the dirt.
Seeing the inside of others is what is necessary to end this twisted and feuding world's violence. So often, we only see our own situations and how we will be affected on a personal level. We must transcend our own situation and place ourselves in our opponents shoes. I understand that most of those that are reading this are not in live combat situations, but I assure you that this lifestyle of transcending oneself for the sake of love will prove insightful and beneficial in all types of situations.
For instance:
Work at Burger King for a year with no other form of income and then you will be justified in saying that the government "gives too much financial aid to poor people."
Volunteer at a Homeless shelter everyday for a month and then you can be justified in saying that all homeless people are "just lazy."
Live in a foreign country, meet locals and become their friends then you can be justified in saying that our government has the right to occupy their streets and land and kill or arrest whomever they want.
The point is that until someone knows the other's situation, he cannot love or change them. For the sake of Christianity and Humanity let us risk our own well-being for the sake of other's.
P.S. Take a look at this: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/18/world/middleeast/18zubaydah.html?_r=2&hp
For the sake of your sorrowful passion have mercy on us sinners.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Amen.
This depiction of the Iraq War opened my eyes even further to the grotesque nature of the violent and irrevocably destructive nature of this conflict our nation is engaged in. Scenes within the documentary allow you to: eat with this Shi'ite family, laugh with them, cry with them, ride with their neighbors wielding Kalashnikovs, shoot down an American Apache helicopter, hide in houses peeking out at the monstrous American tank scouring through the neighborhood, attend a mosque, protest the Americans presence and watch as a friend screams after receiving fatal gunshot wounds for his participation in the peaceful protest. This journey, allows you to relate to the people on the other side of the American M16. You understand who they are, their emotions, and ultimately and most importantly their humanity.
I'm afraid we have lost sight of the effects on humanity that our decisions create; the decisions we allow our nation to be engaged in have an eternal consequence. I know that some Americans are apathetically uninformed of the disgusting occurrences that happen in a nation on the other side of the world, but why? Why do those who are uninformed of the reality of the situation choose to not seek the truth? My hypothesis is that we have allowed ourselves to dehumanize those who do not bring us any personal satisfaction. We have become so busy thinking about our own personal benefit that we have lost site of the beauty of the ordinance Christ gave us to: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Let us ask ourselves, like Jesus ordered us to, whether we would want a tank in our neighborhood, our brother to be killed for standing outside of our church, or whether we would be upset with a foreign soldier busting down our home's door in the middle of the night and arresting us for owning a weapon. It is not right. Try to imagine containing the fury inside yourself after your wife was killed by a stray bullet. Ask yourself whether you would go into your house, pull out your shotgun, and have your revenge. This sort of action isn't justified, but imagining the situation helps one to have compassion on those who feel violated and respond out of deep emotional stress. Instead of facing the humanity involved in this issue, some Americans throw Iraqi's into a category that says: "All of those damned Iraqi rebels are Bin Laden supporters, they just love killing people, and they are evil to the core." This mentality, is what is evil to the core.
What brought me to this film and ideas was a recently acquired friend. My friend is originally from Libya, but now lives in the states. He served a four year term in the U.S. Marine Corps with whom he played an active role in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Needless to say, we have discussed on many occasions his thoughts on the controversial military engagement. For the sake of confidentiality, I will refer to him as "the translator."
The fact that the translator is an Arab and fluent in Arabic landed him in a infantry unit working as a translator. Mostly, the translator would move with his unit as a kind of reconnaissance team. On these recon patrols, situations would sometimes arise that were an opportunity to gain valuable military intelligence by extracting it from the local people.On a number of these patrols the translator was ordered by his commanding officer to tell those being interviewed or interrogated that they would be killed if they didn't provide valuable information. The translator reassured me that he wouldn't, couldn't, follow such orders. His struggle with carrying out such orders surfaced because when he looked at those being questioned, all he could see in their faces were the faces of his own: aunt, grandparents, brothers, or father. He saw the humanity of the situation. He saw the humanity of the humans. He could relate to them culturally, physically, lingually, and spiritually. For his compassion and care for the Iraqi people he was ostracized and socially secluded from his American comrades and labeled as a "softie". His comrades still saw the Iraqi rebels on the other side of the conflict as a bulls-eye in target practice, but the translator saw the enemy soldiers' lives, families, emotions, and turmoils bleeding to death in the dirt.
Seeing the inside of others is what is necessary to end this twisted and feuding world's violence. So often, we only see our own situations and how we will be affected on a personal level. We must transcend our own situation and place ourselves in our opponents shoes. I understand that most of those that are reading this are not in live combat situations, but I assure you that this lifestyle of transcending oneself for the sake of love will prove insightful and beneficial in all types of situations.
For instance:
Work at Burger King for a year with no other form of income and then you will be justified in saying that the government "gives too much financial aid to poor people."
Volunteer at a Homeless shelter everyday for a month and then you can be justified in saying that all homeless people are "just lazy."
Live in a foreign country, meet locals and become their friends then you can be justified in saying that our government has the right to occupy their streets and land and kill or arrest whomever they want.
The point is that until someone knows the other's situation, he cannot love or change them. For the sake of Christianity and Humanity let us risk our own well-being for the sake of other's.
P.S. Take a look at this: http://www.nytimes.com/200
For the sake of your sorrowful passion have mercy on us sinners.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Amen.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Matthew Hoh, First U.S. Official to Resign Over the Military Deployment in Afghanistan
First Issue: Military involvement in the Afghanistan theater.
What do you think?
Should we be there?
Should we not?
What are your views on military action in correlation to your spiritual beliefs?
What does military action in this instance lead to in regards to social justice/injustice?
Here is Matthew Hoh's resignation letter, and I think it may give us a look into a side of the Afghani conflict that we don't hear about on Fox News streaming in the deli of the GC. If you see an article arguing the opposite on this issue and would like to share, please feel free to e-mail it to me and I will post it.
Looksee vvv
http://bit.ly/8ehFXPlease respond to orusocialjusticesociety@gmail.com
It will be more fun for us all, and you will feel famous when you see your name on someone else's website, then you can finally wear that kind-of-out-there-hat that you didn't think you could pull off, but now you have the confidence to sport it (After all, your name is on a website not which is administered by someone else).
For Starters
Hello, everyone!
Welcome to the Social Justice Society blog of Oral Roberts University! I am glad that you spent the time to type out our annoyingly long url and wait on the slow wireless in Hava Java to load our page!
Basically, this site will provide students with different: links, information, and discussions concerning Social Justice issues being addressed by our society and other issues still left unsolved throughout our world. I hope that all of you interested readers spend the time to take a look at the info posted, gather your own thoughts on the issues, and send an e-mail to our account (orusocialjusticesociety@gmail.com-your e-mail may be posted and responded to in future blogs!) discussing your thoughts on the post.
Don't worry, this blog won't be all business all the time. I hope that it can be an entertaining read and provide you with an outlet to possibly find an issue in our world that you may be able to commit some time to helping solve.
SO, let's start a little bit of interaction, and let me, as your blogger, get to know what issues you feel most strongly about. Send me an e-mail, it can be a single word if you want, on what issue you feel strongly about and why (that one word thing might be hard on the why part).
Until next time,
Michael Rowley
Advisor to the President of
Social Justice Society
Oral Roberts University
Tulsa, Ok
USA
North America
Western Hemisphere
Northern Hemisphere
Atmosphere
Earth
Milky Way
Cosmos
God.
(a longer title makes me feel more important)
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