Weve gotten to a very strange place in history and society where our comedy programs are more thought-provoking, ask harder questions, and are in a lot of ways more truthful than the news. Assuming that Last Week Tonights journalism isnt misleading us, this is some depressing stuff. Its crazy to think that the US government could very well be fairly labeled as one of the most, if not THE most eminent (or should I say imminent?) terrorist organization by civilians in certain foreign countries. Its sad that people dont share the same outrage for the deaths of civilians of other countries as they did/do for our own citizens lost at Bengazi - like our lives are somehow more valuable than the lives of foreigners (classic ethnocentric train of thought). We justify these deaths by spewing out some cliched statement arguing that theyre an unfortunate side-effect of war or that they deserve it because theyre all a bunch of crazy muslims over there. Im not trying to sound overly-idealistic, like I think a world without war is realistically possible. And Im not saying drones are all bad, or that all civilian casualties are always avoidable, because I know theyre not. What I am saying is that its sad that our government officials can go out and kill countless civilians, all in the name of our freedom, and rest easy at night knowing that theyre not in any danger of being held accountable for their seemingly careless miscues (note that this accusation rests on the accuracy of the video). Im reminded of the question that was going around the web not too long ago: If there was a button that, when pushed, gave you a million dollars, but at the same time killed a random person somewhere in the world, would you push it? Of course all sane people said no, theres no way they could live with themselves if they did. But here we are, so eager to press that proverbial button, only instead of a million dollars, the button rewards us with freedom. Dont get me wrong -- I love my freedom. But I hate that it comes at such a terrible price. I leave you with this: take a minute to consider the cost of your freedom (and I dont mean from the typical U.S. fallen soldier angle, with all due respect to them). As morbid as it sounds: dont take for granted that your freedom could very well mean someone elses death - someone who didnt choose to be born in the unluckiest of countries - someone who very well may be a person with greater passion, humility, and positive virtues than you and I.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 07:52:38 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015