Lately I've been wishing I had one desire
Something that would make me never want another
Something that would make it so that nothing mattered
All would be clear then
But I guess I'll have to settle for a few brief moments
And watch it all dissolve into a single second
And try to write it down into a perfect sonnet or one foolish line'
Cause that's all that you'll get so you'll have to accept
You are here then you're gone
But I believe that lovers should be tied together
Thrown into the ocean in the worst of weather
left there to drown
Left there to drown in their innocence
But as for me I'm coming to the final chapter
I read all of the pages and there is still no answer
Only all that was before
I know must soon come after
That is the only way it can be
So I stand in the sun
And I breathe with my lungs
Trying to spare me the weight of the truth
Saying everything you've ever seen was just a mirror
And you've spent your whole life sweating in an endless fever
And now you are laying in a bathtub full of freezing water
Wishing you were a ghost
But once you knew a girl and you named her Lover
And danced with her in kitchens through the greenest summer
But autumn came, She disappeared
You can't remember where she said she was going to
But you know that she's gone 'cause she left you a song
That you don't want to sing
We're singing
I believe that lovers should be chained together
And thrown into a fire with their songs and letters
And left there to burn
Left there to burn in their arrogance
But as for me I'm coming to my final failure
I've killed myself with changes trying to make things better
But I ended up becoming something other than what I had planned to be
Now I believe that lovers should be draped in flowers
And layed entwined together on a bed of clover
And left there to sleep
Left there to dream of their happiness..
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Monday, February 5, 2007
be$t buy
Be$t Buy
Our world is in a state of disarray. Every time you turn on the news you hear of violence in some part of the world. What is the cause of all of this? Why do people hate each other so much? And why, is America on the heavy end of that abuse. Last semester I had an epiphany. And all at once, it seemed so clear to me.
About 5 months ago, I walked into best buy with my roommate to try and get a pair or computer speakers repaired. It was while I was standing still in the midst of all the electronic buzz around me that it all suddenly became so clear. I almost in one instant knew why every country outside of ours despises us. Why in radical Islamic countries, children are taught to hate Americans, to kill Americans, and to do anything in their power to disrupt our way of life. We act so confused and upset about this fact. How could these people who live so far away from us, hate us so much? To find the reason we must start the search from within.
As I was standing at the geek squad desk with my friend, I turned around to face the back of store, and what were my eyes greeted with? It was a wall of televisions that was at least 15' high. And it was also something else... it was on sale. Now to me, this extreme form of excess is just unnecessary. I mean how could that even be comfortable to watch? But to others, who do not know, and will never even come close to fathoming the means it would take to purchase such an item, what else could they think? How could they not view us as stupid? As a ridiculous, wasteful, and insecure people.
To me, someone who buys something like that is just that. insecure. you don't buy a 30' TV because it brings you inner peace, or happiness. it may on Sundays, when we like to watch football, but soon it will rot away in the corner of your home, just like all the other "toys" you have bought. we buy things like that so that others will admire us, and worse than admiration, we want their envy. we want them to idolize us for the huge TV we have. we want them to feel greedy towards us and wish that they had as much money as we did. with this mentality, it's quite easy to see why we garner so much anger from the global community. and why, until we change our selfish ways, we will be locked in a never-ending struggle of culture.
Samuel Huntington proposed his "Clash of Civilizations" thesis in the late 1990's and it seemed to be proven beyond a shadow of doubt with the incidents that occurred on September 11th. he proposed that conflict is more likely to occur between states of different civilizations. a "civilization", according to Huntington, is "the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity people have short of that which distinguishes humans from other species." He also goes on to say that the central defining characteristic of a civilization is its religion. He lists nine major historical religions to which he assigns every state. They are Sinic, Japanese, Hindu, Islamic, Orthodox, Western, Latin American, Buddhist, and possibly African. And finally, according to Huntington, "people rally to those with similar ancestry, religion, language, values, and institutions, and distance themselves from those with different characteristics." This is the key.
Much research has been done to disprove or modify Huntington's theory, but I believe that the basis of his argument is true. People flock together according to similar beliefs and interests, and tend to be ethnocentric and very counteractive towards anything or anyone who is different. That is why we look at almost every other country in confusion at the things that they do. We fail to try and understand why things are the way they are before we try to act and change them so that they are more suitable to our agenda. Such is the case in Iraq.
The purpose of this is not to be anti-war propaganda. Because to be anti-war at this point in time does no good for anyone. If you look in the newspapers, everyday there are reports of 10's if not 100's of Iraqi's being killed. Daily. This past week alone, over 1000 Iraqi's were killed according to a CNN report. And yes, CNN is biased towards the left, but the fact that people are being killed in overwhelming numbers in undeniable.It seems that we Americans have gone blind to the fact that thousands are dying. We know we are at war. and we know causalities must come. But, at what point, is enough, enough. At what point do we need to re-think our plan. At what point do we need to change our focus from "freeing" a people, to "saving" a people.
This is how the war and our differing mindsets come together. For us, our biggest worry is whether or not we can get that promotion, so we can buy a new car, or take our wives on a vacation to some exotic island in the south pacific. But for other inhabitants of this earth, their worries center on trying to avoid being killed walking down the street. Trying to keep their children out of random gunfire bursting throughout the neighborhood street. Or dodging a truck full of explosives aimed at a marketplace.
Again this is not an anti-war speech. This is, in fact, an anti-greed speech.
While we spend $60 on t-shirts at the mall, children dig through landfills just to find enough to feed their families. While we contemplate which new LCD flat-screen HDTV we need to get before next football season, women are forced to work 70hr. weeks in sweatshops being paid, sometimes, less than 10 cents an hour. And even taking into account the fact that the standard of living in a country such as Bangladesh is much lower than here, take into account the social ramifications of a work week such as that. Children with no one at home to care for them, and most of the time forced to work themselves.
What we need in this nation is a change. Not a political change. Not a change from Republican to Democrat. Not even a change from liberal to conservative. We need a change in our minds. We need to shift our way of thinking. We need to realize that we have so much in our nation. Even the people who are "poor", have so much. If we claim to be a humanitarian nation, we must be such. We must not feel compelled to work just to accrue more possessions. If we do this, we might just be on our way to solving our problems. The problems of hatred, and violence that have plagued us.
Back to Best Buy. The next time you feel the urge to go buy a new ipod, or stereo system, just take a moment and look around. Take everything in that you see. All the goods, all the excess that surrounds you. Then, just for a minute, imagine yourself as a person who lives far, far away in a country where a year's wage could maybe make a dent into some of the down payments. Think of how lost they would feel. how alienated. How indescribably confused and angry they would be. Seeing us run around like we have someone to go. Grabbing as many things as we can, and swiping our plastic cards and run out just as fast as we had run in. Just think of how that would feel. Just for a minute.
We need a change of our mental state. Because right now, that is the state that is in the most disarray.
-I need to give a lot of credit to one of my former professors, Dr. Errol Henderson, for a lot of his research was included in this.
Our world is in a state of disarray. Every time you turn on the news you hear of violence in some part of the world. What is the cause of all of this? Why do people hate each other so much? And why, is America on the heavy end of that abuse. Last semester I had an epiphany. And all at once, it seemed so clear to me.
About 5 months ago, I walked into best buy with my roommate to try and get a pair or computer speakers repaired. It was while I was standing still in the midst of all the electronic buzz around me that it all suddenly became so clear. I almost in one instant knew why every country outside of ours despises us. Why in radical Islamic countries, children are taught to hate Americans, to kill Americans, and to do anything in their power to disrupt our way of life. We act so confused and upset about this fact. How could these people who live so far away from us, hate us so much? To find the reason we must start the search from within.
As I was standing at the geek squad desk with my friend, I turned around to face the back of store, and what were my eyes greeted with? It was a wall of televisions that was at least 15' high. And it was also something else... it was on sale. Now to me, this extreme form of excess is just unnecessary. I mean how could that even be comfortable to watch? But to others, who do not know, and will never even come close to fathoming the means it would take to purchase such an item, what else could they think? How could they not view us as stupid? As a ridiculous, wasteful, and insecure people.
To me, someone who buys something like that is just that. insecure. you don't buy a 30' TV because it brings you inner peace, or happiness. it may on Sundays, when we like to watch football, but soon it will rot away in the corner of your home, just like all the other "toys" you have bought. we buy things like that so that others will admire us, and worse than admiration, we want their envy. we want them to idolize us for the huge TV we have. we want them to feel greedy towards us and wish that they had as much money as we did. with this mentality, it's quite easy to see why we garner so much anger from the global community. and why, until we change our selfish ways, we will be locked in a never-ending struggle of culture.
Samuel Huntington proposed his "Clash of Civilizations" thesis in the late 1990's and it seemed to be proven beyond a shadow of doubt with the incidents that occurred on September 11th. he proposed that conflict is more likely to occur between states of different civilizations. a "civilization", according to Huntington, is "the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity people have short of that which distinguishes humans from other species." He also goes on to say that the central defining characteristic of a civilization is its religion. He lists nine major historical religions to which he assigns every state. They are Sinic, Japanese, Hindu, Islamic, Orthodox, Western, Latin American, Buddhist, and possibly African. And finally, according to Huntington, "people rally to those with similar ancestry, religion, language, values, and institutions, and distance themselves from those with different characteristics." This is the key.
Much research has been done to disprove or modify Huntington's theory, but I believe that the basis of his argument is true. People flock together according to similar beliefs and interests, and tend to be ethnocentric and very counteractive towards anything or anyone who is different. That is why we look at almost every other country in confusion at the things that they do. We fail to try and understand why things are the way they are before we try to act and change them so that they are more suitable to our agenda. Such is the case in Iraq.
The purpose of this is not to be anti-war propaganda. Because to be anti-war at this point in time does no good for anyone. If you look in the newspapers, everyday there are reports of 10's if not 100's of Iraqi's being killed. Daily. This past week alone, over 1000 Iraqi's were killed according to a CNN report. And yes, CNN is biased towards the left, but the fact that people are being killed in overwhelming numbers in undeniable.It seems that we Americans have gone blind to the fact that thousands are dying. We know we are at war. and we know causalities must come. But, at what point, is enough, enough. At what point do we need to re-think our plan. At what point do we need to change our focus from "freeing" a people, to "saving" a people.
This is how the war and our differing mindsets come together. For us, our biggest worry is whether or not we can get that promotion, so we can buy a new car, or take our wives on a vacation to some exotic island in the south pacific. But for other inhabitants of this earth, their worries center on trying to avoid being killed walking down the street. Trying to keep their children out of random gunfire bursting throughout the neighborhood street. Or dodging a truck full of explosives aimed at a marketplace.
Again this is not an anti-war speech. This is, in fact, an anti-greed speech.
While we spend $60 on t-shirts at the mall, children dig through landfills just to find enough to feed their families. While we contemplate which new LCD flat-screen HDTV we need to get before next football season, women are forced to work 70hr. weeks in sweatshops being paid, sometimes, less than 10 cents an hour. And even taking into account the fact that the standard of living in a country such as Bangladesh is much lower than here, take into account the social ramifications of a work week such as that. Children with no one at home to care for them, and most of the time forced to work themselves.
What we need in this nation is a change. Not a political change. Not a change from Republican to Democrat. Not even a change from liberal to conservative. We need a change in our minds. We need to shift our way of thinking. We need to realize that we have so much in our nation. Even the people who are "poor", have so much. If we claim to be a humanitarian nation, we must be such. We must not feel compelled to work just to accrue more possessions. If we do this, we might just be on our way to solving our problems. The problems of hatred, and violence that have plagued us.
Back to Best Buy. The next time you feel the urge to go buy a new ipod, or stereo system, just take a moment and look around. Take everything in that you see. All the goods, all the excess that surrounds you. Then, just for a minute, imagine yourself as a person who lives far, far away in a country where a year's wage could maybe make a dent into some of the down payments. Think of how lost they would feel. how alienated. How indescribably confused and angry they would be. Seeing us run around like we have someone to go. Grabbing as many things as we can, and swiping our plastic cards and run out just as fast as we had run in. Just think of how that would feel. Just for a minute.
We need a change of our mental state. Because right now, that is the state that is in the most disarray.
-I need to give a lot of credit to one of my former professors, Dr. Errol Henderson, for a lot of his research was included in this.
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