Terrorism

What happens as a result of terrorist acts is horrific. People going to work, kids going to school; their lives ended tragically in mere seconds. Most human beings, myself included feel so personally devastated and emotionally distraught when individuals and their families have to experience such physical pain and terror.

It's so hard to understand and a sad commentary on this world that the human race hasn't risen above terror as a tool to better address grievances and defend a particular way of life. George Bush, said the war against terror in Iraq was going well.

I wonder if he meant it was going well for all the soldiers and their families killed this week in Iraq. I wonder if he meant it was going well for all the civilian's killed in Iraq; more than 125,000 by the most conservative of estimates. Killed in a war that was justified by lies, for the benefit of American oil companies and defense contractors. I wonder if he feels for all those that die? Or don't Iraqi men, women and children count or feel pain? Perhaps only Americans and British citizens count and feel pain. The war on terror is not going to be won by military might.

The war on terror is not going to be won by additional military forays into sovereign Moslem countries. The war on terror is not going to be won by fulfilling the prophecies of the most radical Islam clerics and guaranteeing more generations of disenfranchised Islamic youth who see a Jihad against the oppressor as their only resort. The war on terror is not going to be won by the United States support of the corrupt governments in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, continuing to man military bases in Islam's holiest lands. The war on terror is not going to be won by the United States continued support of Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands and their oppression of the Palestinian people. The war on terror is not going to be won until the United States and other wealthy countries address the root causes of poverty, disease, starvation and hopelessness.

A Lesson Learned

I wonder if we have l learned anything. I recall post election , when the Bush family court awarded the presidency to the fair haired boy wonder of Yale fraternity drink fests and executions. My initial despair and nausea at that profound moment soon gave way to a more selfish but beneficial calmness; perhaps akin to what someone feels when strapped to the gurney as the first numbing drops are felt. Not dead yet but heading in that direction. Blazing profundity soon followed, "the American people got what they deserve". We did didn't we? It's our collective responsibility after all isn't it, rigged election aside. It shouldn't have even been close. The con man is to blame of course for flunking morality 101A but the persons conned were at best colossally stupid. I wonder which is worse and wonder even more if a lesson was learned.

They Are Still Killing Baby Seals

I humbly beg you to read this. It's a personal plea from me. Every Spring in Newfoundland and Eastern Canadian provinces the seal hunt will start. Baby harp seals will be dragged screaming from their mothers and clubbed to death and shot in front of them in as cruel and inhumane act as a human being is capable of. Their bodies are then dragged away using wooden poles with hooks. More than 350,000 seals were slaughtered in the 2006 seal hunt. A staggering 98.5% of the seals killed were three months old or younger!, some of them skinned while still conscious and able to feel pain. These animals are mainly used for their pelts, for fashion purposes. This is why they club them repeatedly in the head, so as not to ruin the pelt. Understanding people have presented countless proposals to the Canadian government as to alternative income sources that could be arranged if they would agree to stop this barbaric and cruel hunt. Studies have shown that eco-tourism would bring in many times more the income annually then the hunt does. A model for this is whale watching as whales were hunted for years and replaced as an income source by countless whale watching excursions. There are also funded buy-back programs and a myriad of other financial alternatives that have been presented to no avail. I plead with you to join the boycott of Canadian seafood products!; financial pressure is the only way to stand up for these precious animals that have no choice or voice. Don't buy Canadian snow crab, cod, salmon, scallops, and shrimp until Canada ends its commercial seal hunt for good and please do not ever eat at Red Lobster the biggest importer of Canadian seafood. Just remember; next year around the end of March while you sit comfortably in your home eating dinner, laughing, enjoying your families and friends as you should be....thousands of these precious, lovable, feeling babies will meet a painful, barbaric fate in front of their mothers who gave birth to them a month or so earlier. PLEASE DON'T BUY CANADIAN SEAFOOD PRODUCTS! Ask at your store or restaurants where the seafood comes from and if they don't know or won't answer do not buy it. As Ghandi said, "We must be the change we wish to see".