Trouble trouble trouble in the capitol city...

Just today I received a forwarded letter via email from a frustrated airline pilot.  It's probably another fake one but it did aptly describe a lot of folks frustration with the Muslim world. People on the right favor nuclear annihilation while the left offer platitudes and placation. Somewhere in between lies the answer, but damn, that's a spread with a lot of possibilities.

I feel the frustration. A reckoning is coming and it will take ALL of us, Jew, Gentile AND Muslim to vanquish fanaticism. ALL religions have had their zealots who willfully divorce themselves from reason fearing what they BELIEVE is threatened by non-believers. Intellectual laziness is the well-spring of our shared malaise. It is a sad fact that the Islamic religion appears hijacked by the most vociferous and violence indoctrinated adherents. Their ignorance is everyone's burden.

History is littered with the bodies of the innocent murdered at the hands of well-meaning men believing they were doing God's bidding. Dressed in robes and toting AK47s, the fearful in the faith are easily cowed into compliance. Gutenberg knew this and printed the Holy Bible so everyone could get a fair shake at salvation. Papal polity be damned! I'm thinking that Islam needs a Gutenberg to blow the lid off.  Having their own home-grown Martin Luther wouldn't hurt either.

When examined from an analytical point of view all religions are flawed. Even my own. Too few of us do the hard work of analysis or take the time to gain a proper perspective of our chosen faith with it's incongruities, inconsistencies and contradictions. We'd rather trust some cleric or priest or mullah or group or parent or favorite holy man to tell us what is what, and once thoroughly indoctrinated, we hardly ever question again out of fear of ostracization, stoning or worse--a change of heart.

Our forefathers understood this and shied away from codifying religion into our new civilization. They would 'make no laws' with regards to the establishment thereof. Ancient Rome understood this too and kept them distinct and separate. What we are witnessing now in the Islamic world is one where the lines are not just blurred but obliterated. If they do not reform, and soon, the world at large will turn against them and a whole lot more innocent blood will be needlessly spilled.  Allahu Akbar indeed.

Someone to blame...

It's happened again.  This time in San Bernardino.  Why are we so surprised?  A free society is always a messy business.  Is it any wonder that the anti-gun crowd is foaming at their collective pie holes again?  They peruse the same flawed logic table that blames the sun for a sunburn, water for drowning and gravity for broken hips.  They are an ambulance chasers wet-dream.  I get it.  Really, I do.  We gotta blame somebody.  Blame the inanimate object.  Blame the jihadist.  Oh, and the NRA.

If you lose someone to a senseless act, every neuron in your brain wants to know WHY.  Just as every cell in your body cries out for revenge.  But nothing will salve the feeling of loss and bereavement.   In our anger we are pitiful creatures with clenched fists swinging wildly at the unrelenting frustration over our inability to prevent tragedy.  But we should guard against the demonizing of a segment of our society for the misdeeds of a few.  Our loss is their loss too.  When we give-in to blood-lust we are all diminished.

Hatred doesn't need facts or reason to exist, only heat.  The kind of heat created by the friction between what we know and what we do not.  We know the loss but we don't know why.  Only when we believe we know why, can we move toward catharsis.  And we all need catharsis.  Problem is, we'll kill for that too.  Just give us a target.  Just give us some THING to kill and we will all feel better in the morning.  This is the fecund soil in which tyrants sew the seeds of genocide.

Justice is a concept we hold above revenge as a forestalling of the bloodletting we crave.  A poultice for our wounded spirit.  Whenever the perpetrator of our anguish is dealt with, we rejoice or at least breathe a sigh of relief.  Only then do we realize our folly--that no one is spared from hatred.  Everybody loses.  There is little sport in the rendering of justice.  Nor should there be. Don't get me wrong, I am for justice and a righteous bloodletting when it is warranted. 

Unfortunately, the deranged, like the poor, will always be with us.  They will take many forms and they will always demand our best efforts in order to prevent tragedies both large and small whenever we can.  Stripping access to guns from the law abiding is simplistic and foolhardy at best.  We all have a part to play and it involves caring for each other.  That is where understanding and  healing awaits us all. 

After all, we are still our brother's keeper.