Foreign Hypocrisy, Protestant Theology, and more Hate Crimes

Siblings,

I've got a lot on my mind this morning that I'm going to hit you with. Maybe I should have broken it up into several posts, but, as I'm already the only one posting (cough cough) I thought I'd just stick with the one.

First off, the Washington Post reports that foreign newspapers are using the tragedy at Tech as an opportunity to criticize what they deem to be a violent American society. Some simply point at our lax gun laws, others cite a culture that tends towards violence to solve our problems rather than dialogue and others go so far as to say that the shooting was a direct result of our foreign policy. I have a couple of things to say about that. A) Fuck the media, including our own. I understand that with a 24 hour news cycle you end up saying the same things over and over again, but I am not sympathetic when you turn tragedy into your own soap opera for the sake of ratings. Yes, Fox 9 I am talking to you. CAMPUS MASSACRE, join us as we interview students and break up a prayer vigil to give you LIVE coverage of TRAGEDY. B) An extra fuck you to the foreign media. This is not a story of Marines being killed in action, this is obviously just a horrific event. You don't politicize this. I don't care if it happened in Nazi Germany, you would say, this is horrible, I'm so sorry. That's it. It's called ethics. And C) a great big giant Fuck Off to France, you hypocritical toad sucking bastards. Quoting the article:

"I'm not saying that it could only happen in the U.S.A.; no one could prevent someone from shooting people in the Sorbonne," said Pierre Chiquet, a 77-year-old retired aerospace engineer, referring to a Paris university. "But violence is more imbued in American society than in ours. The most dramatic aspect is that they even transport their violence to the rest of the world."

I seem to remember it wasn't that long ago that French cities were paralyzed by violence. Did I dream it? Nope.

Sigh. It seems like every time I start to feel like I can't identify with my own country, that I am a citizen of the world, a liberal, a progressive, an intellectual, I am reminded just how much foreigners piss me off.

Moving on. So, as any self-respecting protestant, I believe that I am a sinful being. I recognize the dual nature of humanity - we are both of this kingdom and of the next. Therefore, in any endeavor I wish to succeed, I should build in a certain amount of safeguards - checks and balances, if you will. The last week I've been down. I don't know why I've been down exactly, and though usually I consciously think about the reasons why I'm sad, I didn't even notice objectively this time around. Thinking back, I think I was more bored than anything - but as you guys know, bored when you're relatively lonely ends up equalling down. I'm not sure of the cause, it just happens to me and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. However, it did occur to me that it might have a simple cause. I can't remember if I posted about this but recently I made a resolution to walk everyday, read everyday, write 1 page of something everyday, and read a passage from the bible, writing out a prayer so I could hold it better. Ambitious? Maybe. But I was keeping my resolution tolerably well. I was walking at least 4 times a week, and reading, and even keeping the prayer journal idea. And I felt better, if only because that gave me a focused task for an hour and a half everyday.

The weather turned bad. I didn't walk. I'd really like to think my sanity was not so fragile, but I think it may be. I stopped reading and seriously praying. I got sad. It's dumb but I think good protestant theology tells me I should expect this. We are weak and fragile creatures, but God is good and strong. So what's the point? you ask, bored with such a long post already. I am proposing a method of safeguards - each other. I'm proposing a sort of group bible study - but not in the traditional sense. I stumbled across a great idea over at Slate. David Plotz, a Jew who believed he more or less knew the bible, has decided to read the bible all the way through, paying attention to all those passages that we normally just let slip by. Click on the link, he does a better job of describing it than I do. It made me think - how well do I know the bible? I mean, I'm more than willing to admit it's got it's fair share of mistakes but I still believe it not only contains truth but Truth and it is the basis for the way I structure my life (along with The Goonies - which, incidentally, might be made into a musical). Anyway, we could read it through together, maybe a chapter a day, maybe a book a week, however we want to do it. We could rotate who takes the lead post voicing concerns, and the others could comment. I think it could really help me, at least, and I know I'd be more likely to do it if we set a schedule ahead of time and held each other accountable. I may try it by myself if you guys aren't interested, but I think it would be a better group activity.

And finally, considering my ire over the media, I should make a disclaimer about the Hate Crimes post I made the other day. The legislation isn't as insidious as I believed. What it does is make crimes that specifically target those with variant sexual orientations federal cases, just like racial minority cases are. I'm still not so keen on the idea of making bigotry a federal offense, but this could be a necessary step to curb abuses by state authorities. We'll see.

Hit me back on this one - I think I might email you to say I've posted.

By the way, because even though we say it, you can't say it enough. I love you guys, and I'm glad it was Tech and not UNH and not UMW.

Warnie