Saturday, March 13, 2004

An Alien Way of Thinking As I was browsing my way through the blogosphere the other day I came across this over at Michele's site and it got me thinking: I think of mothers in other countries, mothers who praise their god when their son dies in a suicide bombing because he was able to kill many "enemies." I think of fathers who train their children in the use of explosives, parents who dress their children in weaponry and ammunition, parents who teach their children that killing is good, that being a martyr will get you free sex in the afterlife. I can't imagine raising my child to die. I don't know what it's like to have a policeman knock on your door in the middle of the night to say your son has been arrested for manslaughter. I don't know what it's like to have your daughter call you from a payphone in the city, asking you for help in getting away from her pimp. I don't want to know. I think that one of the conceits we have as Americans is we think that people all over the world think the same way we do and want the same things. The fact is, there are people in this world whose entire mindset and way of thinking is as alien as if they came from another galaxy. We had better begin to understand that since we're going to have to deal with these people for a long time. File under Rants and Raves. 4:10:46 PM