December 14, 2012,
While many of you were busy spending money on Christmas gifts or at work like myself, a young man, armed with an arsenal of weapons and his soon to be deceased brother's ID walked into an elementary school and took the lives of 28 people, 20 of them being children.
The details of what happened next are only important for the law enforcement officials investigating the crime scene. Everything else falls on to the important question of how something like this could have occurred?
Why do terrorists bomb plazas? Why do gunmen aim at often innocent and unarmed individuals?
Death is a natural progression within humanity and society at large, we are born and we eventually die. What is key however, is the importance of progression, we live to grow and eventually hope to die in old age. When the lives of people are taken away in such a cruel manner and "before their time", people stand back in awe and begin to question. This is a normal process during a time of crisis and here at The Political Road Map, it is relied upon as an important tool.
Do the victims a favor and yourself one to, do not worry about who this gunman was. Christmas is just around the corner, focus your energy on understanding why this action happened and more importantly on the essence of innocence and life. Unfortunate events like the one that has occurred today can be categorized as a "something has to eventually give" moment, defined only as something that makes you stand still and question why you are here. This is also why madmen, terrorists and dictators alike use violence against good and innocent people, because in society we have defined how an average life should be lived out and no one wants to die today or tomorrow. We want to live and have families and grow together, under the safety net that we believe we live in.
This is why it is important that we do not publicize the name of the individual responsible for such a disgraceful act. You want to stop further actions like this from happening, then you need to learn to deny these individuals the negative publicity they seek. You see, whether this cowardly action occurs on the micro or macro level, it is done simply to gather a name for the individual(s) involved. Breaking the safety net we call society is how individuals believe they will be remembered or become idolized among others like them. If we deny these individuals that fame, we make progress toward prohibiting this kind of activity.
More importantly, our politicians need to start thinking about legislation that focuses on aiding individuals with mental illness or depression, because often times many of these brutal events are the direct result of someone falling between the cracks and thus entering a grey zone. Feeling alone, these individuals who are screaming for help, are left with nothing but emptiness that they unfortunately end up filling with anger.
Give your family an extra hug tonight and count your blessings, you exist, your alive and were lucky enough to not be in the path of a bullet today. If only people would consider these important questions on a daily basis and not only when something bad has happened, who knows what progress we could achieve.
Peace Upon You,
Until Next Time!
Friday, December 14, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
What Israel/Palestine Need are an Icon
I get it, your wondering why I am still blogging about this topic after the media has already seemed to forget about it in it's entirety! My answer to you is that here at the Political Road Map, we do not forget about things that easily, it is tough, but this is politics and that is how the game is played!
We all know how Stephen Harper feels about Palestine and he is welcome to show his opinion on the matter. Now, to stop myself from becoming an all out anti-Harper blogger, I will say that politically, Harper took a hard stand in an attempt to somehow portray to the world that Canada is tired of being a middle player. Essentially, The "Palestinian Rejection" as I will phrase is Harper's Vimy Ridge; an example of our country going it alone, while the rest do nothing or choose the other side. Personally, he is still a dummy either way, but that is not important right now.
Palestine and Israel, I do not know why I feel so compelled to continue thinking of these two players in the Middle East, but given that the current flavour of the decade seems to be Middle East conflict, it is pretty hard to just ignore them.
Israel has been successful in giving the Palestinians an identity, I mean what better way to build a nation than external conflict that threatens it's people? This may seem harsh, but conflict is an essential part of nation building and the Middle East is full of it. The Palestinians have returned the favor to Israel and allowed them to also further unify their own people, even though the international community seems to be favoring the Palestinian position right now. In the most crude way possible, you could say we have a continued conflict between Arab rejects( Palestinians) and persecuted rejects (Israeli's). Get the record straight now, by using this comparison, I do not mean any disrespect to either people. If I detested either, I wouldn't be spending time thinking about their conflict or writing this entry at...3:08AM.
The Palestinian people need an icon, a saviour of sorts that does not choose to grab a rocket everytime he/she gets a temper flare. Israel likewise needs an individual that can look at the Palestinians and see hope of a future friendship and overall prosperity for both. The problem however and utter travesty is that these icons most likely exist, but are currently being muted by the radicals on both sides, who have essentially hijacked the peace process.
Ideally, this individual would be of Palestinian and Israeli blood, one who could capture the moderates from both sides and get a true peace process going. The stunt pulled at the United Nations recently is only going to activate something in Peace Studies we call: Fight, Flight or Flee.
We know Israel cannot flee, since they are living on land that cannot be moved. We also know that Israel will leave all out conflict to a last resort, given the international heat put on them and the continued threats coming from Iran. In the absence of the other two choices, we are left with an Israel who is in "posture mode". This means Israel is going to flex it's muscle and show off in some way in order to calm it's attacker down and make a statement. This all makes sense, because we are currently hearing from the media that the Israeli government plans to expand it's controversial settlement plan.
Let us go back to the idea of an Israeli/Palestinian icon. Someone who will choose nonviolence and discussion in order to make a statement that will inspire. Someone so nonviolent, that they will be considered a radical in the eyes of the actual radicals, who are still holding on to their rockets. This individual would encompass traits found in both Gandhi and Martin Luther King. They will organize events among Israelis and Palestinians that will most likely erupt in controversy and lead to some severe beatings, but given all of this anger and hatred, this icon will not use violence.
As time passes, the moderates who follow this icon will eventually become influential themselves, so much so that others will be forced to listen and thus begin a true process of change. This change again will not come easy, but will be necessary in finding the common ground (and there is much) that both the Israeli's and Palestinians share.
This will be the path to success that both parties have fought so hard now to achieve. I understand why the United Nations vote would seem important, but it will do nothing but further divide two people who should be close. Granted, it is not easy befriending someone who denies the Holocaust and utters death threats to you, but the idiots who post online from the comfort of their computer can be quelled with a little bit of education and inspiration. You are not going to stop hatred if you feed it with more hatred, Martin Luther King said famously that: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that, hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."
This is what Palestine and Israel need to confront and admit, that they both share a bond, a love, that this future icon will show them.
What we have here is simply two outcasts spending all of this time finding reasons to deny the other or explain why they are different, when in reality, looking in a mirror shows that they share much more than they claim to deny.
Until Next Time!
We all know how Stephen Harper feels about Palestine and he is welcome to show his opinion on the matter. Now, to stop myself from becoming an all out anti-Harper blogger, I will say that politically, Harper took a hard stand in an attempt to somehow portray to the world that Canada is tired of being a middle player. Essentially, The "Palestinian Rejection" as I will phrase is Harper's Vimy Ridge; an example of our country going it alone, while the rest do nothing or choose the other side. Personally, he is still a dummy either way, but that is not important right now.
Palestine and Israel, I do not know why I feel so compelled to continue thinking of these two players in the Middle East, but given that the current flavour of the decade seems to be Middle East conflict, it is pretty hard to just ignore them.
Israel has been successful in giving the Palestinians an identity, I mean what better way to build a nation than external conflict that threatens it's people? This may seem harsh, but conflict is an essential part of nation building and the Middle East is full of it. The Palestinians have returned the favor to Israel and allowed them to also further unify their own people, even though the international community seems to be favoring the Palestinian position right now. In the most crude way possible, you could say we have a continued conflict between Arab rejects( Palestinians) and persecuted rejects (Israeli's). Get the record straight now, by using this comparison, I do not mean any disrespect to either people. If I detested either, I wouldn't be spending time thinking about their conflict or writing this entry at...3:08AM.
The Palestinian people need an icon, a saviour of sorts that does not choose to grab a rocket everytime he/she gets a temper flare. Israel likewise needs an individual that can look at the Palestinians and see hope of a future friendship and overall prosperity for both. The problem however and utter travesty is that these icons most likely exist, but are currently being muted by the radicals on both sides, who have essentially hijacked the peace process.
Ideally, this individual would be of Palestinian and Israeli blood, one who could capture the moderates from both sides and get a true peace process going. The stunt pulled at the United Nations recently is only going to activate something in Peace Studies we call: Fight, Flight or Flee.
We know Israel cannot flee, since they are living on land that cannot be moved. We also know that Israel will leave all out conflict to a last resort, given the international heat put on them and the continued threats coming from Iran. In the absence of the other two choices, we are left with an Israel who is in "posture mode". This means Israel is going to flex it's muscle and show off in some way in order to calm it's attacker down and make a statement. This all makes sense, because we are currently hearing from the media that the Israeli government plans to expand it's controversial settlement plan.
Let us go back to the idea of an Israeli/Palestinian icon. Someone who will choose nonviolence and discussion in order to make a statement that will inspire. Someone so nonviolent, that they will be considered a radical in the eyes of the actual radicals, who are still holding on to their rockets. This individual would encompass traits found in both Gandhi and Martin Luther King. They will organize events among Israelis and Palestinians that will most likely erupt in controversy and lead to some severe beatings, but given all of this anger and hatred, this icon will not use violence.
As time passes, the moderates who follow this icon will eventually become influential themselves, so much so that others will be forced to listen and thus begin a true process of change. This change again will not come easy, but will be necessary in finding the common ground (and there is much) that both the Israeli's and Palestinians share.
This will be the path to success that both parties have fought so hard now to achieve. I understand why the United Nations vote would seem important, but it will do nothing but further divide two people who should be close. Granted, it is not easy befriending someone who denies the Holocaust and utters death threats to you, but the idiots who post online from the comfort of their computer can be quelled with a little bit of education and inspiration. You are not going to stop hatred if you feed it with more hatred, Martin Luther King said famously that: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that, hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."
This is what Palestine and Israel need to confront and admit, that they both share a bond, a love, that this future icon will show them.
What we have here is simply two outcasts spending all of this time finding reasons to deny the other or explain why they are different, when in reality, looking in a mirror shows that they share much more than they claim to deny.
Until Next Time!
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