05-03-2011, 10:37 PM
haikuman wrote:
Goodhousekeeping requires taking out the trash/garbage...sometimes even if it is in one of your neighbors yard it needs to be done... disease and all manner of miscreants live within the garbage of society... there will always be a need to remove the garbage and there will always be a need for courageous men to make the decisions, and more courageous men to undertake the task.
A good thing is just that... a good thing. Acceptance is a road cluttered with false purchase.
Perhaps in reality we just need to let go .......
Rudie
Rudie,
Thanks for your thoughts on this. I think that you have a point insofar as the whole world is burdened by the responsibility to stop people like Osama bin Laden. However, your phrasing does bother me a bit: "disease and all manner of miscreants live within the garbage of society...there will always be a need to remove the garbage."
I realize you're referring here to terrorists like OBL and i acknowledge that. However, i'm reminded that despots and terrorists justify the purge and slaughter of their opponents with words like this. Many folks here have expressed their justifiable venom toward OBL and his associates; he was an eminently hateful and hateable character. But i am going to push back, gently, against any characterization of a person as a disease, or vermin, garbage, or otherwise inhuman. OBL's zeal for characterizing Americans, other Westerners, and moderate Muslims as unworthy of basic human dignity was a key aspect of his evil endeavor. I think that when we return the favor, we do ourselves a disservice and forget what it is that makes us better than he was.
I'm sorry if it seems like i'm picking on ya; i think you can tell i'm addressing a broader trend here than just your comment. Also, i know you're not prone to dehumanizing folks
- this is a subject that seems to bring it out in a lot of us. You're right about the President acting on his principles; it does take courage to stand up against a wrong, even if it's unpopular.