The rite of passage from childhood to adulthood relinquishes the right to such irresponsibility. The whole process of maturation teaches the protection of children at all costs. Animals, both wild and domestic, abide by these instincts unconditionally. It is the aberrant adult dog who kills a puppy. And on the rare occasion such anomaly occurs, it confounds attendant humans due to the sheer unnaturalness of the act.
Our expectation for the compassion of canines transcends like expectations we hold for ourselves.
In the current debacle between Israel and Hezbollah, with the mounting deaths of Lebanese children, it is unconscionable for Israel to justify murdering these children by labeling them embeds of Hezbollah. One should convulse in shame at the insidiousness of such a declaration. To publicly declare the right to kill a child using proximity as exoneration of guilt, forfeits any claim to humanity. To willingly betray the life of a child, betrays every principal learned during the "normal" ascendancy from child to adult.
Sadly, this badge of inhumanity isn't only worn by Israel who slays the children of Lebanon. Or by the Hezbollah who slay the children of Israel. It is worn by the Sudanese, who willingly decimate the children of Darfur. It is worn by the Congolese soldiers who savage the children of Congo. It was worn a dozen years earlier in Rwanda, when willing Hutus murdered hundreds of thousands of Tutsi children in a span of 100 days. The same badge of inhumanity was worn in Bosnia by the Serbs who murdered Muslim children, by the Turks who murdered Armenian children, by the Nazis who murdered Jewish children, and on and on and on.
Throughout the history of un-civilization, the badge of inhumanity has been worn by one genocidal ideology after another.
Shamefully, this very same badge of inhumanity is also worn by the United States, where I live. Where the Government's decision to willingly overtake the nation of Iraq has triggered the murders of tens of thousands of children. And where the ideological refusal to support a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel willingly adds to the murders of Lebanese and Israeli children each and every day.
Even though Hezbollah has stated its willingness to honor a ceasefire with Israel, Mr. Bush, along with his former incompetent National Security Advisor and current incompetent Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, believes Israel has the right to pursue its arbitrary barrage on Lebanon, with no neighborhood, no apartment building, no hospital, no school, no market, removed from its artillery sights.
As a resident of the United States, I am by default, in the eyes of the world, a presumed willing supporter of the murders of Lebanese and Israeli children. The President of this nation and members of both Houses of Congress overwhelmingly endorse the continued military assault by Israel upon Lebanon, which indiscriminately kills more children every day. Just as Israelis presume the people of Lebanon endorse Hezbollah when they share the same region, the world will presume I endorse Mr. Bush when we share the same nation.
More egregiously, just as Israelis and Hezbollah sacrifice each other's children for the 'crime' of shared terrain, so one day may America's children be sacrificed for sharing terrain with the world's most undeniably hated man, George W. Bush.
Horrifying, but not unlikely, if Bush is allowed to stay on.
As the daughter of a Jewish American mother and Italian American father, a second generation American living in the United States, I am bound by the laws of this nation, governed by its regulatory agencies, and represented to the world by its elected officials. But when the beliefs and behaviors of those elected officials are in constant moral opposition to my own, I can no longer permit them to represent me. I refuse to have the citizens of the world, my global brothers and sisters, believe I am a willing partner to imperial atrocities. Worst of all, to the murder of children.
If one unquestioningly subscribes to the mantra "America, love it or leave it," one is blind to the more essential mantra, "Humanity, love it or grieve it." My refusal to be morally distorted by George W. Bush can only be accomplished by relinquishing all connection to his governance. As of now, I don't know how to categorize the state of residing in a nation as a full citizen while not governed by its leadership. I didn't vote for this leadership and I'm not willing to remain a voiceless mass falsely portrayed by the Bush imperial regime. I must somehow broadcast beyond the borders of America that residing within its boundaries are millions of leaderless, unrepresented lovers of peace trying unceasingly to win back their nation. Not just to save America. But to save the whole world. To save the children. The children.
For now, I'll contend I'm a Bush government ex-patriot living in the United States. I won't seek out another nation. This is MY nation and I'm a viable entity within it. I uphold its Constitution. I pay my taxes. I make my living. I honor my neighbors. I feel no superiority to those beyond its borders. I share conscientiously in our nation and our planet.
But I have NO GOVERNMENT. I'm a disenfranchised American. George Bush doesn't know my heart. He's never looked in my eyes and seen my "soul." If he did look in my eyes, he'd see a disenfranchised American looking back. Not with warmth or admiration. Not as a member of his electorate. But as an ex-patriot of his government who resides within the nation. A disenfranchised American.
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