How About a Solution that Preserves Humanity This Time..

Evidently someone somewhere decided that there were some things that we as a people just wouldn’t tolerate. Using chemical weapons on people is one of those things – that it’s a bridge too far. But here’s my problem with designating one weapon as intolerable and another not so much. They all kill. They all destroy. As a mother, if my child dies due to violence of some kind, I really don’t want to debate whether or not we’re going to get outraged over it because of what weapon was used. The only thing that matters at that point is that my child is dead.

I mean, I get why some folks in this country make that distinction. After all, in this country the average person can own an assault weapon normally reserved for the military or law enforcement thanks to our insane Congress and the Bush Administration. When the Assault Weapons Ban was ended, the free for all began and now the notion of gun control is anathema to many. I guess it’s just way too cool to own really big guns. Just do a search on You Tube and you’ll see all kinds of videos of folks enjoying their machine guns. And before everyone gets all crazy, I learned to shoot when I was a child, and I own guns. But although I’ve either owned guns or been around them all of my life, I just don’t see the need to own anything automatic or semi-automatic. And I have no problem with the existence of our 2nd amendment. I think some people are confused about its interpretation, but that’s okay. It’s part of what makes living in this country interesting. We don’t always agree. And we used to have spirited debate. Now we have name calling.

This civil war in Syria has been going on for a while now. I’ve heard that 100,000 people have died as a result. And now approximately 1400 people have died because of chemical weapons, over 400 of which were children. And everyone became outraged. As they should. But where was the outrage as 100,000 were killed? Why didn’t the world stand up and intervene during all this time? Apparently two million Syrians are now refugees in neighboring countries. The humanitarian crisis this creates is devastating. I read that over half of the refugees are children. Where is our outrage for that?

I’m also tired of the whole “we can’t be the world’s policeman” meme. Sometimes we have to be the adult in the room. And sometimes that adult is a policeman. Deal with it. Having this so-called democracy has taught us a thing or two. And even though we probably shouldn’t force democracy down other countries’ throats, they really would do well to become one. It’s not perfect, as we see on a daily basis, but it’s better than what’s happening in Syria. 

And then there’s the whole “we’re guilty of the same thing” meme. Yes. We’ve been idiots too. That shouldn’t stop us from trying to help people. Maybe we atone by doing the right thing.

But here’s the thing. Surely there’s something else to do here besides bombing the crap out of them. We already know too well how that tends to work out. You know…that whole human shield thing and all. Plus, doesn’t that count as an act of war? We can call it a surgical strike, or a limited engagement, and get all freaked out at the thought of boots on the ground, but we all know what’s going to happen here. Of course there will be boots on the ground. And it’s not about regime change. Really? Of course we want regime change. You can’t leave the idiot in power to do the same thing again. Because we all know that he will. 

And how will we pay for it? The sequester is already making life difficult for the most vulnerable and the not so vulnerable. But we can go to war again? How? How can the government say to the American people that they have to wait a while longer for things to get better here? We all agree that chemical weapons are a bad thing that deserves a response. But so did everything else this idiot has done. And that’s the point. We either value life or we don’t. We can’t decide that as long as mass deaths are caused by certain weapons, then we don’t need to do anything. Not if we value life. Ideally, we should all rise up when injustice happens. But we don’t. We look the other way all the time. It’s not, as Congressman Grayson says, our problem.

Well, I disagree with the good Congressman. This is humanity’s problem. And last time I looked, we’re part of said humanity. However, it would be nice if, for once, we could come up with a response that doesn’t involve killing more people. Because I think its preservation is far better than its destruction.