i dreamt two nights ago that i watched a documentary that covered atrocities in Uzbekistan (whether or not these atrocities ever occured is unknown to me…my dream eyes and ears are very odd but specific)
the documentary was done by people who wanted the world to realize how when something like a military coup or uprising is covered in the news, the full story is always hidden from the public to protect them from having any kind of response that might turn them actively against such things
the scenes in the documentary were of rabid men with guns tearing through burning streets, dilapidated and dead buildings, and children who had become deformed or mentally retarded due to heavy amounts of pollution
i woke up feeling a little stirred…the point of my dream was true…the news IS censored…the term “freedom” of the press is as asanine as calling America a true “democracy”...there are, of course, websites geared to do nothing but shock…websites that show pictures of what actually happens to people when they are attacked with white phosphorous, of dismembered children in their parent’s arms, of bloody remains of suicide bombers…and they ARE horrific and many just want to turn their heads away, primarily because they aren’t accustomed to seeing such violence
however, i wonder if the media is mostly to blame for that kind of reaction…do we as Americans turn a blind eye to violence and bloodshed because we have made ourselves so fragile that even the site of blood tears us to pieces?
what would it mean for us if the news suddenly DID show the whole story?
what if this woman were the star reporter for the BBC or CNN?
“And what role are the occupiers playing in all of this? It’s very convenient for them, I believe. It’s all very good if Iraqis are abducting and killing each other- then they can be the neutral foreign party trying to promote peace and
understanding between people who, up until the occupation, were very peaceful and understanding.”
how does it feel to live in the empire?
how does it feel to know that our government is not our friend, might never have been our friend? that the people WE voted for are gambling with the Earth Herself, not to mention the lives of millions of people who just happen to get in the way of our “interests”? how does it feel to know that our government lies to us, possibly daily, and that we live in the dark and yet seem contented by this…McDonalds and WalMart are our nightlights, promising us there are no monsters under the bed, mommy and daddy are just down the hall, and it will all be alright
and who knows! maybe it will…i cannot predict fate…
but there are shadows looming over our sleepy heads, shadows like an energy crisis of unheard-of proportions, global warming that threatens to annihilate our ecosystems, bird flu, super-volcanos, famine, water shortages, etc. etc. etc.
at any point in history, has the human race collectively faced so many shadows? shadows primarily produced by our own greed, our own pride, and all the other deadly sins that some wise man listed on a hard stone slab oh so many years ago…did that man see this future then? if he had, would he have bothered writing his creed?
and what will we protected, soft, marshmallow people DO if disaster does strike? will we prove to our politicians that we have decided we don’t need them, or will we run to them down that dark hallway because we saw those glowing eyes again, we heard whispers coming out of our closet and we just couldn’t take it
pray for baghdad. pray for the poles that are melting like candles and all the beauty and protection there. pray for yourselves. we have played with fire too long, and now we have scorched the very Earth we depend on. we are burning our mother to the ground, as though she were a woman called “Witch!”...she turns to ashes at the feet of some God who loves, but only to hate and judge
i wonder if after reading this woman’s blog, do we hear echoes of our own uncertain future? when the nightlight is burnt out and mommy and daddy left you alone in the house because “you’re a big girl/boy now”?
“I’m reading, and hearing, about the possibility of civil war. The possibility. Yet I’m sitting here wondering if this is actually what civil war is like. Has it become a reality? Will we look back at this in one year, two years… ten… and
say, “It began in February 2006…”? It is like a nightmare in that you don’t realise it’s a nightmare while having it- only later, after waking up with your heart throbbing, and your eyes searching the dark for a pinpoint of light, do you realise it was a nightmare…”
