the ever so cute "Nick" (sp?)

This is one of the rats which resides in Pasadena with my brother and sister-in-law. There are two other ones but they were not quite as cute as old rat Nick here. He was cooling off (because Lorian and Joseph keep the apartment WAY to warm) in one of the cinderblocks holding up the shelves, taking a little break before exploring the great book next to him, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide...

This leads me into a post I was going to write ever since I got back from California. While I was at my grandmother's, she found a great editorial for me to read on the Qur'an abuse. If you've read my earlier posts on the subject, you of course know that I was none too happy about even such abuse being alleged. Because even if Newsweek said they were wrong, it doesn't make up for the reaction to the story and the impact it has on the way we view prisoners and war. The editorial I read, which I could not relocate on the LA Times website, was a more "conservative" view on the whole situation. I hesitate to use the word "conservative" though because it is becoming too much of a term for "Bush/war" supporters just as "liberal" has come to equal "Hippie-Pacifist-Bush-Haters." The dichotomy just bothers me. In any case, this editorial was from a view that was not as alarmed by the scandel and urged readers to think about all the prisoners who have abused the Koran themselves in acts of defiance and hatred.

My opinion was definately altered by this article because i realized that there were probably Muslims in Guantanemo who did abuse their own holy book and do other atrocious things. But that did not end up taking away my firm point of view that Americans need to become more educated on Islam in order to eventually end this war and eventually come to peace. (***note: I am not excluding what other cultures need to become accepting from. However, I believe it is wrong for us to try to force others to follow our American ideology but as Americans we can still "be the bigger nation," so to speak, and try to understand the opposing point of view more fully and accept it.) The part of the editorial which lost me was when the writer, who I really wish I could remember, quoted from the instructional manuel of sorts given to the guards at Guantanemo, outlining how to treat Muslim prisoners and thier religious practices.

And the writer took this to prove that the abuses did not happen.

I had a big "AHA" moment when listening to Senator John McCain speak at our commencement ceremony last friday. His speech was on the topic of defending human rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was an amazing speech (although my conservative friends were upset that he was so "moderate" by agreeing to much with democrats...). There were points I shuddered at because I disagreed but for the most part, the message he gave was universal and clear - young people, like those who graduated last week, need to stand up and demand human rights for all people. This does not mean only armed war (although he did say that sometimes it was absolutely necessary). It means standing up for those rights when electing public officials, when interacting with people from other nations, and in educating the children for our country. Human rights are universal and say nothing about being a democratic country or embracing capitalism or other things we might think of "imposing" on other nations, going back to what i said earlier about imposing America's ideology on the world. A lot of it has to do with how we do things on our own soil or how our own people, our representatives act! It was only 50 years ago when there were racist laws in our country treading on other people's human rights! We can't say America's perfect because innocent people are still being put to death for crimes they did not commit, children are being exploited for labor and pornography, and some of our brave soldiers are commiting cowardly acts of abuse such as the prison abuse scandel in Iraq. Although Senator McCain did not specifically mention the Qur'an abuse issue, its what I thought of immediately when he talked about the image we have to create and the fact that we should be angry and take note that it could even be alleged that Americans would do something as horrible as flush the Islamic holy book down the toilet.

Internal change, that's what I'm looking for and what I think we should all help accomplish. I keep thinking about passages from the bible. "Yet ye who is without sin cast the first stone" and "turn the other cheek." On an individual basis it would be wrong for someone who is morally corrupt to get on the case of someone else just a morally corrupt (which is not supposed to imply that America or any other nation in particular is morally corrupt. Its just an example). We have our faults. Let's fix them. That will get the world back on our side. I'm tired of being a "stupid" American to some Europeans or considered "arrogant and snobbish" to others. So I'm committed to personally trying to change that image. I know its an idealistic idea but all change has to start from some where and have people behind it, committed to making it work.

And with that, I will end yet another very verbose blog entry. Summer vacation apparently has made me miss writing papers for professors. So now I get to just to it for fun :-).