In reference to a forwarded email, as described here:
Dear Loved Ones,
Good morning (actually it's afternoon by the time I finished this email.) I trust you are well and I hope you will accept this email in the vain it was intended: to inform.
The photos in your forwarded are 2 years old, as is the issue. If you remember, the "issues" of "gay marriage" and "illegal immigration" (and respectively, related protests) occurred about the same time as the American public began asking (finally) the very hard questions of our government about the US in Iraq, Afghanistan and the foreign policy towards North Korean and Iran. These very divisive issues ( illegal immigration and same-sex marriage - which are not new in any way) were used against the American Public (and therefor against world safety and security) to steal attention away from very real issues and dangers of the national administration's goals and policies.
Additionally, while these photos are less than socially acceptable to me, one might also argue that this is the very nature of public protest movements - to be outrageous so as to gain attention for a particular issue or cause so that the voices of a few may be heard amongst the voices of the many. I disagree with the tact taken here personally but these are high school students in America: they have not been taught how to "protest correctly". "Protests" in America usually take the form of flag burning, looting, riots because American TV shows foreign protests against America in such a fashion. Wrong as this may be, we should count ourselves lucky know one was killed, as per the foreign protest "training films" from our media.
[ Wanna to change this? Hug a teenage (repeatedly) and talk to them like the matter (because they most certainly DO matter.) Easy to say but does anyone do this in American any more? I wonder how many deaths by murder (in schools, fast food restaurants, homes, works places, government buildings, freeways, gas stations, ..) could have been prevented by well place hugs and displays of heart-felt compassion in someone's past. Human connection prevent human violence.]
This forwarded email does not provide any details about this protest. It seeks only to inflame hatred, to divide economic classes and inspire racial separation if not racial violence (as well as divert attention.) A divided people are a conquerable people. These kinds of goals "make me so mad, I could to spit!"
Some important details left out:
none of the students from Montebello H.S. were
involved. Where is that information in this forwarded email?! Giving a high school a "bad name" for no reason is
not what I call "good or moral behavior." The school was in fact in "lock down" so students were prevented from leaving the building, must less protesting. The students shown in the photos are in fact from another school. They traveled to this location (presumably to avoid identification) to stage their protest. If we don't bother to explore the details, we will continue to be slaves to who ever has the "best advertisements for the trust".
And, is it really "heart stopping" too? We have so abuse the English language that we don't even have a sence of scale and proportion any more. "Heart stopping" is people willing to break the law, risk multiple kinds of death to escape poverty and law enforcement and live in constant fear in a strange (and therefor unfriendly) land long enough to earn money to feed their families in another country. Right or wrong, this human drama is heart stopping. "Heart stopping" is a starving child, bloated from malnutrition and who
will die, not because there isn't enough food in the world but because that food sits just out of the reach of a child, a family or a nation. "Heart stopping" is watching a country tear itself apart across historic ethnic divisions and stupid, outdated notions of nationalistic and cultural self importance, to watch the riots in the streets, to watch the firearms come out, to watch flames burning history away and replacing it with the heat of hate and desperation.
I agree that all people should take action to defend the rights and privileges granted by their country for, without this, we have dictatorships though they may call themselves by other names. But how about considering the possibility that we need to start taking real actions to protect the human rights of all people? Capturing "suspects" in foreign airports, flying the secret prisons in countries where people can and do routinely "disappear", where real torture is allowed - this is heart stopping and isn't about protecting any citizen, civil or human rights. It's about violating them. Protecting rights of citizens is very important. Protecting the human rights of the species is more important. "Solutions" which favor "citizen rights" over or to the exclusion of human rights are incomplete solutions at best. At worse, they are excuses for wars and genocides.
FWD: Montebello High School in CA: Want more more information? Instead of believing forwarded email, maybe stop, think and check the details at website like:
www.truthorfiction.com or
several others. This is where I check inflammatory emails for their "truth quotient" like this one you send to me:
But (and assuming I'll take the time to bother with an email which starts with "FWD" any more), even if I believe or disbelieve information in a forwarded email and even if I believe or disbelieve in the underlaying message of an email, I don't forward emails, especially emotionally divisive ones. If I want a "soup box" to stand on, I have a blog and I stand there, behind my own name, speak my own words and make up my own mind. I speak only to those that willing go to my blog and see what I have to say. Occasionally, I get so frustrated with the "status quo of humanity" that I may spend "4 or more hours of valuable work time, writing my own email" to someone (specifically) to express things I feel needed to be expressed directly. If I feel more strongly, I will go to the streets and protest myself in a style and way befitting my personality and in fashion as to effect positive social and cultural change.
Forwarding emails is not a form of protest. In this context, they only communication the continuing ill-will of mankind towards mankind.
Lastly, though I have said a great deal of things (and I don't expect you to agree with any or all them either,) I am not angry with you. I'm more disgruntled that people (mankind) haven't yet learned to take more corrective and positive actions to improve the human condition. By the human condition, I mean very much mean every person on (or off) this planet, regardless of what country were born in, moved to (legally or otherwise), what skin color they have or don't have, what books that find holy and what cartoons they find offensive, what building they bend a knee in or what rug they bow their heads on. Peace is lost when the only thing we as a species stand for is more division, more hatred and more destruction.
Destruction is so easy and ignoble. Positive creativity is our greatest gift of a species and it continues to go vastly unused.
This concludes my most recent attempt to create something new, positive and to change the course of mankind, one person at a time.
With love and respect,
Mike
PS. You've sent this one to me before.
