Monday, December 9, 2013

Meat, Ice Cream and War

During his 27 years prison tenure, Nelson Mandela could have easily died in a cold, damp cell, or have been "disappeared" by South African special forces. Instead, as Archbishop Desmond Tutu states of the infamous prison where Madiba stayed his course, "Robben Island was defeated by someone who could take everything it threw at him by melting courage into forgiveness, creating the gold of reconciliation.” 

The alchemy of this act takes a grace and understanding that lies deeper than the deepest part of the ocean. Contrast this pinnacle of human behavior with the jargon of military men, in this case the United States army.

Meat Eater - a particularly disgusting term referring to Special Forces soldiers whose mission focuses on a violent act of taking out the enemy (a.k.a. someone's son or daughter), as opposed to armed forces with a mission to promote stability and training. Note: the meat eaters are also born of parents who probably never imagined that their cute little ones would become government sanctioned killers.

Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone - military propaganda or political doctrines that produces misleading statistics to justify an action. For example, a boastful piece of press will talk of the amount of weapons seized in a tribal village in Afghanistan, while the real result was the death of villagers. Net result: nothing to brag about and hardly a victory because most people will take revenge and counterattack; thus the cycle of hatred perpetuated.

As one of my spiritual teachers once said, "Just because we all have human bodies, it doesn't mean that everyone is a human being."

Point well taken.

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