Stupidity makes me very sad

[adric]

Stupidity makes me very sad

Today was a day of great stupidity, and so I have been on the verge of tears most of the day so far. A great many people died this morning for no good reason. This is itself horrifying. Many more people will die before this chapter of history is closed. Some poeple somewhere have such a grievance against the people of the US, or the whole world, that they have started a war. War is a demonstrably stupid problem-solving technique, as well proven before. They are so cowardly, or so insane, that they have embraced terrorism, attacking "soft targets" instead of engaging their enemy militarily. They cannot defeat us in a fight, fair or otherwise. They can only try to provoke us to destroy ourselves by diminishing our freedom. They can only try to trick us into hurting ourselves, to try and undermine our beliefs in our system, our society and government by scaring us. The uncertainty and sickness that many of us feel today is only the beginning of their goal. If we give up our open and free society through fear of such acts, then the terrorists have succeeded. If we close our borders and tighten our laws further, if we withdraw from the world community, if we refuse to lead the world, then they get exactly what they wanted, and we lose doubly, as will the world.

This is a time not to restrain our freedom but to celebrate it. It is because of all that we do to try and help others that we are the target for these cowardly acts.

This is not the day that will change the world. The world will (must) go on, after this gross interruption, and will not change in the face of such barbarism and stupidity. The guilty will be punished in due time, but we must not let them win.

Help the hurt.
Mourn the dead.
Find our strengths.
and then,
Find and Kill the bastards.

Comments

it's like Tiannamen Square

[iamcasey-66.livejournal.com]

We can and will turn our heads from blatent human rights violations (with the excuse "but it's a different culture") when turning our heads brings us economic gain.... but we certainly get huffy if we see no advantage in keeping silent. We allowed Afghanistan to harbor the Taliban. We allowed Iran to harbor Hussein. We have done things and more like them for a long time and I suppose we will keep doing so forever. But we are surprised and ready to flex our muscle when a brainwashed culture that we allowed to grow comes after us? You want to prevent this? Eradication of all cultures that encompass religious intolerance. Eradication of any group that espouse eradication.... oops... where are we going with this?

Just thoughts.

Re: it's like Tiannamen Square

[parentingtheriot]

"We allowed..."

How do we *disallow*?