I’ve just seen Bowling for Columbine. It should probably be mandatory watching for all US citizens. You might then understand why the rest of us are not convinced that bombing Iraq to smithereens is going to help anyone at all.
It’s a powerful documentary. It reminded me of a lot of numbers and facts that I have known but had forgotten, or repressed. It made me feel sick to the stomach. I still feel sick to the stomack, in fact, and I badly need a hug. I want my father. Why do I live so far from my parents? I want to be three years old and be told that it was all a bad dream and it’s ok now. I don’t want to be all grown up and have to deal with the thought that tonight another Iraqi child will die in a bomb raid or from malnutrition or hunger, and in the US yet another person will be shot dead with a gun for no particularly good reason at all. In fact, rather more than one person, 11000 divided by 365 has got to be more than one.
11000 people every year? And you still think owning a gun will protect you? After 11 September, gun sales went up 70%. Could someone please explain to me what sort of good it would have done any of the victims had they owned a gun? Random numbers keep flashing before my eyes and they are all equally depressing.
Right now I wish I didn’t know anybody in the US. I know some terrific people in the US and I really do not want any freinds of mine to live in the kind of society that produces the statistics I’ve just seen.
Please be safe. And please, please, stop thinking that the world is something you need to protect yourself from.
And please, someone, come give me a hug. Anyone?
Voice in my head: Sting – “There’s no such thing as a winnable war, it’s a lie we don’t believe anymore. Mr. Reagan says: We will protect you. I don’t subscribe to his point of view.” (And that goes for you, too, Mr. Bush.)