'One City, One World' Displayed at Bombings Tribute

Boy, I have a degree in history, but I've learned so much tonight on this thread that I never knew. I'm not sure how much of it would be approved to be included in a textbook, but you both are extremely persuasive and believe strongly in something. That is a good thing. I'd rather confront a man or woman who has the guts to tell you straight up, face to face, what they believe in, rather than the millions of gutless people who just sit on their hands and let others do their thinking for them.

One thing to always consider, whether you believe your country is 100% right in it's actions or not.....quite often in discussions like this one, things turn rapidly into justifications and interpretations rather than expression of facts. It's hard to divorce oneself from your own personal views on a subject as serious as war. So we tend to be somewhat defensive and aggressive at the same time.

The numerous items you have encouraged others to read from obviously invoked different interpretations from you both. That's pretty much the normal reaction when you have people viewing it from a different perspective. I have a good friend who has moved to Scotland within the past few months. He tells me constantly how difficult it is there because he feels verbally attacked very often, and is forced to either condemn his own country's government, or defend it. Most of us think there are good aspects to what our government does, and bad aspects of it as well. Just like with any situation where someone else makes "rules" for the whole, the rules will hurt some and help others. The trick is to become one of the rulemakers.

Luckily, we have the opportunity to voice our discontentment with our government through voting, protests, letter writing, blogs, forums, etc. I realize that this does very little, if anything, to change the situation, but it seems to satisfy some people to "think" they are making a difference by expressing themselves. With the internet now, it's become so incredibly easy to voice our unhappiness with virtually any and every subject.

Our country has for far too long used the term "war" when labelling areas we need to address. We have the war on drugs (which I would guess everyone on this message board disagrees with and thinks is failing miserably), war on illiteracy, war on poverty, war on AIDS, war on crime, war on children giving birth to children, etc. I sure wish we could stop using the violent analogy and idiology of "war" when treatment, assistance, compassion, concern, and action would be much more likely to help find some solutions, rather than allienating millions of people.

Just remember, the founding fathers of the U.S. didn't agree on much at the Constitutional Convention. It was a daily course of name calling, back stabbing, and back-room dealing. We tend to think today that they were all in favor of the Constitution we currently have. Not so. Not at all. The men we think of as working in unity to create our country at times were very hateful and violent towards each other. Kinda like how threads turn out sometimes when people begin to defend or denounce the actions of others.

I hope I don't offend anyone, or that my reply was so long that anyone had more than one birthday while reading it. :D