Quote:
Originally posted by BlueDesignStudios
Fantastic post Cory!
Very true what you say - you've really just approached everything with an open mind and I admire people such as yourself - I'd imagine all the travels you would have done would have helped you reach such a point no doubt?
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When I went to Peru, I went for the experience of seeing a wonder of the world. What I would get out of it would be much different. Amid the dark and sullen poverty, were a people more or less surviving. On my third night in the jungles, I began to vomit intensely. They sent in some jungle doctor who spoke only spanish. Thankfully, I knew a little. He told me, more or less, that the possibility of malaria existed. The only way out was to have a porter tie me to a mule to get me out. I chose to continue, I knew it was my only shot at Machu Pichu. I carried that sickness with me all the way up that mountain.
When I arrived back in Lima, I discovered that although I was better, during the fever-driven delusions, I lost my anti-anxiety medicine. I relapsed, or so thought I did, into a real dreary sickness which included heavy and intense vomiting, delusions and nightmares. I couldn't sleep and I could hardly go outside into the sunlight.
I was in what is known as a Paxil withdrawl. That changed everything. All I could think was, "Damn, these people are dying from starvation, and because I looked for an easy way out of my stress, I can hardly move."
So a few days later, I paid a cabby 50 cents for a lift to Lima's airport. To be honest, I wanted out, I was depressed. I went to jump a plane to Bolivia. I wanted to see one of the greatest countries in the world. The flight crew told me, "but you are American, you should reconsider your travels sir."
I was astounded! How could they deny me a flight? I am an American with money, and I am sick to the bones and I want out of this dreary hell? I laid against a wall, wrapped myself in a handnit blanket, thinking I need a new plan, and quickly. I was sick still, so many times, I had to cover the blanket so that the local peddlers did not ask me for money. Those peddles were all to much a constant reminder to what an idiot I really was. Then, a US citizen approached me, he carried with him a glare of possesed knowledge.
"They are putting in a gas line, and the Bolivians are throwing stones at the Americans. That is why you can't go."
He said.
"But I logged into cnn.com man, what do you..."
I replied.
He laughed at me. "When you leave, do not tell anyone back in the states what is happening, it is the American way. And get better my friend, the journey is always much longer than expected for one who decides to listen and learn."
No truer words have ever been spoken. I never gave my view on the war, or Moore's movie in this post. I gave my view on our behavior. We take cnn facts and blanket them over real lives all over the world, and then declare an agenda. And then, we call out those that don't agree as unpatriotic or even worse, idiotic. We never listen to why they don't agree and realize that buried in the thought rubble lyes a small point. I said I see the point of conservatives, and have not once concluded a conservative as an idiot. Look at this thread, or the one on the other board, and look at the ones that wage insult wars
9-11, as I term it, was like the cord that goes from an amplifier to a big stereo. The stereo was loud to begin with but now that cord is plugged in, and the neighbors don't appreciate the music.
"How can you not want to blow up the Arabs???? Do you not want justice for the victims? Do you not support our troops?"
This thread was started because of the seemingly endless pro-war supporters use of desperate insults at other people's views. If you take a moment, listen to another's (opinion, viewpoint, religion, culture) then we can talk about what being a United States citizen is all about. Until then, those that adher to such behavior are no different than fanatics all over the world.
I bet roughly 70 percent of all US citizens do not have a passport. Now, that being said, crunch some numbers if you will.
50 percent (US) roughly oppose the war, which is inherently US foreign policy. I wonder how many of those 50 percent hold a passport?
How many Europeans oppose the war?
How many Europeans posses a passport?
How many registered voters in the US vote on foreign policy, but have only read the National Geographic yearly issue about the African women that carry jugs of water on their head for 9 hours daily though southwest Africa?
If the people in the US made a clear effort to understand others views, the elections would be different.
Now, can we stop critizing a guy that makes a movie you don't agree with? The only thing capable of truely swaying an election is a group of people that choose to understand each other. Not a movie.