Osama and Bush equally wrong<\/p>\n
A recent article in The Jakarta Post about fears that
\nextremist Israeli settlers will try to assassinate Ariel Sharon
\ncaught my eye. Alongside it was an article acknowledging deaths
\nof 17 Afghan civilians, including an undisclosed number of
\nchildren, after a U.S. military raid.<\/p>\n
The problem is extremism and fundamentalism. These are the two
\nbiggest perpetrators worldwide, the ones seemingly certain they
\nand no one else are right, are Osama bin Laden and George W.
\nBush. And it is contagious. The Israeli extremists consider their
\nsettlements their \"biblical birthright\".<\/p>\n
None of them is right, if you think it through. And meanwhile
\ninnocents continue to die as if it were just one of those
\nthings... not really real but what happens \"out there\", say, to
\nprove a point.<\/p>\n
The conventional methods of resolving disputes -- violence and
\nshows of force -- just don't produce positive outcomes anymore.
\nThis is partly because a growing number of people are seeing
\nbeyond the insanity, and partly because the majority who don't
\nyet see have the means now to strike back even more violently.
\nThe spin-meisters produce blather to make people think all is
\nwell no matter what.<\/p>\n
Everyone is right. No one is right. The world explodes or dies
\nin its own pollution. People do always have the opportunity to
\nopen their hearts to our common humanity. Politics, especially in
\nthe U.S. but really everywhere, is completely out of control,
\nmanipulated by greed, selfishness, arrogance. Money talks.<\/p>\n
I think it is time for people to look each other in the eye,
\nhonestly and not cursorily -- deeply, truly -- to allow us to see
\nwe are all the same and have the same rights and hopes. The kind
\nof \"freedom\" George Bush endorses is, as he says himself as he
\nprepares for the G-8 Meeting, the one that is good for the
\nAmerican economy.<\/p>\n
That is no freedom, it is the very trap that keeps the world
\nafire.<\/p>\n
RICK ADAMS, Ubud, Bali<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/osama-and-bush-equally-wrong-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }