Talk Without Speaking

I’m not anti-American, I’m not anti U.S. and I’m not anti-American serviceman. I *do* think that there’s something honourable about putting your life on the line in order to protect those that can’t fight for themselves. With that said, I don’t know what that mentality has to do with the seemingly inevitable conflict with Iraq.

What makes me pretty sick is the way that people argue that if you’re anti war with Iraq, that you automatically don’t support those who are putting their life on the line. I honestly don’t see the connection here. The TV was on the other day and there was some totally crap Hollywood show that Cat was watching; as the ’stars’ walk into whatever award show de jour they were attending them the swarming media were asking them for their thoughts on the Iraq war. Some were bravely outspoken in their criticism of the war, no one spoke up saying they were pro-war but again and again someone or other would say that they criticized those speaking out against the war and would then start spewing out about how pro-American soldierlry they were. Hoo-hah! Gimme a break.

If you want some examples of this mentality (and have a LOT of time on your hands) you can check out this thread on SUV driving from dpreview.com. Talk about the message getting lost (especially in a forum that is supposed to be about digital photography). I have a few posts near the end - the responses that I got were entirely too amusing too be real. Read these threads and maybe you’ll understand how easy it is for people to make generalizations about Americans. I, for one, know that intolerance certainly isn’t limited to any one nationality. This is exemplified in the fact that 2 teaching assistants were run over for someone who was obviously upset by the fact that their are pickets at UBC. Another CUPE union worker who was protesting in support of the TAs was beaten with 2×4s by some construction workers.

Crazy world indeed.