I am sick and tired of seeing bloody children being carried around

[SoCalDem]

When an American bloody child is shown, there is no end to the outrage, and call to arms. The iconic picture of the little girl in Oklahoma City comes to mind.. There's probably no one who has never seen that picture, and yet there are bloody children being carried by frantic parents and rescuers...at this very moment..in Iraq, in Gaza, in Darfur, in Myanmar,and (insert name of next hell-hole here).... does anyone even notice anymore?

It sickens me to see the level of violence edging ever-upwards..all over the world. And at the same time the world leaders crow about what a peaceful world we live in and how proud they are of all the new democracies they have given birth to.

How odd it is to see the too-easy transition by media...a quick story of the bloody child, a pause, and then we're off to happy-happy-smiley face sports news and of course the frowny-face re-appears when there is a report of how "down" the market is and much musing about how the market can "recover"..

Sports & Money...that's what modern humankind seems to value...and probably in that order for a lot of people.

It might be that no one feels responsible for the bloody children, and they feel powerless to "fix it"..

Or it could just be that the men (yes , it's still the male of the species who creates and perpetrates most of the violence) who carry the bloody child so tenderly, just don't GET IT.. Those children are the future, and their lives are worth protecting.

They need schools....not surgery
They need to be read a story and tucked into a clean bed...not hooked up to an IV in a dirty hospital
They need clean water and decent food...not scraps scavenged or begged from passing soldiers
They need safe places to play..not bomb-rubble and burned-out vehicles

Bloody children are everywhere there is conflict.

In the Global Pissing Contest, it's always the children who get pissed on.. Is it any wonder that every generation seems to have its very own conflict? We are embedding violence into the next generation...every generation.

The mind-boggling waste of money, resources and lives is a stunner. WWI was supposedly the "war to end all wars". and since then, every warrior's son, grandson, great-grandson/daughter has had to face up to a conflict that had seeds in a previous time...and they have in turn sown seeds for the next one.. The child of your enemy will be the enemy of your child.

Imagine how we could be now, if all that money had been spent on building, and improving instead of killing and destroying.

Our country gives little (by percentage), and gives it grudgingly..with many strings, to emerging countries, but when it comes time to kill them, the sky's the limit.

[PA Democrat]

1. For all of the "progress" of mankind,

we have made very little progress when it comes to ending the cycle of hate and violence.

I truly believe that the world would be a much better and safer place if we redirected even half of our military spending to humanitarian causes.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[SoCalDem]

5. Balance is the key

and economic stability..

China's one child policy is biting them on the ass now.. they have too few women.. The same would apply if there were too few men.

Nature has always managed to keep a balance. I read somewhere that there are more males "in utero", but females end up a bit ahead. Males tend to actually be the genetically weaker sex, and more females actually end up being born and surviving.. Mother Nature knows best..

[magellan]

6. How about weapons, then?

Halve the weapons. Mother Nature abhors weapons.

I'm only joking about the men and the weapons, albeit in a cynical way. I'm sick of seeing the injured and dead children, too. They pay the ultimate price for the greed of men, who start wars because it's easier and more profitable than balance.

Recommending your post.

[NNN0LHI]

7. What happens if we replace those men with more Condi Rices?

I don't see much advantage there.

Don

[magellan]

15. You're right, of course

No offense intended. As a member of the fairer sex I like to think of Condi as an aberration, but your point is well taken...There are probably just as many women like her as there are men like Bush**. I wrote out of frustration, but I realize my suggestion has no basis. Western society has locked women out of such high positions for so long, we don't have the history with women at the helm for me to say they'd do any better.

Sincerely, Don, I like men for the most part (well, I married one!) -- particularly liberal men. :hi:

[niallmac]

17. I know what you are saying and I am not running in defense

of the male species but...do you think history backs you up on this?
Seems in the past that some women given power were not too
peace provoking either.

Erzsebet Bathory - The Blood Countess
The Blood Countess... tortured servants and apparently bathed in their blood. She thought blood was the key to eternal youth. She killed more than 600 women, both peasants and nobility.

Catherine The Great...and onward.

I think it's something in the human condition that we ALL need to address if it's not too late.

[magellan]

19. See my post #15

I was being reactionary when I wrote that about men, rather than thoughtful. Apologies!

[JunkYardAngel]

2. Great post

I don't have enough posts to recommend but I'll give a :kick: anyway.

[SoCalDem]

3. Welcome to DU

:hi:

[JunkYardAngel]

12. Thanks ! n/t

[newyawker99]

18. Hi porphyria!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[H2O Man]

8. Nominated.

Intense OP. Thank you for delivering the word.

The immorality of the Bush-Cheney aggression in Iraq is evidenced by the damage it does to children both in Iraq and in the United States.

[leftchick]

25. their policies actually damage children world wide.

:(

[pooja]

9. I say our next leader needs to be a mother of 10...

she would show patience, reserve, love, kindness, know how to make a dollar stretch, make everyone play nice, and know how to make you feel safe no matter what.

No Condi's need apply.

[SoCalDem]

10. Even if we had more Moms in congress it would help

If we are a 50-50 nation (like we are constantly told), then we NEED a 50-50 congress..and so do all nations.

Women are a civilizing force of nature, and should have equal say-so in government.

[chill_wind]

32. I LIKE that! n/t

[soup]

11. "(insert name of next hell-hole here)"

Miami's Liberty Square


Again, we failed a slain child
By Leonard Pitts Jr.

>It tells of failure. It smells of failure. Failure of government, police, families, media, church, culture, country. Failure to find ways to keep guns out of the hands of punks. Failure to raise reckless, hot-tempered boys into powerful, prideful men. Failure to ensure that poor is, indeed, not a synonym for death. Failure to protect the youngest and most vulnerable among us.

Failure that leaves you staggered and gasping and sick to your soul. Nothing makes you more tired, nothing has as much power to suck the joy from your bones, as this, the senseless, wanton, repeated destruction of children. And then you hear the same axioms and consolations, the same vows of ''not in vain'' and you find yourself wondering how long before it is all forgotten and gone, how long before it happens again.

You feel trapped in an endless loop, impatient for change, yet doomed to stand witness as the future disintegrates itself before your very eyes. For what else is the murder of children but the murder of what might have been?<
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14997887.htm

[izzie]

13. Hell I have been watching it since I was a kid in the 30's

My Mom loved the movies so I am sure I saw the newsreels since I could sit in a movie seat. It looks the same now but I will say I never thought my country would be the ones to produce it. I used to just know I would be bombed like the kids in London as they all dressed and looked like me. My Mom dressed us right out of Canada so I would see girls in dresses like I wore. I had night mares of the baby on the RR stations in Naking holding the stick. That must have been in the 30's and I still see the GD picture in my mind. New players doing the killing but the same old people getting killed. The people.

[cantstandbush]

14. You never saw the bloody children my ancestors had to deal with.

And still no one weeps for them. We are supposed to be grateful for being pulled from "savagery." Yet no people is more savage than those who occupy another's land and who drop bombs from the air to keep from looking their victims in the eyes.

[formercia]

16. And the thousands of children maimed and killed

every Year by unexploded ordnance and land mines.

[Chimichurri]

20. The more we all understand that perpetual conflict is

necessary to keep the profits up of those in charge, the more we can figure out how to change this.

[democrank]

21. Excellent post. Thanks.

Such a sad state of affairs. Many Americans talk about their own moral and religious convictions, but in a nanosecond, pooh-pooh any mention of dead Iraqi children. Why? They`re just "collateral damage."

Turn on television "news" for an hour. Count how many times someone mentions a sports team or the latest box office hit compared to any mention of the children in Sudan or the homeless children in Detroit.

[SoCalDem]

26. It always irritates the hell out of me when the "market"

is treated as if it's a living, breathing thing.. How MANY whole channels are devoted to the care and feeding of it.. people sit around 24-7, talking about it, worrying about it, drawing charts about it:puke:

Why don't we have room for even ONE channel devoted to workers' rights, or the horrible state of the lower-middle class/poor people?

because the corporate masters would NEVER allow it.. Can't have the workers getting all uppity, now can we?

But it's perfectly OK to let the poor guy who cannot sleep, tune into the Asia market show and think that he's gonna retire in comfort on what's in his 401-k..hah!

Young ones out here need to read up..every generation has its savings mechanism "pruned" by the upper classes at the very time the leading edge is starting to look into using them...

[WHAT]

22. I've wondered what it would be like if...

the hundred oldest women in a society acted like the gate-keepers for import-export of ideas, materials in population dense areas, globally.

in a science fiction sort of way...

It seems these women would collectively have fathers, brothers, lovers, children and grandchildren that would be represented by the women supporting their interests. It seems like womens' political powers are more tied-into family relationships. In a way, this would be an inversion of that idea.

I've read, here and there, that the majority of wealth in the US is controlled (maybe that should be safe guarded) by women sort of like Linda Lay being the repository of Ken Lay's wealth. That type of wealth doesn't seem to make a difference. Considering this more, I wonder if the ripple effect would over-come a tendency toward tribalism reflective of all the family relations a woman in such a position might promote. Say such women by a two thirds majority prioritize trade that has to do with food, shelter, health rather than humvees and big screen tvs. I tend to think women are more pragmatic than men but I'm not sure if that's true or just my feeling.

It would be an interesting idea to explore, in a science fiction sort of way...

on edit:
In the same vein, I've wondered what would happen in the world if all the men over 60 (that would include Bush, now) were to drop dead. It used to be, women out-lived men and I think mother nature must have had a reason for it. Now, in large part due to medical technology, men in powerful positions tend to live longer. Their power is more cumulative and maybe that is why it seems lopsided.

Anyway, these gender and age primal and basic to me even though there's a tendency to take them for granted in the society one is living in.

China with its prevalence of males and huge aging population; Iraq with mostly young people (males?)...and are the elder's in Iraq mostly female; even here, USA, it seems like men are killing-off women and if that perception is real what are the implications?

well...

[SoCalDem]

23. Get busy writing that screenplay

:)

[WHAT]

31. "Lay me down beside still waters"...

as the beginning and the end and the inbetween won't matter.

beginning with a mother and a babe and ending with a mother and a babe with all that life-confounding nuisance in-between. Script good for Hindus, Pagans, Muslims, Jews, Christains , Polyethiests and all other planet life observers...

[bobbieinok]

24. see Suzette Haden Elgin's Ozark series for a granny-stabilized society

New edition from the U of Arkansas P

The Ozark Trilogy
New Edition

Suzette Haden Elgin

An intelligent fantasy that explains, satirizes, and delights in Ozark life and language.

'The Ozark Trilogy (previously published in 1981, Doubleday) is a widely acclaimed fantasy/science fiction story with, as the title suggests, very strong ties to the Ozark region. Twelve Fair Kingdoms, The Grand Jubilee, And Then There'll Be Fireworks—the books that comprise the trilogy—chronicle life on the planet Ozark and its Confederation of Continents, which are appropriately named Arkansaw, Oklahomah, Mizzurah, Tinaseeh, Kintucky, and Marktwain. However, the story told here involves much more than a mere transplant of Ozark culture and heritage onto a new planet. While this new Ozark culture maintains and even intensifies many of the "real" Ozark traditions and customs (for instance, "Grannys" hold significant, stabilizing social roles and are important sources of wisdom), the planet Ozark combines many new, fantastical elements with traditional ways. Mules on Ozark fly, and the wise "Grannys" also work magic.

The protagonist of The Ozark Trilogy, Responsible of Brightwater, appears at the center of Ozark society, a society she must save from evil magic, civil war, and, ultimately, alien invasion. As Responsible travels from continent to continent in an attempt to discover and squelch the evil magic and calm the civil unrest, we are witness to many dangerous and sometimes comical adventures along the way, including a spectacular flying Mule crash and a magic duel with a Granny gone bad.

Elgin has created a fantastic world infused with the folk traditions, social and familial hierarchies, and traditional dialect of the Ozarks. While parallels might be drawn between, for example, the break-up of the Confederacy of Continents on planet Ozark and the American Civil War, Elgin comments on aspects of Ozark history and tradition in a non didactic way. The trilogy, with its strong heroine and witty engagement of tradition, is a classic of Ozark literature.'

*****

Elgin is a linguist and a feminist with an interesting personal history.

Her trilogy about women and women's language that starts with Native Tongue is interesting, BUT the last 2 books, IMO, don't measure up to the first, Native Tongue.

At least one of her Cyote Jones' novels carries the history of the Ozark trilogy further.

[Arkansas Granny]

29. Thanks for the suggestion. I just found and ordered this on ebay.

:hi:

[WHAT]

30. Well, I'm going to look that one up because...

flying asses and grannies gone bad seem a match made in heaven.

Did the grannies schurp out of their miasma to focus their magically myopic concentration on asses in polymer suits, bi-focals, and kick-ass (hee, hee...) observations on mother's guidance gone astray? What if mom's intentions were garbled while she was reading beads and knitting the fabric of the future into the prayers for the children (what if it encompassed more than her children? everyone's children? what if there was a mixed message and God took everyone's consideration into the play-book? What a fiasco, what a surprise! what if Barbara Striesand was singing Christan Hymns to Kahil Gibran's poetry in sync with the folk heroism of hip-hop...jiving?) and, after all these ideas are dead, they are still toasting the expert confluence of cowboy songs and belly dancing (figuratively petitioning for grace while too tired for limbo)...petitioning in a naively expectant way (outside of heaven, mind you) that everything is possible and radical okie grannies, wearing the soft, conforming fabric of their diligent conscience) have the right to allocate the strings of their life (that started with God's joke a la intermarriage with the native displaced Cherokee, and ending with the native outcast while wondering what the etymology of native was while hugging the children of their children and their children's children, no matter what). Because sex is God's joke and we all giggle when we know we have something in common. common.

Ozark grannies seem like a cool idea to me! I think they could hide the sin of commission in heir bosom and giggle conspiratorially.

meanwhile, life is surprising...

[Deja Q]

27. Yet "reality shows" turn everything, even dating, into a real acid bath.

TV really takes away from REALITY. And we carry it into our real world lives.

And much like the re-release of garbage 1980s toys, we want our5 offspring in war just so they can have all the good times we had too. Why else drag out 1960s fashions, yet forgetting the spirit that made them in the first place? We're an imitation culture.

It's not limited to honkeys either. Today I've seen that more than just white Americans are lazy too. It's a human thing. Not a good one either.

[AspenRose]

28. I lost it in church today.

I went to the altar to pray, and kept thinking about Darfur. Why there isn't more outrage. Why there is stone silence. How many more people died today. How many more women were raped and mutilated today. And I just lost it. I could not stop crying at the altar. I kept asking God WHY.

Sometimes I need to take a news vacation because it gets to be too much, and I feel so helpless. I had a fundraiser for the Darfur victims last year and it fell right about the time Katrina was going on. I still managed to raise about $500. But I'm just one person.

:cry: