Jay Elias | You can take it with you

"I have wasted Time, and now doth
Time waste me"
- Richard II

2003-08-13- 9:28 p.m.

Jesus On The Dashboard

On The West Wing tonight, they showed the old episode where President Bartlett changes the foreign policy of the United States to prevent a Rwanda-like genocide from taking place in the fictional nation of Equatorial Kundu. He sends over 75,000 fictional American soldiers.
Here on Planet Earth, Liberian President Charles Taylor stepped down this week, after the arrival of international peacekeepers, but vowed to return. The majority of the peacekeeping force was Nigerian. Nigeria is one of the poorest nations in the world.
This week, NATO, the world’s most powerful military alliance, and possibly the most powerful alliance in the history of man, took over military control of Afghanistan. This week, the United States maintained a force of about 175,000 troops in Iraq. This week, Japan sent soldiers to join the American forces in Iraq, the greatest foreign deployment of Japanese troops since the end of the Second World War.
But this week, the peacekeeping force sent to Liberia, the force that finally brought about the ousting of President Taylor, that has shown no ability to stop the civil war nor supply humanitarian aid in an orderly fashion to the famine-ridden populace, contained soldiers from only one of the great powers of the world: the United States.
We sent seven Marines, and one helicopter.
This is the world we live in, ladies and gents. This is the sum of what we can achieve with four thousand years of human history. Four thousand years of religion, of philosophy, of art, of political science, of this human endeavor we mockingly name civilization. This is the best we can accomplish.
Try not to think too much about that. Try to remember that you need to go to bed at a reasonable hour. You have to go to work in the morning, and it’s going to be a big day. This is what is really important. You have rent to pay. And car payments, and credit card payments, and you’re really hoping that you might be able to afford to take a vacation this winter. Not to mention that if you cut down on the nights out, and scrimp some around the edges, you might be able to come up with a down payment while the interest rates are still low. It has always been such a great dream of yours, to own your own home, especially somewhere in a nice, crime-free suburban neighborhood in a good school district. Maybe something with a nice backyard, for a retriever that you’ll name ‘Mingus’, or perhaps ‘Lady Day’ if it’s a girl.
Try not to think about the thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of people in places whose names you can barely spell right who are dying. Try not to imagine the puffs of their escaping souls, forming patterns in the sky like majestic hurricanes, to be studied by meteorologists instead of sociologists. Remember, you still haven’t paid the cable bill. This is all merely history. Your life is important too.
I don’t believe in a Hell. I just don’t. But sometimes I think, that if there was such a place, that it simply couldn’t possibly have the room to hold all those deserving. I’m not sure there is hope for expiation for any of us anymore.
This is my final public entry. On Friday, this journal will be password locked. If you wish to receive the password, please e-mail me.

previous |next |archives

If you want to make me
famous or just complain: Jay Elias -
jelias@diaryland.com

Older

Doesn't Take Much and That's Messed Up - 2004-03-15
Like Water Under Bridges - 2003-09-08
Jesus On The Dashboard - 2003-08-13
An Administrative Announcement - 2003-08-11
Don't Worry, It's Coming - 2003-08-02

Diaryland

join my Notify List and get email when I update
my
site:

email: