When In Doubt, Don't

I don't know what to do about Syria. I certainly don't envy the president or Congress of the decisions they are about to make.

While I've had a difficult time communicating my feelings on Syria, I have no qualms about how I feel about war and conflict. 

I'm young in the scheme of American history. I've been alive for Desert Storm and the War on Terror. That's it.

… And that's enough. 

That's enough for me to know that somewhere between FDR and the threat of conflict in Syria we've become a nation of war hungry crusaders. Some war hungry, some just crusaders, some both.

We've missed the forest for the trees in that we turned our hatred towards weapons of war instead of the war itself. We must channel our hatred of chemical weapons and weapons of mass destruction into a hatred for conflict. 

War is not just another trick in the American bag to use when we wish to display our displeasure at a moral wrong. It is a deadly trick, both of those who unleash it and to those on whom it is unleashed. It should only be used when a compelling and justified case is presented.

I say all of these things not to admonish America to turn its back on the Syrian people, but implore them to turn towards a hatred of conflict and ask themselves how supportive of a conflict they would be if their son, daughter, boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, mother or father were deployed, drafted or enlisted. 

Ask yourself how many cruise missiles does it take to unseated dictator?

Ask yourself what happens when cruise missiles aren't enough?

When you think about what the next best step is in a volatile world with unanswered questions the next step we should take becomes more clear. Stand still. 

The veil of privilege

Being shielded from the oppression and discrimination that people of color face is this country is one of the many elements of white privilege. We live veiled. 

It's a veil that dulls us to true atrocities that happen daily. Big events like Katrina and Trayvon rip open the veil, but for some only momentarily. It is as if some voice tells us that it is only a dream. 

We go back to sleep. 

The system is designed that way--to lull us into sleep and denial. We must stay awake. 

It is that veil of privilege that causes sympathy for Paula Deen. She's seen as a Southern Belle who's roots are to blame for loose and racial slurs. We must stay awake and rip the veil to see Paula Deen for the racist her actions indicate she is. 

The veil is no different in the case of Trayvon Martin. 

There's a reason why Sean Hannity and his band of merry pundits at Fox News put on a nightly Zimmerman love fest. 

There's a reason why the woman who posts her jubilation at the Zimmerman verdict as a status also has Paula Deen as her profile picture. 

There's a reason why riots would have been covered wall to wall by the mainstream media, but peaceful protests are ignored. 

That reason: the veil of white privilege and the voice telling us to go back to sleep; pull the veil back down--it's only a dream. 

We must stay wake to not only the injustice that's happened in the case of the not guilty verdict, but also the injustice that allowed George Zimmerman to be a vigilante, stalk his prey, brandish a weapon, and kill Trayvon Martin in cold blood. 

In my mind George Zimmerman will always be a racist murderer. May I never lower that veil, because surely the true danger in this acquittal is not the riots we were warned of. It is that there will be more George Zimmermans. It is that we might listen to that voice which compels us to once again pull down that veil and resign that this injustice like so many others was just a dream. 

When in all reality it's nothing short of a nightmare. 

Misguided Values: Mark Sanford represents all that's wrong with politics

Mark Sanford should probably hike the Appalachian Trail to Washington DC. It'll give him plenty of time to consider his perceived "political rebirth." 

Lest we forget that before he heads off to Washington as the newly minted Congressman from South Carolina's first district, he must appear in court for trespassing charges. 

And therein lies "the rub"--pun intended. 

You see, if the political memory in the 1st district of the Palmetto State were remotely fresh they'd remember Mark Sanford: disgraced governor who cheated on his wife with an Argentinian mistress, lied about his whereabouts and left the state in shambles. 

And by shambles I mean, Nikki Haley. 

Let's digress however back to the short South Carolina memory of voters. The people of SC-1 voted tonight to send their once disgraced governor to Washington, DC. People who would no doubt describe themselves as "values voters" chose a man who could not be more void of the "values" they claim to hold so dear. That is, in a nut shell what's wrong with American politics today. In a district so gerrymandered that a sensible Democratic challenger in Elizabeth Colbert-Busch never stood a chance, the candidates don't matter. Their values don't matter. The letter beside their names is all that matters--their previous iniquities be damned. 

Mark Sanford won a district by 9 percentage points that boasts an 11 point advantage in registered Republicans. That's not the political sweeping, surprising victory the GOP is touting tonight. That's just the status quo. 

So, in case you missed it: Mark Sanford is the newest US Congressman while the same misguided voters who sent him to Washington continue to believe that its things like gay marriage that threaten its sanctity--not Mr. Sanford's lies and trespasses.  

That's what's wrong with American Politics. Mark Sanford is driving the redemption train to DC, when in reality the people of SC-1 would have been better if he would have just taken a hike.