Premature Human Mortality: It’s Wrong!
Friends, my apologies. I was unable to do a post yesterday as I had to drive 250 kms to experience a small medical procedure.
I was put under anesthetic and awoke with some pain which was reasonably well controlled with paracetamol. The results will be available in a week or so although, once I got back home, I felt reasonably optimistic that the results will be favorable.
During the lead up to the procedure I admit to having all manner of gloomy thoughts about mortality and wondered if I might be about to join the ranks of those suffering from cancer and have to endure the dubious benefits of chemotherapy and radiology.
Ironically, the night before the procedure, I saw a case on television where an Australian woman had been wrongly diagnosed with cancer and had undergone the full oncological attack. The treatment left her totally incapacitated and ruined her life. It was not a good thing to see before my test!
More importantly, this morning I saw a report that said in Sadr City a suicide bomber had killed at least 127 people and wounded hundreds. Now Sadr City is in Iraq. That is the nation that the Americans and their dubious Coalition which included Australia invaded to find WMDs, remember? Then the story was changed to freeing the Iraqi people from Saddam. Then it was to bring Iraqis democracy and the American Dream.
Those 127 people who died on Wednesday are testament to the complete failure of the invasion of Iraq. They join the hundreds of thousands who have died since the American invasion. Yet are the Americans saddened or deterred by their failure?
Of course not! There is Obama sanctimoniously lecturing the leaders of Iran for trying to stifle protests, protests that more than likely have been fermented by the CIA, M15 and Mossad. And of course, this lecturing is especially ironic given that America is at the forefront of using its police and military to crush protests by its own citizens, stopping them marching, rigging elections, etc, to say nothing about America’s continual warmongering, its use of drones, etc.
Friends, the point of all this is to make the point that we humans are mortal. None of us know how many days of life we have left. Death can come from many things: accidents, illness, misadventure, etc.
But surely the most despicable way that death can come is via war because war is a thing of choice and innocent people are killed by it: women, kids, and civilians.
Some nations choose to make war a source of profit, of income, of grabbing control over scarce resources so they can enjoy consumption of a disproportionate amount of the world’s wealth. I suspect that a few nations just love killing, think it’s a lifestyle!
War brings about premature mortality. It is an act of insanity, one that is preventable. And those who are killed or injured by it are innocent victims of evil predators who selfishly seek profit and power through violence.
War is barbaric and totally unnecessary.
Let’s make it so!
SOCRATES: AN ICON.
DRIVEN AS IT IS BY AN EXTREME RELIGIOUS, MILITARIST, RACIST, CORPORATIST, GREED-BASED IDEOLOGY, THE U.S. MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO GAIN CONTROL OF THE WORLD!
Heavy, heavy stuff!! Hope you feel better!!!!
What a powerful picture! Killed with my tax money. Makes me puke. These pictures need to spread. Only hard-core zionists are unmoved by this innocent child in a coffin, guess one future terrorist less for their way of thinking.
Imagine this beautiful child were your child/grandchild/relative??? I am not religious but I hope the bad karma will reach the war profiteers, somehow….Ultimate evil, despicable scum!
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David G Reply:
June 25th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Despicable scum is right, Margit. They have blood on their hands: the soldiers and airmen, the generals, the politicians, the corporations that make the weapons and munitions and their shareholders, the religious fanatics and those who traffic violence as entertainment!
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I enjoy reading your comments. But when you address us as “Friends”, you sound like the shithead Bibi. Please stop. Call us readers, comrades, anything you like but friends. It is empty of meaning and deceitful after being taken over by the right.
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David G Reply:
June 25th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Simon, the thinking, caring people who are involved with this blog are my friends whether you like it or not!
Why do you have a problem with being called a friend? Would you prefer to be called an enemy?
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You took too personally. The word “Friends” is now part of a special political vocabulary that prevents from seeing what is going on.
PS hope your test results are negative
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I always feel like it is an act of bravery to call us readers, friends. So few people are brave enough to be friends in real life. I never expect friendship, but do appreciate it. Of course, I do hate it when disingenuous politicians use the word!
To the article: the baby in the coffin is horrible. I never want to know how those parents can exist and see their baby in that state. He was obviously loved and well cared for. A moment of mourning. Thank you for attaching the blame of this failure on the war mongers, the failures of human proportions, sanctimonious, American political leaders and their apologists. More pictures like this do need to get distributed more widely. America could be at a crossroads. If more people could connect the dots of our Military Industrial Complex, bankruptcy, the destruction of our land, air and water, and little children whose parents love them laying dead in a street that we voluteered to protect, then we could have a Revolution!!
David, I highly recommend the movie, Harold & Maude. Just watched it two nights ago. Brilliant moments and of course the soundtrack is in my top 5.
Wishing you some clean test results! Maybe the story of the misdiagnosed woman is for all of us to not be afraid to get a second opinion.
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Denise Reply:
June 26th, 2009 at 4:38 am
My favorite movie of all time!
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Simon, thanks for your good wishes!
Grace, there are other nations who thrive on producing the materials of war besides America although it’s the kingpin! We must change the mindset that says that war is normal and necessary. It’s madness.
Thanks for the film recommendation. I’ll try to get hold of it.
Denise, thanks for calling by.
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i could say a lot of things here, but i will reserve my speech/advice/comments as i’ve found that at times it’s better to be silent. (it’s taken me a long time to realise this though!)
i understand however david, your apprehension and fear of the ‘dubious’ benefits of any medicines prescribed by the ‘new age’ witch doctors.
none of us will escape death. and it’s up to each of us (if we are fortunate enough) to decide how to proceed if we are diagnosed with some life threatening disease.
war torn children like the one in the picture is a victim of aggression. aggression that is not necessary. and aggression that gives no choice.
i’ve just learned that michael jackson has died. and there will be millions of people mourning his death. and although he brought great things to this world he is still just another human being. how many people will be mourning this child in the picture?
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David G Reply:
June 26th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Coco, Michael Jackson did bring something to the world although some of it wasn’t good! He won’t be mourned by me.
The innocent child in the photograph never got a chance to bring anything. It simply got caught up in the maw of war and was spat out. This child I will mourn!
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coco Reply:
June 26th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
i was only referring to his music when i said great things……….and i know you will mourn this child. as do i……………….
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David G Reply:
June 26th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Coco, what saddens me is to see the media frenzy today about Michael Jackson. By contrast, the four hundred plus kids who were killed by Israel during the recent Gaza attack barely rated a mention and neither does the blockade of Gaza which is still ongoing.
Irfaan Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 3:15 am
David,
not to mention the children killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan who do not get a mourning. And there are already t-shirts of Michael Jackson in many stores and it hasn’t been one day yet since he died. Wow! They really like to profit from someone’s death! Go, Go Capitalism!!!!
That Michael Jackson is an icon for some suggests to me that our value system is awry!
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Maybe it is partly my age, but these are depressing times. Crushing photo, and how about the horrors of the children forced to work for crumbs, in the area between Afghanistan and Pakistan, due to our meddling in the affairs of their governments. Heart breaking!
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David G Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 9:50 am
It’s not your age, Therese. These are depressing times. What is most depressing is that we are capable of better!
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Hope everything turns out good for you David!
That picture should be shown everywhere and to everyone so that they can see what their money is doing.
I know it was my tax dollars that helped kill that innocent child and that there is nothing I can do to stop even more such killings.
Obama should look at that picture and ask himself if he would like to see his daughters in that postion.
No one has to wonder why the US is hated so much after seeing just that one picture.
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I am catching up on my blog reading after weeks of distractions.
It is now July 9th, and the top news is still the death of Michael Jackson.
Hundreds of other people have died in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Honduras since then.
But Michael Jackson is still dead, and that’s the news.
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