THIS IS POLITICAL. I know just a few days ago I railed against people making political posts… Now I’m doing it myself. I see the irony. But I’m going to talk anyway. Sosueme.

Some people have asked my opinion about the 35-year-war we’ve been waging in the Middle East. This is just my opinion. If you don’t care for it, please just move on…

I don’t care which one of you started it. Islam, Judaism, Christianity, you all profess peace, yet I’ve seen precious little of it from any of you. This is a religious war, not an ideological war, and that goes against everything I’ve been brought up to believe. You are all acting like children, so I see no reason not to treat you as such. Until you quit pointing fingers and acting like asses, I’m pretty much done with the whole lot of you. Each one professes peace, yet each one thumps his chest in outraged indignation and condemns the other.

You know, if I had a magic wand, I’d airlift the innocent out of the Middle East rather than airlift troops in.

1. We can use our troops here at home. I was in the Army National Guard for close to a decade, back in the day. I’d rather see our reserves tending to their families, being active in their communities, and spending their drill weekends in a combination of training and community service than hanging around in a foreign country wondering where the next bullet is coming from…
2. We can use the innocents from the Middle East here in the land of the free, the melting pot. Here, here’s this:

   “Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!’ cries she
   With silent lips. ‘Give me your tired, your poor,
   Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
   The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
   Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
   I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'”

These folks, the people in the Middle East who want no conflict, these folks have skills, imaginations, arts that should be cultivated – not suppressed by war. How many advances, scientific, cultural, musical, have we lost through war? People who yearn to learn, deprived a chance. America gave my grandparents, and great-grandparents a chance to come here and grow. In the years prior to WWII my grandfather was welcomed to America, and was allowed to enlist in the military and serve his new country. Could we do that today? Are we comfortable allowing Middle-Easterners in our communities the way our forefathers welcomed Germans into theirs? Probably not, and that’s to our detriment…

If your religious beliefs made you shudder a little at the thought of welcoming Muslim refugees into America, I wonder if you shouldn’t re-examine your religion. Peace? Love? Acceptance? Sound familiar? Or should we go with “boots on the ground” again, and see our children die shooting at their children?

I choose acceptance. Peace. Rather than punish, let’s choose instead to welcome those who seek refuge.

Am I an idealist? No. I know some idiot will accept our offer of friendship with an outstretched hand containing not goodwill but hatred, and will undoubtedly wreak havoc. But that doesn’t mean we should change our beliefs… I’d rather make a mistake offering friendship than offering malice.