I went to sleep last night somewhat disturbed by a now former Facebook friend’s comments on story he posted.  And I should point out that to use the word friend here somewhat cheapens the word as this was simply a former student who friend requested me on Facebook.  And while there are many students current and former I consider friends, I truly hope I never cross paths with this person again.

The story was a fake actually, but this did not seem to deter him.  I suppose it was a pro-gun story, and while I am sure many of you know my views regarding this issue, and I have had many fruitful debates with friends about the issue, because there are meaningful arguments to be made on both sides, this was not a debate.  This was not even really about gun control actually, but I was exposed to a disturbing sense of morality.  The most unfortunate part is that this persons shadow is cast by many others in this country as well.  Often when one is disturbed by something deeply, it can take some time to put it into words, but I wanted to do so before I forget.  The story itself was about a woman who upon having her purse stolen shot the thief 6 times while trying to make his getaway.  The woman was arrested, and then acquitted.  In the story she asked on the stand why she shot 6 times, and her answer was that after 6 times, the gun would only click.  As I said the story is a fake.  This person posted the story with the word “ ‘Murica!” posted along with it.  Not telling for sure whether he was being perhaps sarcastic I simply posted the Snopes link.  There was no response to that.  Another of his Facebook friends posted that “this was nothing to celebrate”, indicating that she believe he was being serious and thought that this was a good thing.  He responded by saying that if he could “he’d give that chick a merit badge”.  So I responded with the obvious, well the story is a fake and besides no one deserves to die just for taking a purse.  His arguments devolved from there, also in conjunction with his other friend’s comments.  This other friend by the way is pro-gun as well, but also a morally reasonable human being.  Basically he believes that guns are a form of empowerment and that anybody who tries to take a material possession from another, that person has the right to gun them down.  I have seen comments from others in the gun debate that reveals that this attitude is not unique.

The initially disturbing part was how much this person celebrated that the person was shot 6 times, and that the person would have been shot more had there been more bullets in the gun.  If it was somehow morally okay to do such a thing, the fact that anybody would then have so much hate and anger to shoot 6 times or more for such an offense makes that person a much greater danger to society than a purse thief.  That being said of course I find it morally reprehensible to shoot anyone for theft of material items.

And even though it’s a fake story, both the person who posted and many others in this country, and perhaps this world, think that this is okay.  It left me wondering where the compassion and empathy has gone.  Where is forgiveness and understanding?  There are many possible back stories to a purse snatcher.  Perhaps hungry, perhaps has an addiction.  And we don’t even know what circumstances led to his behavior.  Child abuse, poverty, drug addicted parents, etc.  The idea that all of us as individuals can play jury, judge, and executioner for any crime no matter how minor simply because a personal possession has been taken is appalling.  It’s worse than supporting even the death penalty.  At least that person gets a trial.  Whether society is safer with guns or not is a different debate than the attitude displayed here.  Without empathy and compassion society is definitely not safer despite the assertions made by the person who posted this story.   I was finally able to reason why as I thought about a video I watched on the Qualiasoup YouTube channel that talks about how we develop morality in a society.  They talk about the fact that in a society the punishment for crimes must be tiered.  He uses the example of rape and admits while this is a horrendous crime if the punishment for rape was death, then the rapist loses nothing by killing his victim if the punishment is going to be the same (although sadly in our society rape is hardly punished at all).  Anyway, so even if it isn’t officially a law, that those who commit theft are put to death, in a society where this is seen as a morally justified is problematic.  To simply kill because of burglary, this would actually act to promote violence.  If you are likely to be killed by someone you assail, you are better off committing a greater act of violence against them in order to get what you need.  You might kill them or at least follow them until they are in a more secluded area and rob them with a gun.  You might make a wrong move and get shot, you might try to reach for your gun now and get shot, or shoot them.  In this society people die for invalid reasons.  In a society where gunning down someone for a petty crime is not seen as morally justified.  No one dies.  There is the possibility of rehabilitation and redemption.  Who knows the purse snatcher may later feel guilty about what he has done and return the purse.  I find this to be a better and more moral society.

If you find yourself agreeing with the person who posted this story than I implore you to please remove me from your Facebook friend list.  I have ZERO place for you in my life.  I would sit down with the purse snatcher any day over you.  It chills my heart to even know you exist.  Where does such hate come from?  Perhaps I’ll never know.

I really need to get to more concerts.  I realized last night what the difference is between listening to the music on your iPod or CD player.  The quality is usually better from the studio, but what you don’t get to see is the faces of the musicians as they play their music.  Stage AE in Pittsburgh was a wonderful venue.  Even though you had to stand there were no bad spots.  There couldn’t have been more than 1000 people there and we were standing only 20 ft away from the performers.  You could see their facial expressions, you could see their hands move, their feet move.

Art comes in a number of forms but for me music and dance are different because they allow us to see the expression through the human form which I find to be ultimately more inspiring somehow.  I’m sure a lover of other art forms such a paintings, or sculpture would say that they love to see the expression captured in a stationary object that seems to come alive as a result of the artists expression.  I suppose these things come down to preference.  For me the connection between movement and music and then music to poetry stimulates my soul and intellect in a way that I cannot fully explain.

Both the opening band and the main attraction were wonderful last night, but in completely different ways.  Half Moon Run was the opening band.  From their first chord you could tell that these were musicians, serious about their music, hell bent on finding a way to express their souls through the medium of music.  By looking at them you could see how lost in their music they were.  It was as though they didn’t think of as an audience but simply a group of friends they had over to their house for intimate gathering.  One of those parties where maybe there is some sort of fire, good conversation, and some good wine, and then as the evening draws late somebody picks up a guitar, sits down at a set of drums, and then you hear the voices singing in harmony, with feeling, and with soul and you know your conversation is over and that you have to listen.  It all feels intimate and you feel closer to the person you are standing next to.  I tend to be drawn to bands with good harmonies and their harmonies, live I might add, were flawless.  Good harmony turns the voice into an additional instrument.  It tells the audience we may be 3 individuals, but at this moment in the song we are one, what we have to say or what we have to express is a collective and it is beautiful and you really have to hear it.  And you have no choice but to agree.  These guys were fantastic.  So good you hope they don’t become famous because I know I’ll have to see them again, and I’d hate to have to be so far away from them because they are beautiful to watch.

If Half Moon Run was the end of an evening, the main attraction, Metric, was like dawning of a new day.  Full of energy.  A force that propelled you to move and yet at the same time you knew it was exactly what you wanted to do.  Metric uses synths a lot, and for a lot of people this is often turns people off, but synths have come a long way since the 80’s and make no mistake the members of Metric are artists when it comes to making music.  Their set was much more of a show, a performance.  The knew the audience, they loved the audience and their music was a spectacle for all the senses.  Emily Haines is an excellent lyricist.  Her words are expressive and her voice makes her ideas soar.  Their music itself is not as strong as Half Moon Run but it’s not trying to be.  Everything about their music is genuine, the band is their music and that’s really the most important thing you can ask for from a musician.  You may not like it, but they are creating what they want to create which is why their music is not “pop” music.  And if you pay attention you can see that it is more complex than your average pop song.  Emily Haines in my age and the energy she brings to the stage heartens me that age does not matter because when there is music you can be young, or really be any age you want.

The important thing is to engage yourself in music.  If you can’t make music yourself, go see someone play.  Solo or in a band.  Get as close as you possibly can to them so that you can excite more than just your ears.  Wonderful musicians are incredible to watch.  Music is a great way to lose yourself for awhile and just immerse yourself in beauty.

September 11th, 2001 was certainly the most horrific disaster to happen in a country I was living in, and it is hard to forget the memories from that day as you watched footage of people crying, hearing stories of people having to make choices between being engulfed in flames or jumping out the window of a high office floor in the world trade center, or a stewardess on a plane saying goodbye to a loved one over the phone before the plane went down.  And we remember the strength of all those people who responded not only that day, but in the clean up afterwards.  A strength that not many of us perhaps have.  Not even knowing how their health would be impacted years later.

I see many people posting “never forget”, but the truth is people will forget.  Perhaps not those who lived through it, but human civilization will go on and in 70 or 80 years September 11th will be but a historic event in which nobody was even alive for.  In my lifetime I have seen the change in attitude in remembrance towards WWII.  Twenty years ago there were many WWII veterans left alive and that direct link to a war in which countless people died allowed our solemn feelings to remain strong, but now it too has become an unconnected historic event.  We know the loss of life was great, but other than that, few of us can really understand what it was like, and there are few left who we can even talk to share with us their memory.

So what can we remember from great wars or great tragedies that can benefit humanity in the long run?  I believe at its heart September 11th is an example of the dangers of extremism.  The terrorists who hijacked the plane were all rich Saudi’s who flourished in an area where poverty was great, education is not equal, government is corrupt, and separation of church and state is not prevalent.  In these conditions extremism and indoctrination take a foothold and are hard to get rid of. The terrorists of 9/11 were all firm in their belief that they were doing God’s work.  And that belief led them on a course to cause great destruction. If wars and tragedies like 9/11 are to be prevented it seems that answer lies in raising all people up so that there is equality, so that there is the opportunity for self-determination and personal success.  A man will believe in any cause if he feels that that cause has a chance to feed his family.  He may also believe in that cause if his life is too difficult and all he can hope for is some afterlife prescribed by the culture he grows up in.  I believe if we wish to stamp out extremism and leave it on the margins we must focus on helping our fellow human obtain earthly rewards not otherworldly ones.  We must raise him up through compassion and education and we must show that compassion equally regardless of their religion or geographic region.  Just like good parents treat their children equally regardless of whether their interests are similar to the parents, we must also try our bests to help those in need with that same kind of love and care.  Extremism has no reason to flourish in such an environment.

As we move forward I believe it is important as a country to develop foreign policy that is inclusive and not divisive.  We must continue to make sure everyone has basic human rights even if they subscribe to a different religion or are being oppressed by a country that is our ally.  Despite the fact that I disagreed with going into Iraq I actually do agree with the idea of trying to help rebuild that country despite how much it has cost us.  This is a lesson that was learned from WWII.  After WWI the world left Germany a destroyed place, forbid them to form a military and the poverty there was great.  Thus it was not surprising that someone like Hitler would be able to take over.  A person who would clearly be seen as a mad man in any other society that had a high standard of living and greater economic equality amongst the people. And in general we have been doing this as a world, and hey it’s been almost 70 years and no world war…that has to mean something.

Peace be with you on this day, especially to those families that were directly affected by this horrible tragedy.

Republicans:  I agree the national debt needs to be decreased and that government spending is high, and the answer to fiscal responsibility is not always in raising taxes.  I would love someone to come into the government and truly make things run more efficiently.  However there are some things that cannot win me over.  You cannot just cut government spending indiscriminately without evaluating the worth of that program.  You cannot make religious beliefs part of government policy.  You cannot tell me that a woman does not have the right to choose what to do to her body. You cannot tell me that sexual orientation disqualifies a person from civil rights that everybody else enjoys.  You cannot tell me that all people are poor because they are lazy.  You cannot tell me that the government is pure evil for wanting taxes and yet corporations have our best interest at heart.  You cannot tell me to ignore scientific evidence or tell me that education is of diminished value and that teachers don’t deserve the pay they have.  You cannot tell me that the death penalty is humane and lowers the rate of violent crime, when numerous developed countries that don’t have the death penalty have much lower rates of murders.

Democrats:  You cannot whine about the world being against you.  You had the majority for 2 years and you failed to take a stand on important issues that you claimed you believed in like closing Guantanamo, and tougher stands on climate change.  You need to have definitive plans of action, and you need to act on them.  You need to make government programs run better and more efficiently before you start adding a whole bunch of new ones.  You need to make me believe that you have convictions about what you say you believe in, over worrying about losing your job.  Show some backbone.

Both:  You cannot spin statistics about the economy, jobs or welfare to make it look like one party’s fault.  This insults my intelligence, and if you’re intelligent enough to know what you are doing, then shame on you.  You should be teaching instead of deceiving.

People:  There are real problems in this country.  If you had plenty of jobs and opportunities as you did in America’s past, perhaps many other issues would fall by the wayside.  There are greedy politicians and corruption in government, as there are in big business and corporations.  No side is completely innocent and it is our job to not just believe what they feed us.  Get smarter and learn how to understand the information that is out there.  Many of you, poor or wealthy do work hard: continue to do so.  There is value in it, regardless about whether it feels like it’s paying off.  You gain self-respect by doing as much as you can to better yourself and survive on your own.  When you can, help those in need (time or money), whether you give that help here or around the world.  Extreme wealth, when kept to oneself does little to increase happiness in this world.  Regardless of what you believe in, your existence in this world is limited so if you have the means make your mark by showing the world the size of your heart, not the size of your bank account or home.