Who ARE the Good Guys?
Lately there have been posts about Christianity and it always seems to come back to the quote, "By their deeds, yuo will know them." Okay, skip the Bible, "actions speak louder then words". Take a look through the videos TPM posted at this link.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/06/video_protests_in_iran.php?ref=fpblg
Here's what I saw. The Basij militia took to the roofs and shot at people indiscriminantly. Well, if you were on the street, then you were a "target". They had nothing to say, carried no signs, made no declaration. They were locked and loaded and letting the bullets fly.
Then there were the guys on motorcycles, just driving into crowds with a passanger behind the driver beating people with clubs. Again, nothing to declare except I have a motorcycle and a club and if you are near me I will beat you.
In the middle there is an Italian reported saying I don;t knwo what, but protesters have taken a policeman into their protection and brought him away fromt the crowd to give him water and keep him safe from harm.
How long does it take to know where the Good Guys are, the Good Guys and Gals are? How long does it take to realize, Muslims are not all terrorists and terrorists do not represent all Muslims? Or even that Christianity has no monopoly on good deeds?
I found it very suspicious that the same day the supreme leader ordered an investigation into fraud they anounced that permission to use 'live' fire had been given.
Why? How does that make any sense. The whole things seems to be a set up for violence and escalation. They didn't even go through the motion of trying to make the election look close. Supposedly Mousavi received a call telling him he had won. They ransacked college dormitories, destroyed computers, cut off communication... did they just want to show the opposition that they were in control and shut them down... create an opportunity to arrest some of them including opposition organizers in order to intimidate them?
It's very confusing.
As far as religion or faith goes I see it as a human tendency to seek to understand life and who we are... there are many paths to doing so, yet we share or have in common that desire to understand.
June 15, 2009 9:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, it is confusing. Maybe we were given a quote out of context when we heard an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth. Maybe after that it said, "And bullets and beatings for the opposition." Or maybe the leadership lacks real leadership?
June 16, 2009 1:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
You are a good guy, Gregor.
June 15, 2009 10:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah I am with Bwak here. You are a good guy.
Thanks for the post. And the conclusion is so logical.
I will never forget when Imus' brother in law in his phony 3000 dollar suit called for our government to nuke all of Iran in one giant holocaust.
June 15, 2009 11:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, guys!
I should edit more before I post, though. Too many typos! I'm making it harder to read my writing that it has to be. LOL.
June 16, 2009 1:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sadly, we don't live in a world where the good guys wear white hats anymore. Did we ever?
June 16, 2009 8:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
Have you ever seen the T-shirt, screen-printed with an old photograph of Geronimo and some of his contemporaries?
The one with the caption:
"All my heroes killed cowboys."
June 16, 2009 10:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nope. But, I have seen the T-shirt with the photo of Geronimo and his contemporaries holding long rifles with the caption:
Homeland Security
Fighting Terrorists since 1492
I bought mine at a pow wow.
June 16, 2009 10:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
Flower, I love that T-shirt. It's one of my favorites. Really.
Have you ever read Khalil Gibrain, The Prophet? There is a chapter about Good and Evil I really work to take to heart, although I think Cheney may have broken the mold. Gibrain writes to the effect that there are no truly evil people, per se, just people less then good. People who may do evil.
Then, as to the good. This is my take. Good is not better or best, it's just good. It is situational. People are not perfect. Even the guys in the white hats, or with the pipe bags that have no embroidery on them, can come up short from time to time. But sometimes, they do some really good things.
June 16, 2009 11:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have not read The Prophet, but your summation of the Good and Evil chapter makes me wonder if I should borrow it from the library and give it a go. My own life experience has taught me there is no being one or the other, exclusively. There are degrees of being Good. There are degrees of being Evil.
June 16, 2009 12:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Go get it! I think you will enjoy it. It's just over 100 pages! I like things brief.
June 16, 2009 12:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have read this book Gregor and have had the blessings of access to many writers, authors, and spiritual teachers. It is my experience that people are not the evil or the good that they do. We are not our actions.
However we have boundaries and preferences with the 'actions' of people. For example as ... it seems that it appears that Dick Cheny belongs behind bars. I have some very deep esoteric perceptions that I won't go into but a simple example would be parenting a child. No matter what the child 'does', a parent will always love their child, even if they can't admit it or understand it.
But like the son of Jame Von Brunn who most likely in truth loves his father, at the same time wishes his father would have died instead of the security guard. We can love people despite their actions and the need to have all necessary boundaries with their behavior.
That is my experience anyway.
June 16, 2009 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
DOH! I hit recommend on my own post! Sorry.
June 16, 2009 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm amazed that the government has been so (allegedly) restrained. Time travel back to 1978, and the prequel to the Shah's defeat were demonstrations such as we are seeing today. It began with a protest of madrasses students in Qom over a slander against Khomeini written by a government official. SAVAK killed some of the demonstrators, which set off more demonstrations, in which more were killed, and eventually led to general strikes and the Shah's overthrow. The Supreme Council must have this in mind today, which may explain the restraint, if in fact the government is restraining its response.
June 16, 2009 12:58 PM | Reply | Permalink