My E – “book” is now on sale. Well actually right now it’s FREE…for a few more days.
I realize that there are some pretty radical concepts contained in the few pages of that “book.”
I put book in quotes because it’s not really a book at all…it’s a “manifesto” of about 11,000 words and some 65 pages, or so.
But hopefully words that will have an impact on someone who dares to actually read them.
Now I know that for some those words will be like fingernails scraping across the blackboard of your consciousness.
And that’s OK.
They are what I believe and I don’t pretend to present them as a gospel that you must also subscribe to in order to be greeted fondly by Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates.
So, if you hate it…by all means let me have it…leave a 1 star review.
If you love it…4 stars and up are certainly welcome too!
OK, enough with the self-promotion.
There is a little concept divulged in the, uh, Manifesto that is dubbed The Big US…
Now if that’s confusing, here’s a bit more elaboration.
Today is Memorial Day in the U.S.A.
That’s a time when we remember those who have died fighting in wars that our politicians deemed necessary for some real or imagined (possibly contrived) national interest.
And we certainly should celebrate and remember those lives.
But… there is a flip-side to that.
And it has a lot to do with that Big US that Revolutionary Misfit often alludes to.
You see, as many as have fallen on our side, an even greater amount of loss has occurred on the other.
Didn’t Jesus say as much?
About 4500 U.S. soldiers were killed in the Iraq War.
The data is less reliable on casualties of Iraqis, both military and civilian, but the numbers I am seeing are well above 100,000.
Now think about the run of the mill Iraqi military recruit. He’s probably just a guy with a family, who needs a job and decides the military is a great option to both provide for his family and give him a sense of national pride…the honour of sacrificing for his country…
Sound familiar?
I don’t mean to poo poo on Memorial Day.
I read a post yesterday by James Altucher as to why he hates Memorial Day. I certainly won’t go that far.
James said that he received an inordinate amount of hate mail due to that post…
an inordinate amount?
I would think just the headline itself would generate enough hatred to fuel an atomic reactor. (Actually I notice that he changed the headline to Why Memorial Day Makes Me Sad)
No, I won’t say that at all and hopefully this post won’t be taken that way.
Do you think their grief is any less…genuine or deserved?
But they are not us, you might say. They are our enemies…we should rejoice that they are no more.
I don’t believe that. And I hope you don’t either.
I hope you can recognize that us as being the small one.
Here’s something I’m pretty sure about…
War is shit.
And while Memorial Day should be a remembrance of the fallen, it should not be a celebration of war. Tweet it Out!
There is hardly a justification for the mass slaughtering of people and the rampant destruction of our planet that is generated by war.
It sucks!
It would be better if it never did nor never would exist and that those valiant soldiers could have been engaged in more productive professions and possibly still be among us.
To coin an already too familiar cliche that represents the Big US quite succinctly…
We’re all in this boat together.