Now That I'm Calmer

I took the last couple of days away from writing opinion about what happened in Paris last Friday evening, and about the vermin who perpetrated the act. It's been an angering time, a depressing time, and futile time for the West.

Personally, I'm depressed and disillusioned enough that I don't even want to be doing this, but I'm forcing myself to do it. Quitting is not an option. Not for me, anyway.

In the Coliseum of history, the radical Muslims are leading the rest of the world by a fair amount in the body count column.

Yes, the West continues to bomb places inhabited by the vermin who scurry out from under their rocks to infiltrate the peaceful society that is the majority of humanity, and blow themselves up, taking as many innocents with them as they can. Unfortunately, those bombs that are dropped on the places these vermin live are just as indiscriminate as the suicide vests worn by the vermin. They kill far more peaceful people than they do murderers. I'm sorry to break it to you but there is no such thing as a "surgical" airstrike. Not unless the surgery involves removing healthy tissue to ensure the sick tissue is entirely gone. A radical mastectomy kind of surgery.

I have been away for the past couple of days because I am angry at both the East and the West, and at people who see only one point of view and who will not tolerate another. And in that, I am not speaking of our Middle Eastern friends. There is that kind of shouting down alive and well in Western society.

For the East, I am angry the Muslims themselves because while there are articles being written and words being spoken, those things alone are not going to have any effect on the vermin.

It's like talking to gang members and expecting words to change behavior. When has talking to people who have no soul left inside them ever worked?

The psychology of gang members has been well studied and documented.

Gangs tend to be made up of people who feel that they have been left behind, are separate from their families and society. Many have been victimized, abused or neglected. In the gang they find a place to be, where they are accepted and where hyperbolic speech of hate and destruction is actively encouraged. The louder, the better. These vermin are too far separated from joy and laughter and living and humanity to be swayed by words. They have found a place to be who they have become over time, a home where they are welcomed. Where words of hatred are spewed so regularly they replace the fabric of the soul they once had. They don't see, or perhaps they do but don't care, that the gang leaders look down on them as nothing more than cannon fodder.

The only thing these gang members understand is violence and death. So, the people who see and know these vermin need to do something direct. They need to figure out, within the confines of their societal structure, how they can best solve the problem. It could be a matter of withdrawing young people who are heading down that path from the realm of influence. Perhaps sending them to another place, family in another town or province, or to a reform school of some sort, where goodness is taught in place of hatred.

I'm sure some families do, but others don't, and that is their weakness. Intervention is not a universal will or a goal. If it were, the tide could be turned inside a generation. And that's what this has got to be, a systemic generational change throughout the Muslim community.

Parents must diligently teach their children the teachings in the Quran that speak of peace and the other 'people of the book' - Christians and Jews who also worship facets of Allah. They must teach against violent jihad.

That is one place where I think the Christian Bible has it all over other religious teachings. It is pure, simple and direct: Thou shalt not kill. Pretty much says it all, don't you think?

When they see their children being influenced by the sickness that has infiltrated their communities the parents need to intervene, to take whatever steps are necessary to separate their children from the vermin. Just as they would if their child took to hanging around with flea ridden diseased rats.

If these parents teach their children, show their children that life is good and worth living and enjoying, maybe the radicals will find it harder to find people willing to detonate themselves in innocent crowds.

It will take at least one generation, probably two, before this kind of radical thinking that is at the core of ISIS, Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the other groups is wiped out, put in its proper place - the garbage bin.

I am angry at the West for continuing to do precisely the wrong thing. How many hearts and minds are we winning by bombing the towns and neighborhoods and homes of law-abiding people? How many friends are we winning by blowing up the innocent along with the guilty?

I am also angry at the West because honest exchanges of ideas are suppressed, denounced, vilified. Say the right thing in the wrong way and you're marginalized, insulted. It's insidious and it is precisely that kind of behavior that leads to ISIS. Marginalized people draw together, seek brotherhood to share their ideas, developing new and becoming a group.

France is currently blowing up towns and neighborhoods and homes. So is Russia and so is America. Again, I ask: how many hearts and minds are we winning by this?

How many people are being persuaded by bombs falling from the sky accompanied by the cacophanous chatter coming from the Western media? Particularly when the messages vary from "blow all of 'em up" to "withdraw and let them fight it out amongst themselves".

Within the spectrum of thought and opinion are the centrists. The people in the middle who, for the most part, naively believe words will do the trick and spend their time alternately wringing their hands and vilifying the extremes - even though those on the ends may have a few solid ideas. Instead, the centrists pooh-pooh the statements made by the ends. They twist them and say the speaker is "ignorant" or willfully not paying attention. They wring and whine and don't come up with anything meaningful in the way of plans or potentials.

It's a frustrating situation, deadly frustrating because Paris will not be the last time or the next to last time these vermin scurry from under their rocks. This isn't a matter of killing more people and blowing things up to get them to stop. This is a test for the intellect of humanity, and its will to solve what appears to be an insolvable problem.

Have a peaceful day.

Best~
Philippa

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Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Hey - it's Cinco de Mayo! Let's have a party!

Even though this is the alleged Mexican Independence Day celebration according to most of the people I know, it really isn't. That's September 16th, which doesn't have quite the same festive ring to it. Besides, Cinco de Mayo is much easier for English speakers to say than dieciseis de Septiembre. It flows off the tongue. Even when you're half in the bag. Diesciseis de Septiembre is a mouthful even when you're stone cold sober. 

Instead of full-on Independence, this is the date on which the Mexican army defeated - in surprising fashion - the French at the Battle of Puebla. Because of... ta da! Money.

See, there was a bit of a fiscal crisis then, too. There usually is. Then. Now. It doesn't matter, really. Money is always a problem. After all, isn't that what most couples fight over? So why not governments, too?

It was 1861 and the Mexican government was just about bankrupt after busily fighting two huge wars.

The first was the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) which was how the U.S. ended up with California, New Mexico and made sure that Texas wasn't going anywhere.

The second was the Reform War (1858-1861). I think I'm going to call that the 'Bible Thumper War'. It sounds more fun than *yawn* the Reform War.

Conservatives liked the idea of a form of theocracy in which the government and Catholic church would rule side-by-side. Most folks weren't too keen on the idea, so they had a war. The Thumpers lost.

Anyway, by the end of those two wars the Mexican government was hugely in debt to England, France and Spain. It had borrowed money, a lot of it.

After the dust settled, when they attempted to balance their checkbook, they discovered they were broke.  "Meh, they can wait" (or words to that effect). President Juarez told his creditors that Mexico wouldn't service its debt for a couple of years - just a moratorium.

Naturally, their creditors weren't pleased. Kind of like Ebenezer Scrooge on the steps of the Exchange when accosted by Samuel Wilkins - 'I didn't ask you for more time to lend you the money. Why should you ask me for more time to repay it?'

Of course, that didn't set well with Mexico's creditors. They sent ships and men and, in a manner of speaking, banged on the door while demanding payment.  Mexico managed to sweet talk England and Spain into waiting. They went back home, but Napoleon decided to take a pound or two of flesh, seeing an opportunity to establish a French colony in the Americas.

For Napoleon and his army, considered the 'premier army' in the world at the time, their attempt ended with an embarrassing defeat.

On cinco de Mayo, in the Battle of Puebla, six thousand elite French soldiers were resoundingly beaten by an ill-equipped Mexican army of two thousand.

Boney was not best pleased. The next year, he sent thirty-thousand troops. Better odds. They managed to take over Mexico and install a puppet government, answerable to France although the Mexican resistance continued for several years.

In the end, with the American Civil War over and the geo-political landscape shifting again, France decided it really didn't want a continuing guerrilla war in Mexico. The U.S. wasn't real happy with the French invasion of Mexico, and started providing support to the Mexican guerrillas.

Seeing the writing on the wall, the French decided leaving was probably a better idea than staying, so they withdrew, leaving their governor, Maximilian I, behind. He was captured and, along with several of his generals, was executed.

President Juarez returned to Mexico City in 1867, re-established his government and (almost) everyone lived (mostly) happily ever after.

So now, let's have a party!

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories
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(yeah - cool name, that!)