Wednesday, April 17

There Is No Justice with American Exceptionalism

How does anyone justify killing an eight year old child? Or a 29 year old woman loved by many? Or a college exchange student from China? Or the maiming and wounding of nearly 150 humans?
The bombing at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 13 is one more atrocity committed by criminals with hate in their hearts. No  cause justifies these type of actions. And the President is right to demand justice for the victims and survivors of the bombings. We need to capture the criminals responsible and bring them to justice.
On the same day there were 55 humans killed by bombs in Baghdad. A day before there were numerous dead from a bomb in Mogadishu, Somalia. The victims and survivors of these bombings also deserve justice.
And if we truly want justice in this world shouldn't we seek justice for the children killed in Baghdad, Fallujah, Basra, and uncounted villages throughout Iraq from the years 2003 to the present day? Or the innocent humans killed in Afghanistan from the year 2001 to present day? Or the innocents killed by drones for years in both countries and other nations we have allowed deadly drones to search out targets?
Where is the justice for the dead children of Palestine killed by a Zionist government armed by American weapons cheaply priced? Or the dead children of Israel killed in reprisal attacks? Where is the justice for idealistic young people like Rachel Corrie, ran over by an Israeli Caterpillar as she attempted to stand up for justice?
Where is the justice for the children of Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and all the many African nations under the spell of tribal genocide? Many killed by criminals securing weapons sold by American arms manufacturers.Where is the justice for children killed in Serbia, Estonia and all the other divided nations of the former Yugoslavia? Or the children of Vietnam still suffering the effects of American Agent Orange dropped in the 60s and 70s?
Since September 11, 2001 the millions of humans killed as a result of American wars seem exceedingly more than enough retribution for American lives lost in the terrorist attack of that day. We Americans fail to see the dead of other nations killed in our name for no good reason. We demand justice when it's our citizens, our brothers and sisters killed. We think an American life to be exceptionally more important than any other life.
The American people are mostly good people. They have the same desires of peace and security for their families as most people in the world have. Unfortunately, American exceptionalism blinds us to the true suffering of most humans outside our borders. Especially "third world nations". Nations populated by people of color in the majority.
The tragedy of Boston scars us all but pales in comparison to the tragedy of bombs falling on populated neighborhoods of Baghdad and Fallujah. The Aurora theatre massacre, the Newtown massacre and all the repeated atrocities over the past 20-30 years in this nation are nowhere close to the ongoing tragedies of nations most Americans can't find on a world map. Americans are so prone to PTSD because our traumatic events happen so infrequently compared to the majority of the world. Haitians live in a constant state of trauma. The "lost boys" of the Sudan had culture shock when they migrated to the U.S. because they didn't face daily trauma.
These thoughts don't mean to diminish the loss of American lives to criminal acts such as Boston or Aurora. But American exceptionalism has blinded us to the larger perspective of the world's suffering. We've been blinded to how much of the suffering our own governmental policies cause. Perpetual wars for phony justice are sold to us like car commercials. Only our troops matter. The collateral damage of our wars is hidden from us by the media that seems to be at the beck and call of the government.
To bring justice to our dead children we must bring justice for all dead children killed by the violence of wars, greed and power. We can't allow borders or national flags to prevent us from being citizens of the world first. Christ and all other prophets didn't see borders and national flags as barriers to justice for all. We simply need to follow their teachings for the justice we seek.

1 comment:

Dahlia said...

Beautifully written.