beirut

A few days ago I came across this blog, Beirut Update, which is written by a young woman in Beirut. She started it when the hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah began. I can only imagine that for her it is a way to vent, to express what she sees that the media cannot, and to give the perspective from an artist's point of view. Since launching it, she has become the receptor of loads of comments, from encouraging ones to hateful ones. Most Americans who post apologize profoundly for the actions, or lack thereof, of the US government, as well as acknowledging that most Americans have no real idea what goes on in that particular region of the Middle East, or the history of it.

I have a very good friend who lives in the UAE, and he tells me about the sorts of things they see on their news coverage. (I should also tell you that, in the UAE at least, they do have CNN, CBS, and BBC in addition to local channels from Jordan, Turkey, etc...) While our news coverage is plastered with the atrocities of the bombs dropping unguided in Israel, his news is plastered with stories of Israeli children kissing bombs before they are sent to kill Lebanese children.

How are we to form opinions of who is right and who is wrong when the media does it for us?

How can there even be a right or wrong when both sides are killing?

Doesn't that lead straight to determining which ideology is right or wrong?

How can you tell someone that the fundamentals of their beliefs are inherently wrong?

Because people do. They fight over the 'rightness' of their particular belief, nevermind that by killing in the name of that belief the action renders the belief invalid in some ways. In all ways. Like hitting your kid to teach them that hitting other children is wrong. No logic. No heart. No belief.

I have a feeling that this time, this conflict will be the catalyst to something bigger. The US has no idea or compassion for warfare fought in the backyard. We are a fat and complacent country with our hands in too many cookie jars. The higher a country is, the harder it will fall when it finally does fall. (Roman Empire ring a bell?)

How many of us will be writing blogs then, with the sound of bombs hitting our neighbor's home, and empty grocery store shelves, nothing to feed our families or pets but canned beans, and the daily routine of living becomes a crap shoot? What would we be saying?

Where would we put the blame?

How can I renounce my citizensip of one country and become a citizen of the world? Somehow, if you are on everybody's side, it seems you can finally have an objective viewpoint......