I got an email from my brother, who I love, that talked about Islam. He linked to a horrific video of a boy cutting the head off a man. I searched for more information and the video has been around since 2007 and the man who was killed was an Afghani accused of being a spy for the Americans. My brother said that Islam should be eradicated.
I responded to him with an email that suggested that trying to eradicate a religion was not that easily done. I started to write a long email that talked about how religion was usually divided along ethnic lines. I was going to write about how clan associations within religion provide as much sectarian violence as religions outside of clan associations. But I deleted it.
I wrote some pablum instead, which will probably upset him, but I can’t change his mind.
I explained the whole kerfluffle to Bookzilla and she got a laugh out of it.
Later, I was in the Half Price Books in the U-district and walked past the history section. There were many books on display about the First World War. Looking at the cover photos of the men in the mud and knowing the horrific casualties they suffered left me with a feeling of helplessness. Those men were ordered into battles which were godawful bloody by generals who were only doing as they were told. The world convulsed and we continue to convulse.
We have not gotten better.
We have just gotten older. And I feel helpless.