This Easter might have been the most meaningful Easter I have ever had. During the summer and the election in the fall there was much talk of "hope." There was a campaign poster that grew widespread appeal just because of the idea of "hope" and Barack Obama became the American embodiment of this ideal. As commander in chief Barack Obama is already practicing foreign policies that are completely void of hope for Iraqis and Afghans. While casting his candidacy as an anti-war advocate, his policies in office have proven to be otherwise.
Obama's promise to get out of Iraq in 16 months has been lengthened, and when we do "get out" 50,000 troops will still remain. He is promising a surge in Afghanistan of 21,000 troops that will escalate war, bombings, and ultimately civilian casualties. According to two different studies, 1 million innocent civilians have been killed in Iraq. 5 to 6 million are homeless, making Iraq the biggest refugee crisis in the world. Tens of thousands of women and children have been killed in Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of people are homeless.
In America we don't see the pictures of these casualities. We don't see children with their eyes blown out and their arms missing. We don't see the burn victims and the homeless. If we did I think there would be a bigger movement to stop the unjust acts of our presidents and the military. While the war in Iraq has grown increasingly unpopular, people still widely support bombings in Afghanistan.In a conversation with my Arabic professor, who is an American Muslim, he discussed his position of why the war in Afghanistan is so pointless. He explained a war against terror, or even Al Qaeda, is completely arbitrary. Al Qaeda represents more of an ideology rather than an actual physical group. He argued that bombs cannot stomp out an ideology, but only another more hopeful ideology can. As long as Obama keeps up these practices, he will become as much as a warring president as Bush. The "hope" of his ideologies will be completely lost.
I bring this up because Easter is a time for us to remember where we can find real, lasting hope. Hope that does not disappoint. I was particularly struck during the Easter service here. During the liturgy we had a time where people could come up and light a candle to share a "resurrection hope." I was very emotional and cried through most of it. I couldn't really speak so I had Katie share my hope.
Matthew's Resurrection hope: "That my grandpa Jack is having a great time sharing in the resurrection with the King."
Katie's Resurrection hope: "Hope in late night conversations with close friends, and with an understanding husband."
An 11 year old in our congregation shared that her hope was that underprivileged children, without families, would find parents to care for them.
I also thought of Zetta, and how much hope she brings me everyday. Especially the reminder of her birthday and how each day brings us the opportunity to be full of hope, or to be filled with fear.
Sorry to be so long, but I am interested in your hopes this year. Please share your "resurrection hope" in the comments.
Wow - I've been praying for Jesus to show me a vision this week of what he is doing in my life and I got hit with a big one so I guess that is what I have to hope for but that will be an entire blog to read (hopefully it will get written later today).
ReplyDeletemy hope is that our helicopter pilot will touch down and pick Sarah and I back up for his intended journey.
ReplyDeleteAnybody who thought "HOPE" and "CHANGE" were anything more than just campaigh slogans should probably avoid infomercials. Obama also talked about putting more troops in Afghanistan from day one, so I don't know why some poeple are suprised by this move. In America we also did not see the Kurds Saddam gassed, or the unknown number of dissidents he executed. We did not see the woman the Taliban executed for the most trivial of things. Yet the Abu Graib scandal was on the front page of the New York Times for 50 straight days. I am most curious as to what Iraq will look like 10 years from now. If it is a country flourishing, no longer beneath the iron fist of Saddam Hussein, will people around the world view the events of the past few years in a differnt light? Also, how hard is it trying to learn Arabic? And more important, why I am up writing this at 430am?
ReplyDeleteBill: Thanks for your comments...it's about time! Obama's promise to escalate Afghanistan was probably the #1 reason I didn't vote for him. I would argue that while the rest of the world saw the Kurds being gassed, Americans for the most part did not, because America was Saddam's biggest supplier of military aid at the time. Americans didn't see the horrors of the Taliban regime because before 9-11 the Taliban was seen as freedom fighters who pushed the Soviets back home for their collapse. Regardless of where Iraq is in 10 years, whether they are still in turmoil, or they are the world's economic superpower, it will not have been worth the innosent Kurds killed by Saddam, the innosent Iraqis killed during Gulf War I, the innosent Iraqis killed from the Clinton bombings, the 500,000 children who starved because of sanctions, the almost 5,000 troops who have been killed, the nearly 5 million refugees created, and the 1 million lives that have been lost from American bombings.
ReplyDeleteLearning arabic is fun. It is my favorite subject. It is difficult though. It gets easier once you get the alphabet down though.