I want a cult of life

I think the over 400 assassinations carried out by the CIA during Obama's Presidency is unaccountable, irresponsible, and dangerous to our country.  What have we gained from this?  How does assassinating tribal leaders, who are undoubtedly despicable, help keep us safe at home?  I am not heartless, and I would disarm these crude, hateful people in a heartbeat.  Let's invent a giant magnet that will carry all the stupid lethal weapons out of the middle east, Pakistan, Afghanistan and North Korea.  Then the people will have a chance.

Hillary Clinton argued to arm the Syrian rebels.  She voted for the Iraq war.  She seems reticent to start a war with Iran, but I've seen her turn her back on war protestors.  She's a hawk.

Bernie Sanders is running now, he's a force of truth and after hearing him speak today I have confidence that he would be an excellent Commander in Chief.  I would like to hear how he would deal with ISIL.  

One thing I know we should do about ISIL, is to make kids realize life in the Western world is actually better than in a freaking violent theocracy.  

We need to excite teenagers about the possibility of a future that they will fit into; whether it's work, or creativity, or sports, or growing a family.  We need to understand the challenges youth face and participate in our communities to help them learn the value of work and community.

Fantasies about ISIL can become exciting to lonely young people because they think ISIL has a black and white plan, and system of rules that suggests there is a place for everyone: fighter and wife. Nevermind constant death and widowhood, too, because ISIL sells death as a "win," too.  They promote the fantasy of eternal life as a replacement for civilization on earth, which makes it a cult of death.

We need to create a cult of life, hope and attainable dreams.

Instead, Shields and Brooks and the PBS News Hour below suggest that ISIL is successfully using our faceless, unaccountable war drones as a recruiting tool.  Stop weaponized drones, ban them, worldwide. Stop assassinations.  Start using Court Rooms to create a system of justice again.

American Nightmare

Born poor and without a sober mother, the boy's father worked three jobs as his mother slowly withdrew and disappeared from their life. He always loved to read, and his dad would give him a dollar a week for comic books.

Ethan was a bright child who went to an overcrowded school where most kids were reading at a 4th grade level in high school.  He had developed lupus and Medicaid helped him.  Last week his father suddenly died of an undiagnosed heart attack; his father had never had affordable healthcare. The young man, having no where to go, tried the Church of The Afterlife that offered him a bed and breakfast.  Sadly, the lonely minister climbed into his bed shortly before sun up, so Ethan collected his things and left her, before breakfast.

Homeless and hungry, he steals some bread from a 7-11.  As he runs to hide, a cop mistakes his plastic knife for a real one, draws his gun, and aims for the boys heart.  The boy jumps at the sound of the shot, so the bullet enters a lung, he fell limp and bleeding.  The cop handcuffs him as the ambulance arrives.  

After a life-saving emergency, and a few days of recovery, the boy is sent to jail to await trial.  The sheriff pays a visit and says, "You criminals don't deserve hot meals, here's your baloney sandwich."  The boy threw up his sandwich as a guard punched him and screamed, "You disgusting runt!" The boy was sent back to the hospital for bleeding.

The nurse attending the young man heard him say that he missed his father, and worried that he’d die in jail.  The nurse told him not to worry, that he was young and that he had his whole life to figure out how to make things work.  This was America, after all.

UrbanPink2008 c.2015