A not so funny idea visited me recently and I thought I would share it with you.
We are watching a war unfold in the Middle East that has its roots in the different beliefs of two religious groups, the Sunni and the Shia, yet when we trace their history they are the same people and for the most part the same culture.
In the United States, we fight a political war not yet with weapons like our brothers in the Middle East, but similar in the fact that we have the red states versus the blue states. Our dislike for the other side continues to grow and I fear that at some point violence will be the tool that the less sophisticated will use to try to prove that their religion or in our case our political ideology is indeed the one that the Prophet would have surely picked to be the one that is correct.
We have already fought a civil war between states over religious, financial and some would say moral grounds and today we have the pundits and politicians cleverly trying to pick the new teams that will and must once again go after each other over political ideology. The underlying culprit: rich versus poor, black versus white versus Hispanic versus women versus gay, and it goes on.
The problem with taking sides is that we better start to really pay attention to the fact that conflict not discourse is the only solution to a problem where neither side is open to change and just like in the Middle East, when there are enough young men that are disenfranchised by their governments with no hope for a career or education, going to war is not a big deal. We must guard ourselves here in the United States that we do not go down this road.
Our country must not allow the politicians to destroy our economy and our hopes by pitting us against each other like cage fighters to be gawked at on the 6 o’clock news and have their election be one step closer as they pander to our fears and prejudices.
Are we Shia or Sunni or are we Americans united in keeping this country as it once was, the beacon for the oppressed that came here to escape the same anger and hostility that we now are trying to whip up in the name of being a Republican or Democrat?
Democrat or Republican, we are Americans and while it’s perfectly healthy to have a difference of opinion, we must take a sober look as to how far we are willing to take our belief. I am sure the Prophet would have never accepted his people killing each other for centuries over differences that although at times seem to us petty to millions of followers have been worthy of killing their brothers for.
The United States is a republic not a democracy; read your history and Constitution. If you do this, you will learn that no republic has ever lasted and the reason is corruption. Do not allow the corruption and the taxation that affects us all to be hidden by the politicians under the guise of us against them.
The Shia and Sunni have been at war for centuries. Read about how many great countries have been destroyed and how many have died over their war. We can very quickly destroy our great country; the time is now to question the motives of the ones that want to put us in a box so that we can destroy ourselves.
The writer lives in Little River.
Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article69815527.html#storylink=cpy
