Two Tears for Syriana
Walking down the street, I actually had to hold back the tears. When I got home, I cried.
I saw Syriana yesterday. I was rocked to the core. You know I'm really not one for conspiracy theories, but I've had a number of experiences since 2000 that have placed a question mark over my eyes and led me not to believe the surface explanation for things - especially national and international matters.
- Blacks unable to vote in Fla's 2000 election. Bush winning even though he didn't actually win.
- America's response to 9/11 - War in Iraq (though no Iraqi connection has ever been found to Al Queda and no WMDs were ever found in the land)
- The justification for the war was WMDs, yet the military switched the focus, labeling it "Operation Iraqi Freedom" the day the war started.
- Finding out that we used cancer causing, internationally outlawed Depleted Uranium tipped bombs and bullets to "free" Iraq. Thus spreading cancer throughout Iraq in the name of freedom.
- Finding out about Haliburton and Cheney.
- Witnessing our media's silence and even celebration of the Iraq war at it's onset.
- Then traveling to the Balkans where I heard Serbs talk about how Milosevic manipulated the media to get the Serbs to go to war with Croatia and Bosnia.
- Watching our president appoint a man to be the U.S. Ambassador to the UN who has outright distain for the authority and purpose of this international body (created in part by the U.S. after WWII to prevent future Holocausts).
- Watching our president say the U.S. doesn't torture, then try to block bipartisan anti-torture legislation.
- The unveiling of the incredible power of money to direct public and international policy (i.e. the downfall of Abramoff and all the people in his pockets).
- Hearing my dad (a car dealer for the last 20 years) talk about how the industry could go electric or hybrid tomorrow (thus making the U.S. more independent from foreign oil), but because of the oil lobby the legistlation that would force that industry change continues to be blocked.
There's more. But these are the things that came to mind as I walked down Broadway in Washington Heights. Then I remembered Syriana.
- The power of money to control international policy at the expense of true democracy in the middle east.
- The senator yelling at the lawyer about corruption. He said corruption is what keeps those in power - in power and not "out there fighting for scraps."
- The value of money (oil actually) placed over human life and the democratic well-being of fellow human beings, fellow nations.
- The actual conspiracy of it all. And the force of that conspiracy backed by the most powerful levels of our government.
- And the vision of that boy riding this little fishing boat into a U.S. tanker.
And here's the thing that made the first tear fall. I've learned nothing in my Graduate Human Rights program that would even begin to question the truth of it all. In fact, it all seems to be based on real relationships, real allegiances, real actions we have taken in our actual domestic and foreign policy.
Walking down the street, I thought to myself -- "What if it's true?" Then a cloud dropped and rested on my shoulders. For I felt powerless to change the course of my democratic country - the oldest democracy in the world. I, a citizen, felt powerless because in a corrupt system democracy can be twisted to produce oppressive results.
I cried, then held back the tears on Broadway. I could feel God's judgement over the nations and I felt powerless to stop his judgement over us.
When I got home I cried again. Then I prayed
God, are we really like that? If so, please have mercy, Lord. Please, Lord, have mercy. And please intervene, Lord. Only you can stop it, Lord. Only you can stop it.
~ Amen.
Today, I read a NYTimes Select article by Thomas L. Friedman, author of "The Lexus and The Olive Tree". I don't know. Maybe he saw Syriana recently too. His Op Ed article said it so well. Here's a clip from the article below. To read more, go to http://www.nytimes.com/todaysheadlines?th&emc=th then scroll down to the Op Ed section and click on Friedman's article.
The New Red, White and Blue
By
Published: January 6, 2006
NYTimes Select Op Ed Article
As we enter 2006, we find ourselves in trouble, at home and abroad. We are in trouble because we are led by defeatists - wimps, actually.
What's so disturbing about President Bush and Dick Cheney is that they talk tough about the necessity of invading Iraq, torturing terror suspects and engaging in domestic spying - all to defend our way of life and promote democracy around the globe.
But when it comes to what is actually the most important issue in U.S. foreign and domestic policy today - making ourselves energy efficient and independent, and environmentally green - they ridicule it as something only liberals, tree-huggers and sissies believe is possible or necessary.
Sorry, but being green, focusing the nation on greater energy efficiency and conservation, is not some girlie-man issue. It is actually the most tough-minded, geostrategic, pro-growth and patriotic thing we can do. Living green is not for sissies. Sticking with oil, and basically saying that a country that can double the speed of microchips every 18 months is somehow incapable of innovating its way to energy independence - that is for sissies, defeatists and people who are ready to see American values eroded at home and abroad.
Living green is not just a "personal virtue," as Mr. Cheney says. It's a national security imperative.
The biggest threat to America and its values today is not communism, authoritarianism or Islamism. It's petrolism.
(more at http://www.nytimes.com/todaysheadlines)
posted by Lisa Sharon Harper @ 2:02 PM
6 Comments:
See, the thing is, honestly, I figured some of this out about 14 years ago - not necessarily all the conspiracy, but the wretchedness of the politics, the corruption that infiltrated everything... even america's so-called democracy.
I'd say that's why I'm not a republican or a democrat - it's the reason why I try not to argue about politics; it's the reason I don't forcefully aim myself down the path of trying to become a politcican or something and try to save the whole thing from the inside out. If God wants me to do that, then he'll put me in that place based on what I'm doing out in the world. I follow him where he tells me and if he makes it so, I'll be in whatever position i'm supposed to.
I suppose it's important for people to be ambitious for high and powerful positions if they want to change the world. The dangerous thing is, most everyone I know that trys that screws up big time and is changed by the world instead.
Truly, it is one of the saddest stories I know. And though I love America dearly for all the freedoms it has bestowed upon me, and all the opportunities it has allowed, it makes me sick inside knowing that there is a darker shadow lingering in the rockets red glare.
I don't know you. I stumbled onto your blog while I was looking up peace prayers for my youth group to use this week. I have a feeling I'm going to become a pretty regular reader.
I haven't seen Syriana. But I have studied 9-11, and the war, and Project For A New American Century, and I completely understand your reaction to the sudden realization that things are not as pretty as we'd like to think.
We in America, and I'm sure other places as well, are the chosen. We get to live our lives of comfort, mostly oblivious to the atrocities that are committed by our government, corporations, and military.
It's a precipice you're standing on right now. I know because I'm standing there with you, unable to step back, and unwilling just yet to step forward. Knowing these things is scary, because others don't know these things. They say you're overreacting, or whisper about conspiracy theories-- because what is rational, what is publicly documented, is still simply largely unknown.
Your prayer is a call to action.
Thank you.
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Lisa, This is that Movie dude that hollas at you every three years in Atlanta about making movies. I lost your e-mail/phone number, I want to talk to you about - what else...screenplays... holla.
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I watched Syriana this week. It caught me by surprise, and I found myself crying at the end of the movie. No, it was more like racking sobs. As I sat there, my face growing red and puffy, the tears streaming down my face and onto my sweatshirt, I tried to analyze the source of my tears. Though there were sad moments in the film, I found I was not crying for the characters in the story. I was crying out of frustration at the state of humanity and my feelings of helplessness in changing the global climate. I was able to empathize with the loyalties and sympathies of all the different characters, and I saw the possibilities for greatness and the way we undermine ourselves in the name of power and religion and patriotism.
This movie shook me to the core. I've always held a strong conviction that individuals have the power to make a difference ("Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, commited people can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever does." ~Margaret Mead), and watching this story shook my belief, which is why I was so impacted. As I dried my tears, I turned to the internet to look for commentary or some kind of call to action. I found your wonderful commentary that seemed to give voice to my heart, and I began to cry anew.
As a nation, I fear we are too myopic; refusing to see a big picture or a long term on a global level. I applaud movies like this for attempting to remind us of our responsibility to step up and embrace a conviction; to look for truth and cry out against blows to our planet and humanity. Yes, I am frustrated. I want to accomplish something, to make a difference. I have to remind myself that it takes many drops of water to make a lake overflow, and each individual drop is crucial for the event to occur.
Think Globally; Act Locally. You are but one, but you are one. You can't do everything, but you can do something. Let it start with you. Share your convictions, discuss ideas, encourage others to think bigger. I believe there is, in each of us, the capacity to be a catalyst for great and lasting things. Don't succumb to apathy or cynicism. That is the blight of our time, and we must fight against it, in all its guises. Don't be afraid to take a stand. Don't be afraid to make enemies or argue your convictions. Boats were built to be rocked.
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