STEPHEN, THE NAVY GUY

So, I talked to a young navy guy that just came back from the Middle East. As a navy he is probably in a safer place than the guys that actually go inland. When I asked him whether he landed in Iraq and how was it, he said his unit didn’t landed in Iraq, only 60 miles away, but he went to Bahrain and Kuwait, where “they hate Americans.” When I referred to the 1991 war “Desert Storm” and whether the people from Kuwait probably like us because we freed them back then, he said “Kuwait was horrible”
I assumed he meant they were mistreated, but no, he meant “The weather was horrible, 140 degree, windy and dusty, horrible, horrible…”
However, he loved Thailand where he stayed at the presidential suite of a 5 star hotel for $100 a night! “Could you imagine?” “You don’t get a super 8 hotel room here in San Diego for less than $60 a night!”
“We took elephant rides, massages for 3 hours for pennies, all kind of jewelry, etc.”
His comments let me wondering what all these kids (he is only 23) are doing over there risking their lives for a war they don’t even understand, and when their needs and desires are definitely far from what going to war represents.

THE US VS JOHN LENNON

THE U.S. VS JOHN LENNON
GIVE PEACE A CHANCE & POWER TO THE PEOPLE, these were some of John Lennon’s radical lyrics.
Lennon’s murder may go down on history as one of the biggest cover up / conspiracy to silence a bigger movement. After all Gandhi was already dead, Luther King was dead too, and people around the world were looking in different arenas for hope.
I still can’t believe his murder was the work of a single crooked mind.
The movie documents the rise of a musical genius that became a down to earth feminist, pacifist, and along other entertainers was shaking the fast food nation in a way so threatening to the government that the FBI began monitoring his activities, writing down his lyrics, analyzing them, labeling “counter-culture” – really being antiwar.
Love, harmony, life, everything that war makers hate, he symbolized.
To counteract, the government began instilling fear on him; big brother began the chore of neutralizing him, open harassment, wire taping, etc.
Before he was even aware of his own transformation he had the hint to compare his band to Christ, declaring that they were more popular than Jesus himself. A thought the right wing didn’t like and made turn on the entire fanatic machinery, instigating religious, young, and ignorant masses to burn his records.

When the guy was telling everybody, around the world “All you need is love,” the American government perceived those thoughts very threatening for the status quo.
As he grew older and wiser, he realized the 60’s were only the beginning, only a glimpse of the possibility. Unfortunately, he was caught between the U.S. fight against communism.
While Lennon kept preaching about peace the U.S. government kept making war in the name of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” although it cost two million lives in Vietnam.
If we were going to label Lennon anything, we could probably call him Utopian. For him all governments were crazy about power. From the British, to the American, to the Chinese, to the Russian; all ideologues were crazy. His stand wasn’t about the right or the left, but for peace and justice. He wanted to awake people. It doesn’t get more radical than that. He understood how the governments use people, "they enlist young men (and women) in the military, make them violent and dependent, and then, they don’t have to worry about those kids thinking for themselves." This is a very fascist way of controlling the population, heavy stress in the concept of nation, romantic nationalism (the importance of local customs and traditions), etc.
Lennon was living in a time were governmental repression was at its highest, and around the world, not only in the U.S. (France, Mexico, Czech Republic) to go around singing about peace and love, when the world was watching, and the media was working for the system or was part of the system.
Like I said, John became very aware of his surroundings, of the world, he was very wise, so, he realized that there were only two products out there, Peace or War, and from these two, governments around the world were not interesting in promoting the former. That’s why it was up to the people to make a revolution: “Power to the People.”
He often question “Give Peace a Chance…Who could be opposed to that?” unfortunately the administration was.
The war in Vietnam was a mistake to promote Democracy, and watching those scenes one can’t but have a Déjà vu feeling with everything going on in Iraq.
How many times did Nixon claim to be defending “Self Determination, and Freedom?” And they used everything that was in their power to neutralize the opposition. The FBI was a political police; wire taping, surveillance, all in the name of Freedom. They went on to investigate the radical left to “protect the nation” -again the symbols to convince the population they were acting to provide protection to the citizens, instilling fear, creating an enemy, etc. And their machinery worked because Nixon got reelected. If only he knew Watergate was around the corner.
As for Lennon, like I said at the beginning, is hard to believe his assassination was the work of a single, crooked mind. Yoko Ono herself clarifies that in the documentary when she asserts: “They try to kill John, but they couldn’t. His message is still alive.”
And with her words Lennon’s Manifesto of the way he would’ve liked seeing the world resounds as the movie ends:
imagine there's no heaven
it's easy if you try
no hell below us and
above us only sky.
imagine all the people
living for today
imagine there's no countries
it isn't hard to do
nothing to kill or die for and
no religion too.
imagine all the people living life in peace
imagine no possessions.
i wonder if you can
no need for greed or hunger.
a brotherhood of man.
imagine all the people sharing all the world
you may say: i'm a dreamer
but i am not the only one
and i hope some day
you will join us and
the world will be as one

FOLEY'S FOLLY

I won't comment on the political side of Foley's behavior, but on something broader and an issue that if you care about kids, can't but hit close home.

Where do we draw the line when it comes to pedophilia? Unfortunately there's a lot of confusion. Whenever we hear about a guy sexually abusing children, our first thought is "this guy is homosexual." We have to stop labeling people before we jump to conclusions. Statisticaly 98% of pedophyles are heterosexual men, and around one percent are women. The percentage of homosexual men or women that sexually abuse children account for less than 1%, and from that one percent, less than 10% are women.

A sexual relationship between consenting adults (heterosexual or homosexual) shouldn't be equated with a Pedophilic one. Neither a relathionship between consenting teenagers (homosexual or heterosexual) where no one is taking advantage of the other. Pedophyles prey on minors that are usually too young to make a sound judgment as to what type of sexual relationship should they engage into it.

We have to understand that pedophyles take advantage of minors, sometimes as young as only months old! No one would consent or agree that a relationship of this kind is fair for one of the parts. It is as if we think that rapists behavior is o.k., or that men that beat up women are fine. All these types of abusive relationships are wrong, and we as part of society can't allow this to happen.

What Foley has done with young men had nothing to do with being homosexual, and we shouldn't buy his alibi that he was molested by catholic priests, that's all too cheap. By allowing him to hide behind minority groups and trying to buy our sympathy, he is doing nothing but hurting his victims all over again. Pedophyles have problems that can't be solved by locking them away in a jail. Unfortunately pedophyles -unlike alcoholics, can't recover by therapy. There are at least two men here in San Diego that had been labeled "sexual predators" that have spent years behind bars and in therapy and once released had posed a threat again for our children. Neither money, nor his political liaisons should buy Foley the right to get away with his crimes. So, what should we do with pedophyles?