Tag World War II

By Mr. Jack
The word “Islam” is derived from the Arabic root word of “salema.” For those unfamiliar with this beautiful tongue, it means peace in the most general sense. Like all words, it has multiple definitions, which include purity, submission, and obedience. We hear these words in English, and we think power, we think control. This is not, however, the same thing. Submission and obedience in Arabic are more akin to the English words of humbleness and respect. In essence, the word Islam seeks to embody the ideal relationship that a person should have with god: that of reverent service and loving piety and peace.
Islam is founded on the Five Pillars of faith. Shahadah, which means to witness roughly as in the way Christians only witness one god above all others, Zakat, alms giving, Salah, which is prayer, Sawm, which is fasting to show devotion, and the Hajj, or the pilgrimage to the holy land. Together these five hallmarks embody the two ultimate beliefs in Arabic: love of god, and love of neighbor and family.
When viewed in conjunction with Christianity, which is what the majority of Americans believe in, it is quite simple to see the connections. Both share a devotion to god, a respect and honoring of neighbor, and a love of family and charity. In fact, Islam and Christianity are almost one and the same, having both gone off of the Torah with their own further interpretations. They are both Semitic in origin, and their cultures are inexorably tied together.
I point out these definitions because it is through a terrible great many traumas and issues which we as Americans have come to view the Islamic world as a world of hate, violence and control, which is rather what the Islamic world tends to also say about America. The most recent agitation of the feud concerns the actions of 19 men.
19 men. Radicals of a religion which few others would ever take to the same extremes. Vigilantes, who saw widespread injustice and sought to destroy it. Just a dozen and a half men who decided that enough was enough, and that they would make the ultimate sacrifice to prove that their faith, their countries, and their world would not be subjugated under might and power.
And then the towers fell.
And then the other radicals began to talk. Radicals of a politic which few others would ever take to the same extremes. Crusaders, who saw widespread injustice and sought to destroy it. Just a dozen and a half men who decided that enough was enough, and that they would send others to make the ultimate sacrifice to prove that their faith, their country, and their world would not be threatened by inferiors rebels and terrorists.
People forgot about the hundreds of Arab Americans who also died when the towers fell, who had come to this country peacefully with the same promise we all ultimately have. They forgot about the thousands of Muslim families in America who watched in horror as their beloved nation was attacked, and then turned on them with hate and blame. They forgot how both faiths, brothers in belief, had been born of the same love of god, man, and peace.
And suddenly, Islam meant hate. There was no understanding, no time to even think. There was only action, and anger, and pain, and suffering, and a terrible outcry about things which people could not quite define but had known to be for thousands of years. And then there was war.
Nine years after that attack we still have not healed. People of Islamic faith in America are looked down upon with derision and suspicion. Our brothers and sisters, who suffered as the Japanese Americans did in World War II for the same sort of incident, still suffer today. We look upon them as aliens, as conspirators, as terrorists. We do not recognize that they too are victims of an attack. An attack which struck their honor and the very hallmarks of all they believe. They are as us, and we are all still in pain and pieces.
And it is not right.
Today is a day of remembrance for the fallen, but it should also be a remembrance of those who still live on. We all live with a burden, of guilt, of loss, and of misunderstanding.
If we are ever to understand peace, we must understand our own hate first. We must conquer that general loathing we harbor wantonly, and realize that this was not just an attack on white, Christian America, but an attack on everything Islam stands for, everything the Arab world has tried to accomplish, and everything we have today. It was an attack on all of us.
As people who are attempting to be exemplars of society, we must not give in, no matter how deep our hate and no matter how great our pain is, to our desire to relieve that pain but dealing it out to those we feel have wronged us. The violence we deliver never heals. It will always leave a wound and always leave somebody else who then thinks they can relieve it with putting it on to something else. If we ever are to live in peace, we must bring the pieces of our wild anger into bounds. And we must love.
This day is a day of mourning. For today people still die because of that attack. People still burn books because of it. And people still cry for war because of it. Until that stops, and until we as progressing humans attempt to help our own hate and hurt end, there can never be healing.
 

I seldom talk about my private life.  There is so much going on in the world that its hard to find time to write, period.  Over the last month, I’ve been getting ready for the launch of The League of Citizen Heroes, being a guest at the Phoenix Comicon, preparing to patrol during Superbowl weekend, organize the programs housed under the League, etc, so on and so forth.  During the last month, I’ve kept the following secret under my hat.  None the less, I feel this is important so I’m going to “spill the beans.”
On January 4th, my house … was robbed.
Yep.  Citizen Prime’s lair was ransacked!  It was random, street crime.  The burglars  had no idea who I was.  I was just another cased joint.  And it is the last one they’ll be robbing for a long time.  Allow me to explain.
See, we were not home for the holidays.  We were visiting family and friends (including The Black Monday Society) during the end of December and beginning of January.  A wonderful elderly woman watches our house when we are away.  On Friday, January, 4th, we received a phone call.
“Hello, Jim.  I hope you’re sitting down.  I’ve got some bad news,” said the concerned voice of our house sitter on the other end of the phone,  “Over the last few days, someone broke in and took quite a few of your things.” She continued listing the items she thought were stolen.
If you’ve ever received news that your house has been robbed, it’s a surreal experience.  The irony of Citizen Prime being robbed did not escape me either.  Counting myself lucky for having my armor, laptop and cell phones with me, I listened while our house sitter recounted all the things she thought they took.  It ended up being about $15,000 dollars worth of stuff including the desktop computer where all the Citizen Prime info and projects are listed.  Among the “stuff” (and it is just stuff, mostly), what was most disheartening was the loss of photos (a 1000 honeymoon photos among them), Prime projects, and the like.  Theft is an emotional violation, don’t let anyone tell you differently.
While reeling from the news she was delivering on my cell, I was conducting a business call on a land line, pacing furiously, and trying to keep myself in check.  When I hung up both phones. I packed up wife, child and our remaining stuff and raced back to Arizona to survey the damage.
Now, I tell you all this to make the following point.
Crime does not pay.
Without going into details, last week, the thieves were caught!  Working with the local detectives, we are putting a case together to lock these low lifes away for a long time.  And what I feel for the criminals can be boiled down to one word:
Pity.
Seeing the single wide trailer they live in and the old beat up car they use to rob people, how do these geniuses think that crime pays?  Now, its not a crime to be poor, nor is money the symbol of clean living.  That being so, if you could see their living room, bedroom, kitchen, everywhere and all the junk that they live amongst in their quest to hit the big score, you’d agree – these guys did not get rich while they were on their crime spree.  I say “spree” as the authorities estimate they have robbed about 20 houses in the last couple of years.  So what did there life of crime get them?  Not any richer – we saw that.  Instead, it got them years behind bars.  Years away from their kids.  Its just plain stupid.
Looking through the list of evidence and photos from the search warrant, it saddens me even more to see the “stuff”  these petty thugs tried to take away from others.  We saw an irreplaceable World War II photo stolen because the crooks liked the box it was in.  Jewelry, like my wife’s, is often passed down from mother to daughter to granddaughter.  And these guys chop up heirlooms and sell it for the metal.  Theft takes memories and emotions along with the “stuff.”
In this case, all these things, or as much as is able, will go back to the families, while these two short sighted, greedy thieves (and hopefully their accomplices, if the investigation pans out) go away for a long time.  Time they will not get back.  Time that will put their lives that much farther behind the eight ball.  Time that will further ruin their eroded lives.  Its sad.
Crime does not pay.
So to all you budding criminal geniuses out there.  You never know when you will rob the wrong house or the wrong guy.  And when you do, rest assured, the next house you’ll see will be the Big House, or in Arizona, Sheriff Joe’s “Tent City”.  A place you do not want to end up.  You can and will get caught.  The police are sharper than you think, they have allies – seen and unseen – in the community, and there sole desire is to put criminals like these in prison.
And what do I want?  As a victim of random crime, I want my pictures, projects and irreplaceable stuff back.  In large part, I’m going to get that, while these poor souls do hard time.
As Citizen Prime, I want it never to come to this.  I want everyone to fly right! Look. The math is simple.  Don’t do the crime and you won’t do the time.  Its not worth it.  Instead, join me in living a full life in the free world.  Have the guts, strength and the courage to forge your own life – not steal it from others.
Crime does not pay.
 

By Citizen Prime
From Ration Reality
Today, the world needs heroes more than ever. In 1945, being a good man meant standing up for your neighbor as well as your country. It meant doing the right thing, and everyone knew what the right thing was. World War II was, arguably, our hour of greatest need and it bred men of amazing conviction and character as they fought against Hitler and what was called the Axis Powers. Today we are being attacked by a modern day axis of evil that threatens all freedom loving people.
The axis of disillusionment, fear and greed. These three powers have taken our culture by storm, infiltrating into every TV, radio and internet browser. And on the other side of this war lie the people of heroic character. They still exist. Yet, when heroes are mentioned, people are as likely to laugh as be combative. The tales of heroes, like our current war heroes, seem an exaggerated mythos to those who cannot conceive of the conviction it takes to do the right thing. And it is conviction at the heart of the matter. Yet, heroes do exist today and they exist all around us. Need proof? Zach Petkewicz’s quick thinking during the Virginia Tech shooting spree saved lives. Debra Boyd saved two people — a mother and her daughter — when a tornado hit the school where she worked. A store clerk talks with CNN’s John Roberts uncovers a plot to attack Fort Dix. See www.cnn.com/heroes for more about this brave souls. And these people are the merest tip of the iceberg. The honest truth is the hero is you, if given the right opportunity and you make the right choices.
So, how do you react when faced with those choices? Do you risk and possibly sacrifice your own well being to help someone in greater need? Imagine what it would be like if we all felt such kinship. Even today’s career criminals are not entirely immune to this concept of camaraderie. The genesis of gangs was an effort to protect and serve one’s own. That noble origin might be a far cry from gang activity today. As disillusionment in society, fear of harm or death and greed to get whatever one could sets in, the concept is entirely lost to decadence. But ironically, their roots were about family. What if we could all broaden that sense of protection for what we perceive as “our own” until we literally had no outsiders left?
What if we could learn the values of tolerance, understanding and treat everyone as we do our inner circle? Imagine the future we could offer our children. And I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want a better life for their children.When Sen. Barack Obama asked his daughter what we are here on earth for, she replied, “To help each other get through this.” As children, we have that natural sense of community. Somewhere along the way, we get disillusioned about that communal instinct. Convinced that we can’t flourish with such “naive” standards as universal acceptance and brotherhood. So, we come to the adult stance of “might makes right” and “if they want something, they take it.” Whether verbal, social or physical, it all amounts to the same – bullying. In a way, that’s okay.
We have to find the bullies. We can’t discuss the issue unless we know who to discuss it with. Only then can we have a meaningful dialogue with them about what it really means to protect themselves and protect their families. We could start with a question: When did you lose that natural sense of brotherhood and sisterhood? What straw broke your back? Was it the constant fear of growing up in a bad neighborhood? Was it the disillusionment of friendship lost due to hard choices growing up? Was it a friend who turned his back to us for a payday? Whatever it was, it was not any one thing or person. It was those negative values we live with in this era of free thinking. Fear, greed and disillusionment. The current Axis of Evil.And the one thing that has been around, since World War II – since forever – is the inspiration of heroes that are larger than life to illuminate values we want to emulate in our lives. Whether it was Zeus, Superman, or Captain America, its easy to see why we find the myths compelling. They live above the moral spaghetti bowl we deal with and cut wide swaths through their problems with unbridled powers and clear conscience decisions.
And the question of the day, of our day, is do we want to focus on the fear, greed and disillusionment that surrounds us? Do we want to add to it by attacking and belittling each other? Or, possibly, do we want to emulate those traits of heroes past and present, real and fictional, that stand up for what is right? Do we want to have the moral fiber to stand against a bullying onslaught and respond with rational kindness and strength of character? The answer is in our actions and it is those actions that define us as hero or not. Regardless of your choice, throughout human history, one thing has remained constant. We all absolutely need to have heroes. Today, the world is in short supply. One exists inside everyone. Bring it out. Be the hero in your own life and I assure you, you’ll soon find you are a hero to many.

I just had this conversation w/ my ole lady yesterday, then I got a friend invite today from a guy who has this issue as the main thing on his page. Deja Vu.
A lotta our fellow citizens talk shit about Jews sayin it’s cause they are “money grubbin, they’re ‘shiesters’ (will do anything to get …money)”, but ain’t that what THESE CRITICS talkin shit are all about?
It don’t get much more American than bein greedy and obsessed w/ money. (Sidenote: I ain’t saying thats how all Jews are, I’m sayin thats America talkin shit about a race for having “our same top priority”, money.)
Money ain’t my top priority, but that’s just how the shit runs.
It’s like if Iraq had declared war on us for havin too many “oil barons”. It’s like Tom Selleck talkin shit about somebody for havin a big mustache. It’s THAT ridiculous!!!
Another thing too that popped into my head while we was talkin last night was:
THE NAZIS KILLED MANY MORE JEWS, OTHER NON-COMBATANTS, AMERICAN SOLDIERS, AND ALLIES, AND OTHERS THAN THE TWIN TOWERS COULD HAVE EVER HELD. (Not discounting 9-11, keep readin.)
Not only was the Holocaust so much bigger, w/ all the over-packed Concentration Camps, and over-packed mass graves, but think of all the OTHER groups the Nazis singled out and killed too….Germans who didn’t agree and tried to flee, the gays (shit let em be gay, YOU dont have to fuck em, ya know?), the other surrounding countries Hitler went off on…all the ALLIES who died in combat in WW II…
I don’t discount the loss of lives in the Twin Towers…but if we can get mad about THAT, then why critisize the Holocaust survivors for bangin survival into thier kids’ heads via $ and status?