Brief political rant:
Today in history my teacher said, "Jackson and his followers demonized the Indians, and that was was how they were able to justify all of the violent things they did to them. That's still going on in the government today. We are demonizing Sadaam Hussein (sp?) and Osama Bin Laden (sp?) and we are demonizing the Iraqi citizens to justify the killing. The kids fighting over there are only a few years older than you. Look at you. You play soccer, you play violin. You have boyfriends and girlfriends. You're not killers! But you join the army and you justify that killing by demonizing the people you kill."
That thoroughly pissed me off. First of all, there is a big difference between demonizing terrorist/dictator leaders responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocents and demonizing innocent citizens. I don't think there's anything wron with demonizing murderers. I do believe there's something wrong with demonizing citizens. But I really don't agree with him. I don't think the kids in Iraq are justifying killing innocent citizens by telling themselves those citizens are evil and subhuman and deserve to die. I think they are justifying it because they have a cause, because they want to fight for their country, because they want a better economy. Now I don't agree with some of those reasons. I hate violence. I hate war. I think it should be avoided. But the situation we are in now... there really is no alternative to violence. My history teacher said those soldiers are murderers because of some sick mind game (that does exist, I know it does, people can justify horrible things with psychological bull crap) but I don't think that's what's happening. I don't think our soldiers are fighting to kill the evil Iraqi citizens. They're fighting, a lot (not all), I think, because they believe in it. There's a big difference.

Anyway, I really felt like saying all that to my teacher but I knew the liberal piranhas would attack me for being so moderate. In all actuality though the real demonizing in that class room wasn't of the Iraqi citizens; it was of the soldiers. My teacher was demonizing the soldiers by saying they were justifying killing with demonization.

It's all so corrupted. I am reminded of how much I truly HATE violence and anger and hatred. That is why I so thoroughly hate it when I feel these emotions. I don't act on them. I'm rarely violent, or racist, or hateful. But if there's one thing I'm okay with hating it is hatred (that's a paradoxical statement).