below are some political thoughts i've had on this memorial day. it's extremely political, so if that isn't your cup of tea, might want to skip this one... ;-)

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If this were my world...

If this were my world, I'd make every single world leader spend the entire Memorial Day reading every single name at every single National cemetary that their country has.

I'd make their rich, privileged hands touch every single engraved name, on every tombstone of a fallen soldier.

I'd make them have dinner with at least one family who feels the pain of a life torn away by their command.

I'd make them visit every single hospital in war town lands. I'd make them visit the burn wards where bodies smolder. I'd make them visit the children's section where children who hold no political affiliation have no arms, or have no legs, or have the hair burnt off their head from bombs exploded over their homes.

If this were my world, Harry Truman would have spent the entirety of his retirement in Hiroshima.

Emperor Hirohito would have been a peasant in Manchuria.

Chairman Mao would be re-incarnated as a Buddhist monk struggling for freedom in war torn Tibet.

If this were my world, Hitler wouldn't have shot himself. He'd have spent the rest of his days removing dead bodies from Auschwitz and Dachau. Goebbels would have spent the remainder of his days cleaning out every single oven used in every concentration camp.

Bull Connor would be reincarnated as a 12 year old African American girl in 1955 Alabama.

If this were my world, Bush and Cheney wouldn't spend their vacation time in the Hamptons or Crawford, Texas. No, they'd have to spend their vacation time in Najaf.

If this were my world, I'd ask dead soldiers what true freedom really felt like. I'd ask them if it was worth it. I'm genuinely curious as to what they'd say.

If this were my world, Arial Sharon would be chucking rocks at Israeli tanks. Yasser Arafat would be a passenger of a bus where a young Muslim man with a bomb strapped to his chest has just boarded.

If this were my world, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger would have lived out the remainder of their days in a Cambodian village.

Reagan in El Salvador

Bush in Panama

Hussein in Iran.

The Ayotollahs in Iraq.

Clinton in Eastern Europe.

The entire Royal Family in India.

Lincoln in Virginia. Lee in Massachusettes.

Stalin in Berlin.

I'd ask dead Christians what it's like to spend the rest of their eternal life, next to the Muslim men, women, and children that they killed in the crusades.

If this were my world, young boys would get books and paint sets instead of toy guns.

Mothers would be in charge. Call me crazy, but I have a hard time believing that women would be as willing to send their sons and daughters to their deaths in foreign countries.

Military service would be mandatory...for the sons and daughters of those in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The United States government would declare war on itself as part of it's crackdown on International Terrorism.

If I ruled the world, monsters that put automatic weapons in the hands of children would have to spend the rest of their life down range from said kids.

In my world, the term "Mission Accomplished" would be used if, and only if, world peace had been achieved. The banner on the aircraft carrier Bush landed on should have read, "The cycle continues..."

The amount of money spent on the compassionate giving of food, clothing, and shelter would dwarf the amount of money spent on creating weapons of mass destruction. Some say this approach is ludicrous. I only tell them to look around at the fucked up world in which they live. It's obvious what we're doing isn't working. Maybe it's time for a new approach.

The belief that we can end violence with violence is as old as time itself. Hasn't worked yet. Isn't going to work. As Gandhi said, the belief of an eye for an eye only leaves the whole world blind. It's time that we realized just what that means.

matt out