Round 2

Think I’ll post response to the Orignial LRU’s comments regarding the last post here instead of the comments section… First of all, it was a bad day and I was ranting in no particular direction :-) Hell, its my blog… Still, I stand by what I said… I guess the question I was posing was what I said in the post – Who’s going to take a stand? (Invading Iraq for oil doesn’t count.). I think it needs to start individually, but most are too afraid or too handcuffed by a truly unjust ‘justice’ system to do anything, hence the Burke quote. I don’t really have the time or inclination to read the verbose minutiae of the breakdown of the Burke wording, tho thanks for the URL (maybe I’ll actually read it someday). I was going more for the gist of it. It’s all very well and good to preach peace, and we should all practice it to the extent we can, but that should not mean we stand aside and do nothing while evil, in whatever form, comes rolling through. Somebody’s got to stand in there and fight against it, sometimes meeting force with force. If that doesn’t happen, what happens to those who cannot stand up for themselves or who can’t even get out of the way? I believe even in the Bible, probably the Old Testament (and I’ll be the first to admit my Bible history is rusty), that there were those who stood in there and drew that line. This brings me to the Vis Pacem, Para bellum quote. I didn’t see the ‘every man is your enemy’ take on it. What I like about it, and take to mean personally, is that one needs to think about and physically prepare for war if you want to live to be able to see yourself live peacefully. I mean, would anyone in their right mind have attacked Bruce Lee? Of course not. They knew he was prepared for war. Not all of us are capable of that of course, but to not even think about the situations and ramifications is not wise either. How many people have seriously sat down and thought about what they would do in a situation where to protect themselves or someone else, they would be required to shoot someone and make that choice in a fraction of a second and live with the consequences? Being physically able to make a stand and win in a situation is a crapshoot – too many variables. However, we can be mentally ready and know what we are willing to do and sometimes, that may make all the difference… Again, it comes back to Who’s going to take a stand? We can’t fix everything or change countries on the other side of the world, but we can all protect our own backyards. That includes your own neighborhood. Watching the music video for Montgomery Gentry’s ‘You Do Your Thing’, got me thinking. In it, a father is driving home, two kids in the back of an SUV, and sees on the sidewalk a drug dealer selling drugs to another kid. He stops the truck, gets out with a baseball bat and runs the dealer off. Wise? Probably not. I mean nowadays, that’s a good way to get killed. But what if that kind of incident was just starting in a neighborhood? By the time you called the cops, good luck having the punk still around to send a message to. Good people taking a risk to take a stand is what is needed. What gets my goat is that the governments and lawyers have made it so that citizens are handcuffed to stand up to that. All they are supposed to do is call the cops and run back inside and shut the door. Well, I think its pretty obvious by now that that doesn’t really work. The resources aren’t there. But what if a neighborhood stood together, fought back, and didn’t allow things like that to take root? Whatever…food for thought I guess… In regards to the Steve Earle song – it’s always been one of my favorites, and always will be. I appreciate the points made about it tho, and the Jude reference is a good one. Obviously, the wording of the song is a little over the top, but I think most lucid people would realize that in a literal one on one with the devil you’re going to be toast without God actually winning the fight for you. What I take from the song, and again, it’s a personal thing, is that the fight is still fought. He doesn’t say he’s going to win (ie ‘Man, let’s just get to it’). He doesn’t say it’s even right or the right approach (ie ‘But he’ll take the blame’). What he is doing is – at a dark personal time (consider the writing source and what he went through) – using whatever he’s got to face down evil (or personal demons) at the root – to keep fighting, win or lose, ‘cause someone’s gotta do it’… Music has always been a conduit for what I’m thinking about, feeling at the time, or going through in life, and has gotten me through some rough spots…hence the fondness for posting lyrics :-) Thing about most well written songs, is that everyone can take something different from it Anyway, the important thing is that it’s all food for thought – hopefully get people thinking. Hats off to the Original LRU for some finely thought out comments and for the written repartee. Later – Eaglewing. PS – see what happens when I think out loud? From now on I’m keeping my opinions and music preferences to myself…………Just kidding – It’s my blog, and I’ll blog if I want to ;-)