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2012 in Review
The WordPress.com stats helpers prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 30,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 7 Film Festivals
Obama’s Tears
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We were all moved when Obama wept for the Newtown massacre. But isn’t he responsible for the deaths of many more children? And is it un-American to say so?
This is a conversation we hope you will continue with your comments.
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(from Facebook)
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D.anger: Cry for the children who YOU killed…
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Mu’tasim: This is to get another Nobel peace prize!!!
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Marcus: What the f— is that Daniel?
I better see a good explanation for this when I wake up in the morning. I’m going to bed.
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‘abdu-l’Aziiz: ’The Pharaoh was the worse of them all, yet Muusaa (Moses) was asked by Allah subhanahu to speak to him well and invite him to Islam. So we should try our best to diminish the damage and supplicate for the repentance of oppressive leaders to Allah the all Knowing. Allahu Akbar.
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D.anger: As president, Barack Obama has presided over drone attacks that have killed hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent children. He didn’t pull the trigger- or push the button, as it were- but the people who did would not and could not have done so without his orders. So he is directly responsible for their deaths, injuries and handicaps. Let him cry, then, for their deaths as much as- no, more- than he cries for the deaths caused by a man who has done less than he has.
…and i cry for them all…
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Marcus: Take the advice that your friend ‘abdu-l’aziiz has given you. Your freedom to speak is not a license to be an asshole. 20 dead children is not a joke, and your “edgy” positioning on all things political is no excuse to cross the particular line that you have crossed. There is NO connection with MY president and a mass murderous teenager, and to assign him culpability in this is absolute trash. You and I once shared a lot of commonality, but it seems our time apart has split us more than I’m willing to tolerate on my facebook page. I commend you for reaching out in this world and finding what you love in a far from traditional US lifestyle, however, I think you ought to remember that your roots are just like mine. Don’t forget your roots. Don’t betray your roots.
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Diabolical: hey marcus, whats a joke is that our president will shed crocodile fake tears for these 20 kids some kid killed but wont shed a single tear for the 110 plus women and children and elderly (non combatants) he himself killed via okay drone strikes
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D.anger: Marcus, calm down.
Read carefully.
I’m not assigning Obama culpability for what happened in that school.
I’m only saying that EVERY innocent death is a tragedy.
Is there any contradiction between that and the values we grew up with?
No.
So I am not far from traditional US values to say so.
Is every innocent death a tragedy?
Yes.
So how have I forgotten my roots to say so?
I haven’t.
Is it hypocrisy to cry for another’s wrongdoing when one does the same thing on a much larger scale?
Yes.
These are my roots, Mark. These are the values I was taught. Have I betrayed them in some way?
The truth is that I think the same that I always have, don’t I?
Do you know why I swapped my Black Panther shirt with Ben’s white trash T-shirt? That was 17 years ago. Am I any more or less outrageous today?
Let us go even further back, to kindergarten, long before you and I met. I refused to say the pledge of allegiance. Not even my parents could understand why, nor could I much for that matter.
Those are my roots.
Go and ask Mr. J, our government teacher. He’s an AP now at McNeil; you can find him there. Ask him what my presentation was about Senior Year, what I painted on my posterboard.
He probably won’t remember so I’ll tell you: It was a flag that I will never salute- and there is no flag that I will ever salute- in flames.
Those are my roots. Have I betrayed them?
Ask my mother. Who burned down her house when she was a girl, the only Black-owned house in a rural East Texas county? Why did the investigation go nowhere?
Those are my roots Marcus.
I was raised on The Last Poets and H. Rap Brown, on James Brown and Malcolm X, on Civil Rights and Black Power.
These are my roots Marcus. This is where WE are from. Maybe you didn’t know…
I played basketball and played along, but I was never really a part. I was always apart. Always alone in a crowded room. Only just able to control my tears. Because I always knew and never will forget and never will betray a fact that you are just starting to know now, even though you don’t want to: something’s wrong and you know exactly what it is: us…
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p.s. And if you think I feel the way I feel because I’m Muslim or because I live overseas, look at what non-Muslim Americans in America are saying:
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Nothing’s changed, Marcus. You’re just uncomfortable with realizing that things should.
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Marcus: This hasn’t got anything to do with you being Muslim or living overseas. I’m not comfortable with your positioning. I’m not comfortable with the presentation. I’m not comfortable with the comparison you’ve drawn to casualties in a full on war and a native this homegrown mass murder on American soil. Most importantly, I’m not comfortable with the underlying assumption that because he hasn’t cried publicly for dead children in Yemen, that he is somehow motivated by the same evil of the young men who killed the 20 children in Newtown. This is all too divisive. In this split, cut, and carved world, we all have to draw our own lines. In the beach I stand on, you stand on the other side of the line I’ve drawn. It’s not acceptable for me.
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D.anger: Well I can’t say I don’t see how you can feel this way. It’s an almost philosophical debate, going back to ancient Chinese and Greek discussions of “good” and “bad”. A Facebook comments section probably isn’t the place for all of that.
But I think we can both agree, from across whatever line stands between us that:
1. The Newtown massacre was tragic.
2. The killing of any child is tragic.
3. No innocent death is acceptable.
4. Obama is responsible for the deaths of many children.
The people on my side of the beach are those that cry for every child that is killed.
What divides our beach from yours?
The sea of our tears…
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