Too much...

Last night I finished watching Children of Men with my wife. Not the first time I'd seen it, but I couldn't recall all the details.

Near the end of the movie, there are very detailed scenes of war going on around the main characters, as they are attempting to flee. The scenes show people in a building that is being shot at and bombed. People are scared shitless. People are dying. People have been maimed. They can be seen screaming over their loved ones dying. The scenes are so visceral, so gritty, so real. This is war. Well, at least the facsimile that can be created for a movie screen.

While I was sitting in my comfortable house, watching this on my TV, there are people all over the world living through what I was viewing on my screen. We, here in the United States, for the most part are so removed from those realities that we don’t think about it. How can we afford to not think about it? This is what our government is doing to the people of Iran right now. Regardless of whether you believe their leaders are horrible, the United States military, in tandem with Israel's, is shooting, bombing, traumatizing, and killing normal people in other countries. They are scared. They are living through real hell.

This is NOT justified. This is NOT ok. It must stop. For it to stop, we must change the way we view the world. We are too comfortable with killing because we have made it something that happens far away from us. If we can't see it, or only see snippets that come on TV news programs, or through the lens of a Hollywood camera, it doesn't bother us. Our tax dollars are paying for this death. Our dollars pay for death daily. If you question that, look at your dinner plate. This is NOT ok. WE MUST STOP THIS! Stop the killing! In my opinion, any death, of any being, that comes before living out a long and healthy life, it TOO MUCH.