Remember the Alamo and Custer's Battlefield

Who among those children educated in American schools and taught at least the rudimentary historic milestones has not heard of at least one of the two milestones listed above? It must be admitted that there have been many more milestones added to the roads to hell since then, so one begins to become surfeited with such a wealth of terrible information.

Still, don’t you sort of wonder why Hamas has been shelling Israel for such a long period of time? Are they just a bunch of bums (similar to many like them who can be found in this country) who like to just shoot things up for the fun of it when there’s not much else to do?

According to the wonderful book by Martin Gilbert, from which I quoted in my previous blog, it is well known that the Jews have been kicked around and humiliated by countries covering most of the Old World, and they have finally determined to take back the land containing those treasured religious sites so dear to them. Following the 1967 War, the animosity among the various groups living in that area, especially with the Jews, came to a boiling point which evidently culminated in the rise of Hamas. The terrible situation within which the various national and religious groups find themselves appears almost insoluble. What disturbs me most in recent reporting is that emphasis is put upon the Israeli Jews, while the possibly valid historical motivation of Hamas and other groups has not been mentioned.

(Incidentally, while we Americans consider ourselves the greatest nation in the world, and do not hesitate to keep the rest of the world so-educated, do you ever seriously stop to think that the Indians might have a claim to it but live mostly in such poverty that they haven’t the social or physical wherewithal to do anything about it? When we think of Americans, most of us think only of whites. We are gradually and grudgingly adding blacks, but hispanics are pretty much a nono in this enlightened period.)

Back to my title and Israel and Gaza. The number of dead in Gaza has risen above one thousand, with little in the way of food, water, or help for those still living. There was a news report today that starving dogs are roaming the streets feeding upon the corpses of dead children. (And as an animal lover, I cannot bear to lie awake at night thinking of the animals, the ultimate helpless victims of human violence.)

ARW
1/14/09