Just Breathe....

That's what I keep telling myself. You know that awful feeling, like there's some large object that is crushing your rib cage- pushing on your heart and lungs and being? That's what I've been experiencing all day today...

I've been reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I'm still in the beginning chapters, but some of the stories recalling the German occupation are hard to swallow- even though none of them are graphic or violent. Just the idea of a group of people thinking they know what is best for everyone- and then forcing themselves onto innocent people that have no control over the situation anyway- is becoming harder and harder for me to understand. We look at the time period of the Nazis as an extreme situation that we can't believe happened...and that would never happen again...instead of seeing it as an example of what ethnocentric attitudes can lead to.

I see the same situation happening today with our occupation of Iraq, though people label it as something they can personally justify- sometimes 'justice', or 'peace-keeping', or 'democracy-promoting'. I see it as a group of people violently forcing their ideas of what a society should be on innocent people that have no control over the situation....sounds familiar right?

I think a lot of this was stirred up because of a man I met today at work. His name is Hussein, but asks to be called Steven by us. He says that Americans think he is a 'bad person' because of his name, so when he introduces himself, he is now Steve. I don't like that a person has to change their identity to function within our society- and in their own. I've met too many Iraq's that have been kicked out of their country, watched friends and family die, and are now living in low-income housing working in meat factories because of the United States' 'superior ideals.'

Working here has caused pacifism to once more appeal to me....

Why not engage in the battle against ignorance instead of innocent people?
Why not promote peace and communication and actual justice?

Somehow, I'm not convinced that the people Germany killed via bombs respected their idea of values or the 'perfect society' and I'm sure that Iraqis (and soon to be Afghanis) probably feel the same about our 'perfect idea' for their society.

But what to do?

I will make room in my life for genuine relationships with people from different parts of the world- so that their perspective will influence my way of thinking.
I won't assume that I know what is best.
And I will breathe....