Day: March 23, 2011

Tip Toe Thru The Humanitarian Minefield

For decades, the Middle East has been a minefield…this guy our guy….that guy bad man….this guy (who the Hell knows)….there has been war in the ME since they were fought sticks and stones and every age has had its humanitarian problems…..now I ask which one is a humanitarian problem?

I ask this because we are told that the US had NO choice but to act in Libya because of the degrading humanitarian situation….at least that is the official tag line……but what made Libya a humanitarian situation?  The threat of people dying with an attack on Benghazi?  If we use that explanation….why was the Sudan, where 2 million civilians have died, not a humanitarian crisis?  Or Yemen, where the government forcves are killing their residents….or Bahrain where the Sunni majority is killing Shi’a majority this time with the help of Saudi Arabia, who by the way are Sunni….why are these NOT in the crosshairs of the UN or the US?  Could it have anything to do with the oil reserves in Eastern Libya?

The ME is a minefield with young “facebookers” fighting old establishment and moderates…..or tribe against tribe…..or Sunni against Shi’a…….there is NO one size fits all in the ME…….each one is different….but one thing is a constant in the ME….despotism!

And then there is another land mine to worry about…..who do we stand behind in each of these conflicts?  We have NO idea who are the leaders, if any, of any of these developing situations……..and then there is this…..what are the chances that say AQ gets their hands on oil and the money that it generates?  Would that constitute another armed intervention?  Yet another war?

This piece of American adventurism leaves more questions unanswered than it answers……what will we do?  What will be our future in the next 5-10 years?  Will we be fighting Arabs?  Because that seems to be a war that we cannot win and hopefully that is NOT on the agenda in Washington.

On a side note:  The US will give Tunisia $20 million to help promote democracy…..think about that for a moment……maybe we should spend that $20 million in the US because it looks like our democracy is in its waning days…..JUST A THOUGHT!

Abby Kelley–Radical Woman

College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  American History/Women’s History

I try to do my part to educate the people on things that they may not think about or realize…..it is March and Women’s History month…..I also try to find people that have contributed to the making of this country and have not been given the respect that they deserve……and Abby Kelley is such a person…….

Abigail (Abby) Kelley was born in 1811 into a strict Quaker family…..being a female her education was that in Quaker schools….after her education was complete, as much as any woman could hope to obtain, she taught school and her road to radical feminism….she lectured and wrote about temperance, pacifism and anti-slavery…..she became more and more progressive while involved with abolitionists, but she not only lectured about freedom for slaves but also a full civil equality…she not only opposed war but also all forms of government coercion, as well as calling for equality for slaves she lead the talk on equality for women……

Her radical abolitionist views continually garnered her recognition as well as hatred even among her male comrades…they especially distanced themselves from her when she began lecturing to “mixed gender” audiences….this promoting many to pull away for her and her endeavors…..she was ridiculed and hated by many within the movement….

In 1838, Kelley began her speaking career and over the years she was criticized over her lectures to men…..she continued to lecture and to be a  fundraiser for the cause of anti-slavery up until her death in 1887…her farm in Mass was labeled “Liberty Farm” and was a meeting place for reformers and radicals, as well as a stop on the Underground Railroad, a path for escape slaves to make it to safety and freedom…..she remained a staunch reformer and radical for equal rights for women as well as slaves until her death…

Abby Kelley was a cornerstone of radicalism in the US and she has not gotten as much respect as she deserved….for she played a major roll in the fight for equal rights…she like so many others, deserves more recognition that she has received….we Americans seem to forget that we owe radicals a large thank you for their work…for without them the country would not be the country it is today……