Quasi-Control

Last night we watched the movie Across the Universe.  Both Aubrey and I thought it was a fantastic movie. While the quality of the film was very good and it was interesting artistically it had some very strong political message, which Aubrey and I discussed long after the movie ended.  Until recently I had only viewed the “hippie” movement as a group of promiscuous druggies who just wanted to complain about the government. Sadly I feel that many people share these feelings.

From 2009 (soon to be 2010)  and looking back at the Vietnam war it is easy to see the mistakes made by a corrupt government.  The question we must ask is this: Are these same mistakes being made today? or rather, has a recent administration replicated the past mistakes of the republican party?

I am ashamed to admit that I trusted George Bush for a long time. Granted I wasn’t old enough to vote in the 2000 election and I was in France during the invasion of Iraq so it wasn’t until much later that I started to turn a critical eye to what our government was doing in Iraq.

I’m not going to cite statistics about the numbers of soldiers or civilians we’ve killed. I don’t have an elaborate argument about the evils of war or the international/political effects the invasion of Iraq will have on our country and safety.  All I can say is that I now feel very skeptical about the use and need of our military.  I now pledge to refuse to trust any political leader who claims that the military must be used for ______ (fill in the blank).

I wish I had the courage to realize this when the anti-war rallies were going on. I am ashamed to say that I will not be able to tell my children that I participated.  I will participate in the future.