Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Tired of Feeling Guilty...

I was excited about this afternoon because I planned to come home from work, watch the bit about Grey's Anatomy on Oprah, possibly steal a few minutes of sleep and then sit down to write some stuff about the type of people who shop for Genealogy Books at Barnes and Noble.

Instead, Singleton's latest post and the ensuing comments jarred me back into being obsessed with the very difficult political and sociological conversations that center around words like "justice" and "peace," and places with weird names like "Rwanda" and "Darfur." Although these things, to varying degrees, are hopefully at the forefront of our minds, it's been a while since the good old Coffee and Culture days when the discussion made the blood rush to my head. But the blood rushed this afternoon and, to be honest, I didn't care for it much at all.

Truth be told, for the past few years I have come very close to throwing my energies behind the progressive and prophetic voices shouting in the desert, calling us to action. But every time I place my foot on the lip of the shoreline of action to test the waters, all I hear are the bitter, accusatory voices swimming around, looking for someone to blame and offering little in the way of actual solutions. I then realize the waters are just too cold for me and then I fall back on the status quo.

I'm tired of the status quo. But if my only other option is the illogical and inferred conclusion that Bush is to blame for the genocide in Darfur because he used force to remove a dictator in Iraq (presumably for oil, which is now interestingly much more expensive now than it was before the war,) while offering only the answer of "A greater multinational presence," in Darfur, then give me the status quo.

In other words, if you have a solution that someone like me can be a part of (like the Invisible Children Project) then count me in. But if all you've got is guilt and finger pointing, then find someone else.

I've long refused to participate in the bitterness of the Religious Right. The bitterness of the Religious Left will have to do without me as well.

1 comment:

ben said...

Craig, i want to challange you to step up instead of step out. I know that often times i tend to fall victim to the game of finger pointing. the reason is because i can do that from my couch. But if what you say is true, there are people out there who are actually doing things and making a difference. Even though you tend to align yourself with one political side the majority of the time, i feel like you are able to walk that line and see both sides of the story. So be the Bono, find the middle that unites people. So please don't let the people like myself who are pointing fingers from the couch stop you from actually making a difference. Instead of stop caring about this stuff, STOP READING THESE STUPID BLOGS LIKE MINE THAT JUST GET YOUR HEART RATE UP AND MAKE YOU GO INSANE!!! if i have learned anything from this last string of post and comments its this...i need to be able to unite people instead of push them into their corners...don't know how to do that. Time to learn.