t’aint up to you to tell some one else what they should be crying about, or how much. Atrocities have occured throughout human history, most cultures have had their share of committing them. Should I be prostrate w/grief over events that happened centuries ago, while ignoring events going on now? I think not.
this arguement happens all the time - “don’t bother shedding tears over Andrea Yates, cry, instead for her children” as if some how being upset about one thing means you care naught for the other. “don’t dare feel badly about the Abu G. Prison stories lest you forget the beheadings being done by terrorists there”. and it’s bullshit each time. I have capacity to be uspet/happy/horrified etcc at any number of events.
In addition, we may, as individuals, indeed feel more , care more for one similar event than another. I may say, politely “happy b’day” to a casual acquaintence, however, is nothing near the joy I feel when wishing happy b’day to my son. Same event, vastly different feelings.
and it’s all my own perogative, thank you.
I may indeed be horrified over how people who lived in the US circa 1500 - 1910 treated certain populations. My ancestors were elsewhere treating other folks badly, or well, or what have you. In any event, it does not mean that I’m not allowed to feel a different level of horror over something that is happening right now. (understanding that even now there are continuing attrocities happening here).
We get to pick and choose our battles, Lib. Doesn’t mean that I’m heartless. Just means I get to pick my own priorities.
Sorry, just a bit of a digression----but I’m in the process of posting more photos of pictures of the ruin, including one of the reproduction Ishtar Gate.
I’m glad someone bumped this thread because I missed your comment before. And you’re right. You get to pick and choose. But I get to tell you that I think your choices are wrongheaded and contradictory. Sure, you can wail about the misfortunes of poor Blacks in the inner cities. But if you simultaneously ignore the dreadful plights of the equally unfortunate poor Whites in Appalachia, your standard is as tilted as the tower in Pisa.
Didn’t actually read wring’s post: + 10 points
Didn’t understand wring’s post: + 20 points
Continued whining about the same shit, and blamed wring for it: +50 points.
Have a Delicious Hostess Fruit Pie, Apos.
I certainly would love to see the pictures, as well. If it’s a photobucket account, remember to unlock it, or we can’t see the album, just individual shots, which are a pain to code.
Lib, if it helps any, you’ve been kinda running sideways at things in the last three weeks. You may want to switch your coffee again, and do the three breaths to think before you post, and try to make sure other people do mean what you think they mean.
From what I’ve read the only actual site damage is to the bricks that made up the base of the Ishtar Gate as the gate itself was moved years ago (Additionally these bricks were reportedly painted over by Saddam). Everything else is site contamination, not damage.
It seems that in the Histories of the History of Wars there have been distruction of countless historical sites. Is it just a pittable offense because the US is involved?
and you’d be wrong once more. Do you demand that some one who’d lost a loved one to Muscular Dystrophy also donate equal amounts of time and money to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the American Cancer Society etc? Your argument only works if the person is suggesting that only their choice is worthy of concern.
My capacity to care may indeed be infinate, but my time, energy, and other resources aren’t. To suggest that my caring is less or specious because I don’t choose the same battles as you is arrogance.
I can understand how you can feel that way, but really, I have to agree with gobear on this one.
As a historian, my perspective may be different. When one looks at thousands of years of history, one human life is infantesimal. Emotionally, each human being is priceless, and irreplaceable to those who love them, but to the rest of the world, insignificant.
99.99% of human beings will die and be utterly forgotton. I dearly love my mother. I love my husband, my sister and my grandmother, but when they are gone, only the immediate members of my family will care. Two generations from now, they will be but a name on a stone. However, the handmade quilts that my grandmother makes will be cherished for generations to come.
All that remains to say, “I existed” are the material things we leave behind. You can achieve immortality though something you made, or touched. Nothing awes me more than to see a fingerprint fired into the clay of a pot made before Christ. To lose those tangible links with those people from the past is an incredible loss.
Artifacts of lost civilizations are incredibly precious because each tiny piece may be something that teaches us an important fact about that culture. A bead or shard may reveal trade routes that were unknown, as could art or idols. To have a site disturbed strips a great deal of information from artifacts. Things become undatable because the strata have been disturbed. Who knows what knowledge we may have lost?
Would I die to save “mere” pottery shards? Yes. Would I have sacrificed myself to save the Baghdad Museum from being looted? Yes. Would I have laid down my life to stop the Taliban from destroying the Buddhas? Yes. Because what those things would have meant to furture generations is far more than what my selfish little life will mean. I would have been proud to die for such things-- it would be a worthy and noble death.
Check out this classic “God-Man” strip from Ruben Bolling’s Tom the Dancing Bug: