6.13.2009

shame, greed, and ego

I have nothing to be ashamed of. I have accomplished everything I have set out to do up to this point in my life. I have no great failures. I have made mistakes - big ones - and I fit no description that could be plausibly attributed to the word "perfect." In fact, I have many shortcomings. One of which I quite enjoy is laughing at farts. Yeah, they're funny. Hardly becoming of someone who aspires to higher things (as we all should).

But, as I get "older" (I have yet to break 30...) I realize how small a fish I am in the puddles, ponds, lakes, and oceans of worldly accomplishments. Boats, jet-skis, home size, income, entrepreneurial success and good looks are some of the things I just haven't acquired yet. The truth is that while I don't necessarily *want* those things, I want the perceived confidence and satisfaction of having led a good life.

I know this is a rambling post. It sounded a lot more straightforward in my head. I had hoped that writing this would make those back-of-your-mind desires for worldly recognition dissipate, but if fixing your problems was as easy as blogging about them I'd be near perfect by now.

I am not ashamed of who I am or of what I've accomplished. I'm very happy with it, in fact. And I often choose to think actively think about that - count my blessings, if you will - to combat the feeling of inadequacy when faced with lack of temporal success when I am compared with those in the upper crust.

1.24.2009

No mo' Gitmo

Good.

It's time.

"Your families aren't safe." They weren't before Guantanamo Bay closed. Osama Bin Laden is still out there.

"You're going to supply the terrorists with fresh new faces with a vendetta against the U.S." Our foreign policy of simply supporting Israel with money and weapons, of fighting in the borders of Afghanistan/Pakistan, incurring civilian casualties when we launch military strikes in Iraq -- all occupational hazards of fighting wars, we create new recruits for terror camps. They didn't like us before. We've been doing all the things that made 'em hate us from the get go - both right and wrong - for a long time.

Closing Gitmo was the right thing to do. You can't continue to defend who you are and what makes you great (liberty, justice, and civil rights) while running a place like Guantanamo Bay.