he who laughs last......

The most enjoyable moments of my life have always included laughing. I was lucky to be born into a family that was, and is, incredibly funny.

My Dad had the gift of gab and good stories. He could sit down with anybody and have a wonderful conversation with them within seconds. When he was a young man, he had wanted to go into the theatrical field. After attending just a few classes, he realized he didn't have the heart or soul for the actors life, and decided to switch his major to Speech. In this field, he could become a teacher and help children who were deaf, to communicate. It's almost too bad that Dad didn't pursue acting, because he looked exactly like a young Gene Kelley.
I've mentioned before that he would invite his fellow associates over to our house for Sunday dinners, and no one ever turned him down. His personality and heart were his "gold medals" of traits.... and there was no question that he majored in "speech".
This trait has been nicely passed down the ranks, and I have brothers that share the same gift.

It usually doesn't take too much to get me to laugh, and I am a lover of newspaper cartoons. Somehow they purport more truth to them if you can read between the lines well. A lot, to most, are political satires on the state of the world, and no question in my mind, they are funny. That was their job: to be funny.

Unless you've been living in a cave (no pun intended), or haven't followed the news, the world is experiencing new terrors over the publishing of several cartoons with negative depictions of the prophet, Mohammed. Because of the non-forthcoming apology from the Danish newspaper that printed these, Muslims are expressing their displease with the idea that they are violent, by engaging in riots, mayhem and murder. That'll teach us. right?

I won't go into the details of what the cartoons were, but you can go over to my sidebar and pull up Saurkrauts blog, she nicely linked them.... and I thought they were funny, in the usual political satire sense. It's part of that democratic "free-speech" that we hold so dear to our hearts, and it's something we've all grown up with. Plenty of cartoons have come about other deity's, and we hardly bat an eyelash.... and most people did just that when the cartoons first came out about Mohammed. It became a call to arms for other political agendas, and now all of a sudden it is against the Muslim religion to put out ANY depictions of Mohammed. This is a "new" law we just learned about their culture.... even though you can find earlier pictures and paintings that are not offensive in the least, if you surf the web.... and no riots were ever started over those.

What's truly sad about all of this is the complete utter nonsense of it all. I wanted so hard to believe that a religion that preached peace, really meant it. It's been a disappointment to know that I haven't seen enough signs of it. (Although I did have a cashier at my local grocery store who was Muslim, wish me a "Merry Christmas" this past December.) It seems that the Muslims in America aren't playing into this silliness, but Europe has been put on alert, and for good reason. Danish embassies are being protested by Muslims who brandish signs that say, "Behead Those Who Insult Islam". Whatever "peace message" they were trying to put across was lost in the first car-bombs and rioting.... but they feel vindicated in doing so anyway. I find it puzzling that their text of laws is ambiguous about beheadings, bombings and flying planes into skyscrapers.

Growing up, I was taught to be nice, tolerant, and manners were always in tow. If someone was different from me, I didn't make me better than them; instead, it was an opportunity to learn a new culture. It was important to know the cultures of the world, because it was becoming smaller everyday with modern technology. Best of all, it was to your advantage, because cultures enrich the arts of society, and develop bridges of commerce and friendships. Doesn't that sound nice? Isn't that what we were put here to do? Isn't that what all the religions seem to preach in their own way?
Somehow in this quest, the messages are like cell phone tunnel hells with too much static on our end, and God asking: "Can you hear me now?".

I feel sorry for those who were genuinely offended by the cartoons, and perhaps some jokes do go a little too far. But that said, I still found most to be within the normal realm of what we'd expect from a political cartoon.
Be that as it may, I've always maintained that he who laughs last, never got the joke.