Saturday, February 11, 2006

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.

11 Comments:

Blogger Snaggle Tooth said...

It seems a sense of humor could cure much in the European n Middle-Eastern Muslim communities...

They don't seem to be too big on forgiveness either. I'd like to read a Korhan one of these days n try to figure out where their philosophies n justifications for violence are rooted, in the written words or by public figure-heads interpretations...
Until we get to read it, we may never understand what's going on in so many different cultures with the anger demonstrations.

11:05 PM  
Blogger Ellen said...

Snaggle- I agree, the Middle East could use a good dose of humor. They are much too full of themselves, and a very unforgiving lot.

I had the same curiousity about the Koran, and googled it up the other day. I couldn't see where a religion could preach so much about peace, yet condone all the horrible things they are doing.
I also wanted to read about Mohammed in order to get a fix where all this philosophy first got it's start. Needless to say, it is a matter of what text you read in order to form an opinion about him.
Some say that he was a forgiving man, some say he was as bloodthirsty as they come... so the reports were ambiguious at best.

Whatever the case, and whatever the circumstances that brought them to this point, they've lost the one basic element that every religion practices. That would be the ability to get along with one another... a desire for which they have no compassion to do.

The funny thing about the Koran... it's rules change at their slightest whims, or so it seems.
I could be wrong on some points here, but that's the interpretation I go from what I've read so far.

Anyone who knows more.... please feel free to jump in and correct me!

7:50 AM  
Blogger Saur♥Kraut said...

he who laughs last...never got the joke... A great line. I'm gonna remember that one!

Here's an easy link to my blog about this for your readers: Muslim Cartoons.

9:26 AM  
Blogger Saur♥Kraut said...

Ellen / Snaggle Tooth; if you're interested, you really SHOULD read the Koran, as well as Mohammed's historical life. It's very eye-opening. And the emphasis really IS on killing the infidels, not so much peace and all THAT stuff. That's for us Christian wimps. ;o)

9:28 AM  
Blogger Ellen said...

Saurkraut- Thanks so much for the link here. I'm still new at this stuff, and I appreciate all the help I can get!

I did read up on some of it, especially after I had commented on your blog, and realized how silly I looked for not knowing in the first place.
I also have a good friend who has studied many religions, who sends me e-mails from time to time about world affairs. It's amazing to see where some of these opinions are formed, and how.

Yeah, we simple Christians and our faith.... and we're the infidels?
Even Catholics do not behead over their own followers who fall out of grace. As I've mentioned to you before, I am a lapsed Catholic, but I still believe in basic Christian fundamentals. I've never believed that beheadings or violence was the answer. To each his own, and let me make up my mind from there.... violence just turns me off and sows the seeds of contempt.

10:09 AM  
Blogger Michael K. Althouse said...

The world is a crazy place. At least we're not all crazy on the same day.

~Mike

12:12 PM  
Blogger Ellen said...

Mike- LOL! Thank God for small favors, huh?

12:25 PM  
Blogger Neo said...

Ellen - I've been mostly ignoring all this flak over the cartoons. I agree that if you're going to preach peace you should be peaceful. But killing someone for a cartoon is just overboard.

I don't understand their thinking as I'm sure most of us are wondering why they have so much hate and rage towards us.

I saw one website that was selling t-shirts with that cartoon on it. Tell me that isn't going to piss someone off?

And yes, we have "Freedom of speech," I guess we're lucky that way.

Peace & Hugs,

- Neo

11:07 AM  
Blogger Ellen said...

Neo- Yeah, I can see the feedback on the T-shirt issue. Some people will do anything to make a buck?

They hate everything we stand for more than they hate us. They suffer twisted logic, at best, in their quest to rid the earth of the "infidels". Look at how much wrath they invoke to prove the pureness of their beliefs. Is it any wonder why people haven't been beating a path to their doors to join? They are the embarrassment to our history of time, and their own religion.

3:40 PM  
Blogger Scott said...

Here is what I have learned... there are extremists in every culture and they are the ones that create the chaos that we see as a result of this kind of thing.

I think that the cartoons offend on such a high level because if you come from a country where you never see such a thing then all of a sudden a group of really upset leaders show it and tell you about the intense hate of your religion, well what kind of reaction do you think will come out of it?

It has been interesting, but so sad that people are dying over some cartoons.

Scott

4:20 PM  
Blogger Ellen said...

Scott- Very good point!
I suppose we have become desensitized with seeing political cartoons everyday, and then think no more about them.

Perhaps they are offensive, but extremist reaction is doing nothing to sway good feelings for their religion. Diplomacy might have worked, but the extremists have chosen to promote a personal holocaustic agenda against ANY religion that is not Muslim. It's been happening for years, but now they are using the guise of the cartoons to further their violence.
They are so busy terrorizing, it doesn't give the world much room to want to be diplomatic with them.

You're right. It is so sad knowing that the recent violence is being done because of some cartoons.

5:29 PM  

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