Thursday, July 13, 2006


















monsters inc......

If you can remember back to when you were a kid, you can probably conjure up the image of yourself checking under the bed at night... or the closet. After all, that's where the monsters hid. Somewhere along the line, we all out-grow that little ritual, and get on with the business of growing up. We're pretty sure the "monsters" have exited the building, as there were new places to go, people to see, and things to do. And we run smack dab into life, where we discover there are worse monsters out there. Ones our parents tried to warn us about, but we were too smart to listen.... and ones we never saw coming at all. Ones that make us want to cuddle up on that very same bed we were afraid of so long ago.....but we're grown-ups now, so the very idea of taking to bed is inconceivable. Whether we like it or not, we must face the day with some type of bravado and carry on. Brave little soldiers, and all that.

But it has increasingly gotten harder and harder to do with all we hear and see. The state of the world is in a fine mess right now, and what's worse, it's a man made mess. No monsters like the fuzzies under our childhood beds, mind you, these scary ones look like us... and it's enough to make you horrified of the possibilities. We, the "thinking animal" have been capable of far surpassing the learning curve of basic needs; beyond that of communication, shelter and food. We have the ability to produce and study medicine, build bridges, and grow produce. No other animal in the world can do those things. So with all those abilities, all those great minds pregnant with ideas and ideals, how do we manage to find ourself in the quandary we are in now?

We hear of all the bombings around the world; carefully calculated, and executed by men who have a hatred in their belly so fierce for their enemy, that taking out innocent people who are just minding their own business get caught in...... all over a difference of opinions that can't seem to be solved diplomatically. In our leadership around the world, it appears that everybody is right in how they run their country, and everybody else is wrong. Instead of being able to solve the differences, we resort to threats and sanctions and eventually move to weapons and bombs. It's a simple jump from there to war and terrorism, and monsters you could never have dreamed of.

If you have ever seen the show "The Wonder Years", you would get an idea of what it was like to grow up during the late 1960's and early 1970's. Our parents had the worries of the world on their shoulders then. They were sending their sons off to a "conflict" in a foreign land, and worried that communism would spread. Missles were being tested, rockets fired, and now there were two super powers who had the formula for the bomb.... capable of blowing up the world 15 times over. (Like once wouldn't be enough, huh?) There was a stand-off between Communist Russia and The United States, and bomb shelters were easy thoughts because of the threat that was always prevalent. Yes, I do remember the "stop, drop, and cover", because it was taught to me in Kindergarten, in the early 1960's.

By April of 1975, our parents could breathe a sigh of relief, because the conflict known as Vietnam was officially over. As a nation, we watched as the last remnants of war scurried to leave a fallen Saigon. It was over, and our generation of fresh 18-year olds ready to conquer the world, would never have to worry about war again. Yeah, we had that brief stint in the Gulf for a few months in the early 1990's, but it was over in a flash. Not so with our current predicament. 9/11 has changed all that. Never in our wildest dreams could we have imagined anyone calculating such a scheme as to fly our own airplanes into buildings. It was horrifying to watch and gulp down the possibility that there was an enemy out there who actually wanted to do that much harm to innocent people..... someone who hated us and our lifestyle that much. This time we skimmed right over the sanctions halt, and slid right into war. It wasn't enough we had to hunt down the man responsible, we had to go after the nasty dictator we weren't finished with from the first Gulf War. And as Americans, many bought into the idea, because we were told it was a necessary function. In all the years from the first Gulf War to the second, this nasty dictator had had time to build up weapons of mass destruction, there was no way we could feel safe in the world knowing that this mad-man could be on the loose. Besides, he was sitting on a gold-mine of oil. It seemed conceivable, but then the plot thickened. No WMD's were found, and the reasons and excuses for war with Iraq changed to fit the mood of the moment. I just knew that was coming, didn't you?

As far as attacks due to terrorism, they've never stopped. It's not just the US who has become the target, it's happening in different cities around the world. We may not connect them all together, because they happen at random times and in random years, but it's all part of the same war. What's worsened the situation is that we aren't fighting a defined country, only an enemy that has infiltrated our cultures to locate and list "soft targets" for the next occurrence. It's making everybody just a wee bit nervous as we travel about our daily routines.
Part of us wants to hide our heads to the hate and destruction, as it's more than we can bear.... yet we can't. This is not a problem that will go away easily because every nation involved has their own reasons for being more right than the next guy. Diplomacy only seems to be going so far, and the attacks on soft targets are becoming images of revenge. Sadly, It's become our way of life now.

When will everyone just realize that terrorism is the lowest common denominator in the dictate of life, and that if you blow everybody up, you lose the very population you were trying to govern? With the bigger questions to deal with (like global warming, un-natural disasters, and how to handle our resource issues), why is it so important that we waste our time on the silly people who come along to destroy what we have already fixed? Why? Because whether we like it or not, we really don't know who the enemy is exactly. They could be living in any country as a sleeper-cell, and all you have to be doing is going about your life when, WHAM, it's shattered by an ideal born out of hate. It's not like you were knowingly walking into enemy territory, as there are no real borders.

It's sad, it's despicable, it's the complete reversal of everything we learned.... yet it's a real fact of life we have to deal with. These were not monsters our parents could warn us about..... but, sadly, it will be the monsters we warn our own children about.

17 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ellen,

This post is both intense and important. Thank you for bringing this up. You should submit if for puplication so even more people can see it. Everything you said here is sad but true. You have phenomenal insight.

8:10 PM  
Blogger awareness said...

So poignantly written, Ellen. I love the analogy......and it's so true, the monsters we have to warn our children about are very different than the ones we were warned about.

The evil lurking in sleeper cells in a town near any of us is so nebulous. We don't really know what to look for. The fact that the bombers in London last year, for example, grew up in the UK, went to school there etc, and even had British accents put a spin on things that made the monster that much closer and scarier.

If only Bin Laden looked like Mike Wazowski...........wouldn't that make it easier to find him in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan??

Great post.

8:12 PM  
Blogger Skye said...

Great post Ellen. I just don't understand why the "Power of LOVE is having such a hard time over the love of Power".

10:03 PM  
Blogger Ellen said...

barbara~
I actually partly stole this idea from awareness. Her blog contained a list from another blogger that got me to thinking seriously about the state of affairs we are entangled in todays world. Both stories had a profound effect that I couldn't shake until I put it into words myself.

Thanks for the wonderful words of encouragement, sweetie. I'm not sure I'm talented enough for publication though. I'm just a common bloke trying to understand how the world turned so very upside down in just a few short years.

************

awareness~
Oh how true. If only the monsters didn't look and sound like us they would be easier to spot. And with all the destruction and devestation this has caused, we in turn have all jumped on the bandwagon to esculate the situation further. We can't help it as we fear for our lives if it gets too far out of hand. This is no longer our fathers war we are fighting, and the differences are astounding and far scarier.

************

skye~
Well put! I couldn't have said it better myself. How easy it is to lose sight of priorities when one is in power.

10:51 PM  
Blogger Snaggle Tooth said...

I agree! How could our parents ever've anticipated the kind of monsters we have to deal with?

How they can think that killing uninvolved people helps promote a cause, is beyond me! All it does is promote further hatred!

What happened in India is a nightmare...

6:33 AM  
Blogger Saur♥Kraut said...

There are so many more monsters than when we were kids, truthfully. I'm back in the dating world again. Trust me.

2:58 PM  
Blogger Ellen said...

snaggle~
Somehow promoting further hatred has been raised to a fine art form among men in our time. I understand it even less and less everyday. All the bombings between Isreal and Lebanon in the news only seem to esculate more bombings. Once again, each side feels that they must retaliate in order to show force. What a world, what a world, huh?

************

saur~
Thanks for pointing out those "monsters".... I had forgotten all about that!

LOL, and good luck!

9:25 AM  
Blogger wes said...

The monsters are different than they have ever looked before, but we should not concern ourselves with them any more than any other kinds. That's just what they want, and in the end, it doesn't do any good. The truth of the matter is that you are MUCH more likely to die in a car accident than a terrorist attack. So the question becomes, when will the US declare war on the automobile, now there's a war I can support. :)

1:38 AM  
Blogger Kelly said...

I went to a child sexual assault training last week. It was hard to listen for two days straight about the horrific things people do to each other.

1:57 PM  
Blogger Neo said...

Ellen - Great post, sorry it took me awhile to get over and read it. Ya know how my weekend are eh?

I've been really worried about the current war that just started over there. I don't understand how a few people getting kidnapped give a country the right to totally destroy another country to get even. I mean the type of damage is heartbreaking. All of those women and children dying for what?

I think those that fight under the notion of "Preventing Terrorism," need to take a good hard look at the way they react.

I only pray they wake up sooner not later.

Peace & Hugs,

- Neo

8:40 PM  
Blogger Lee Ann said...

I completely agree.
Every generation has it's stresses, but as the world progresses, so do the stresses.
You have said it very well.

12:15 AM  
Blogger X said...

It's sad that terrorists feel the need to do what they do. Hurting innocent people is horrible....and seeing things like this first hand, the affects of what terrorism and war does....I will never forget it. Sigh.

Sidebar: I still have to sleep with my closet door closed, lol! :)

1:17 AM  
Blogger Ellen said...

wes~
Good point about the car. I think we should declare war on the car makers, and force them to make more hybred ones... possibly getting us away from the need for gas. Environmentaly alone, that's a sound choice.

Very true about the terrorist acts knocking on your front door... lightening is more likely. But I'm sure the ones affected by it on a more personal basis had the same thoughts. We do have to get on with our lives as a show of face, but it becomes increasingly harder to accept the de-sensitation affect. I wonder how far humans are willing to push the envelope against each other. But then that's my age speaking.

************

myutopia~
Yikes! I don't even want to imagine what that would be like, yet reality is like a ton of bricks no matter what. I'll bet you could tell all sorts of stories on that subject.

************

neo~
What a horrible waste all around.... and so much more to come. Why can't they figure out that they are decreasing the species, causing dissent and hate further, and taking the environment along for the ride. Whatever happened to cool rational heads with wiles of diplomacy. It's become such a free-for-all for the kooks and mongers. Oh well, pardon my liberalism speaking....

************

lee ann~
You said it so very well in just one sentence, sweetie!

************

K.~
As a journalist, I'm sure you see more than you'd like. Sad that it's not just a movie trailor, but the real thing, huh?
Like you said in your post, these will be couch issues sorted out in 20 years. So much destruction and waste has got to get to you after awhile.

I understand the need for you to close the closet door. For me, it's my bathroom door in my room. Everybody knows monsters like to hide out there when not under your bed or in the closet.

2:20 PM  
Blogger Snaggle Tooth said...

"BOO!"

just getting rid of the negative number monster again!

6:13 AM  
Blogger Ellen said...

snaggle~
Thanks sweetie... I always know I can count on you having my back covered.

2:16 PM  
Blogger Neo said...

Ellen - Diplomacy is seeing how many people you can kill before anyone says anything about it.

8:02 PM  
Blogger Ellen said...

neo~
Funny.....I just read in The Onion how Bush has rolled back the number of deaths in Iraq to "zero". I guess your theory is right!

1:48 PM  

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