Ahh, an election year. Nothing brings out goodwill and charity more than campaigning...
While I've been letting this blog slip lately, the upcoming avalanche of mudslinging and uninformed political rhetoric bring me back. I have to attempt to balance out what is inescapable.
Campaigns always seem to bring out the worst in people. I'm not sure if it is due to the fierce "My guy will totally beat your guy" competitiveness we Americans seem to have, or if it is because of a genuine hatred, for lack of a better word, of "the other side." In either case, it is decidedly unproductive and disheartening.
Which is why, when I heard this story about a US Naval ship crew coming to the rescue of a group of Iranians held captive by Somali pirates, I felt a twinge of relief. In this political climate in particular, so consumed are we with the idea that "the other" is the enemy that we fail to notice that "the other" is not actually different from us. This story reminds us of that fact. And while many pundits, news anchors, and commentators used the actions by the Navy to embark in some other asinine rhetoric along the lines of "That'll show 'em how superior the US is," above all, it is a demonstration of one human saving another. Period.
Which is something that we all might need to keep in mind over the course of the next eleven months.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/01/06/144789163/u-s-navy-reports-rescuing-13-iranians-from-somali-pirates
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