I Am Project - Conscious

As Stephen Harper fights a Federal Court judge’s ruling that he must “comply with a principle of fundamental justice” and press the United States for the return of Omar Khadr to Canada from Guantanamo Bay, I am left flabbergasted by many Canadians’ reactions and in many cases, lack of reactions. It is a dangerous path we tread if we allow our Prime Minister to decide which of his citizens deserve the rights guaranteed by their passport and which do not. Even if you ignore the fact that Omar Khadr would be considered a child soldier VICTIM in any other war, allowing him to remain beyond the seven years he has already been held without a trial should be something every Canadian should oppose with all their might. What have all our soldiers died for in Afghanistan if not for our freedoms and rights? What about the torture that has allegedly been inflicted upon a fellow Canadian citizen? When we start ignoring our rights and values in a war that is supposedly being justified in the name of those rights and values, have we not lost our way?

I often wonder if our leaders are even conscious of what the wars are really about. At times it feels like the post 911 conflicts are more about revenge and testosterone fueled posturing than the protection of freedoms and homeland security. From my perspective Canada is much less secure since we became involved in Afghanistan than before. At the end of the day does anyone really think invading someone else’s homeland is going promote long lasting friendship between two nations? Do we really not think the hatred we are currently creating is not going to be passed from father to son and mother to daughter for many generations to come? We are quite possibly creating the foundation for a future retaliation against our citizens who are yet to be born. They literally will be inheriting a conflict whose initiators will have long since passed on. When is it going to stop?

By staying conscious of the diversity that exists between two cultures, perhaps we can learn to reflect as opposed to react and quite possibly learn that the gap between two points of view is only reduced through communication, not a bullet.

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity." - Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)