Alright, so I’ll get into a little bit of something I wanted to last night but didn’t:

Erin’s folks and I went to see Avitar , which, if you haven’t seen it yet (and I’m sure now that I have, everyone on the planet probably has) you really need to. The film is visually stunning and tells a great story. You can tell a lot of time, effort, consideration and, of course, money went into the production of this film and every bit of it paid off (literally). The movie pushes 3 hours, which isn’t a big deal, especially since the story was so great, but afterward, I couldn’t help but feel torn. I’m not sure how I really feel about the movie. I’ll explain.

First of all, I’ll say that I think the movie would be a great way to get people to open their eyes to the consequences of war, especially in the United States. The natives of the land were being punished because they were attached to their homes and their beliefs. They were being forced out of it by a bigger, stronger nation who had no feelings for these “foreigners” and simply felt that it was the native’s duty to sacrifice themselves for the benefit of the greedy humans (or as I’ll refer to from here on out, Americans). The military is an amazingly bad idea to me. War is an even worse idea. Americans especially feel that they’re stronger, smarter and better than all other countries in the world and if they do not adhere to our standards, then they’re savages and the only way to deal with a savage is to kill him and take his land.

The strong military guy in the movie was a 100% accurate representation of how I view the military. A real “blow it up, be home in time for dinner, God’s on our side” type attitude. It scares me that there are people in this country that want to admire his character. Of course, it doesn’t help that the military spends millions on advertising the armed forces, making them look really flashy and attractive (yeah, getting shot at, blown up and crawling through mud is what I’d love to do with my life…) The media also displays these people as heroes. For what? For doing what they’re told to do? I’m sorry, but I owe this country nothing. I stand firm when I say that I do not believe in patriotism, or the existence of flags. The thought of a group of people looking down on others because they’re not like us rather than trying to look at them through God’s eyes makes me sick. A band I’ve recently gotten into, Showbread, attracted my attention to a Bible verse that I feel really hits the nail on the head. Ezekiel 33:11 reads, “‘As surely as I live’ says the sovereign Lord, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people'”. Showbread applied this verse to how America “pulled together” when Saddam Hussein was murdered. People cheered. Supposedly God fearing “All Americans” cheered for this event. You may say that the Bible says “Eye for and Eye,” but I’ll take the words of the Son of God before I’ll take a verse from the Old Testament (out of context for that matter) any day.

With that said, I’ll restate that I think the movie Avitar would be a great way to open people’s eyes to the reality of war and how ignorant they look when they wave their flags in the name of “liberty” and “progress,” yet, I have to believe that if these people are dumb enough to support a trigger happy military, they’re surely not smart enough to understand the symbolism displayed. Nevermind. Just watch American Idol and stiff your waitress after church. There, that’ll make things better. God bless you.

Enjoy today’s haiku

Last night’s sleep brought dreams
of punk rock and relatives
A revolution?