How can I sleep?

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

How can I sleep
when children are dying?

Mine and theirs.

My son, my daughter
being blown apart by an IED.

Another son and daughter
being ripped apart by
50 cal machine guns

A child burned by phosphorus?

A family torn to arms and legs and torsos by bombs

or mortars

or Tomahawks?

How can I sleep?

I think of American Idol!

Or 24!

Or Superman Returns!



How can I sleep?

It's easy.

I'm an American.

the rest of the world does not exist.

[uppityperson]

1. it would be easier if we didn't care.

but we do.

[Rude Horner]

2. Yup

for most of the population, ignorance is bliss. And our education system does nothing to teach kids the value of other cultures. We grow up with a "God Bless America" and "Pledge of Allegiance" attitude, which leads to a "we're better than them" viewpoint. And that leads to a "who gives a shit" population.

I'm so sick of ignorance. Sick of blind hatred. Sick of people who flaunt their patriotism and don't understand that the only real purpose of patriotism is to split us. To make us feel like we're special and other countries/people aren't.

[DanCa]

3. Good poem

Now add the fact that you have a chronic neurological disease that worsens with time and than you got my world.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

4. Can you expound?

thanks.

[DanCa]

6. I'll try

People are having a hard time sleeping because of this ME crisis.
And rightfully so because this situation is beyond horrible.
Now if you take all that stress from this and add it too a pre existing medical condition you know now what my night is like.
I am sorry, my meds are kicking in now. Don't pay any attention to me. I am posting stoned. LOL.

[AlwaysQuestion]

5. How poignant.

If each of us could get into the skins of those being terrorized by the ravages of war, we could call a halt to the madness immediately. I still and will forever remain numbed by even the mind boggling idea of war. I must live in la-la land cuz I really can't wrap my head around the fact that a few men and women are given the power to make youngsters (and let's face it, that's all they are--most of them barely out of puberty)--go "out there" and victimize men, women and children they don't even know.

When I say that to those around me, they just look at me as if I had just sprouted a third ear on my nose. The response is invariably, "Hey, war has been a staple in the lives of man since the beginning. Deal with it." But I say man can change if he can get off the rat's wheel long enough to work on quieting his mind. Yes, we can put an end to the treachery, idiocy and hateful ways of man. Man is not only menacing to himself and others, he's downright stupid. Time and time again throughout history he's repeated the same folly each time expecting a different outcome. Why? We must begin to think of war in more personal terms, as in, "What if we were sucked into war and were forced to watch our own children suffer unspeakable things. Until we can engage in that exercise, we will continue to follow leaders who don't give a rat's ass about anything but what the spoils of war bring to them. We must stop being so easily distracted. We must stop giving over our minds to the obscene few. We must begin to use our common sense, our imaginations, and develop a deep rooted sense of empathy for others. Is that really so hard to do?

[ninkasi]

7. That's why I'm frequently online

at 2 or 3 A.M., because I can't sleep, knowing what's going on in the rest of the world. It's bad enough when natural disasters strike, but when hundreds of thousands of people are suffering because of our corrupt regime of neocon criminals, it becomes unbearable.

I am fully aware that somewhere in Iraq, or Lebanon, there are other women like me, grandmothers and great-grandmothers in their sixties, who don't worry much about themselves, but are sick with fear over what is happening to their cherished loved ones. Each and every one of those loved ones is as much loved as mine are, and as deserving of living a life of peace.

I can't sleep because I think of them, of the innocent ones who have no control over the ones who cause the wars, and who indulge in seeing which one can win a pissing contest. Their loved ones are not at risk, and they are only too willing to send our own children to kill other children, commanded to fight by our politician's counterparts on the other side of the battle.