Us and Them

No matter what group you're a part of there's gonna be another group you ain't part of.

Majority vs. Minority, Black vs. White, Red vs. Blue, Shirts vs. Skins, Boys vs. Girls, Haves vs. Have nots, Butter side up vs. Butter side down, Barney vs. Captain Kangaroo, Beatles vs. Elvis, People that like my writing (Us) vs. People that don't like my writing (Them/the bastards).

No sense in killin' or really fightin' with somebody 'cause they hold a different opinion than you. You could spend all day arguin' that Barney could kick Captain Kangaroo's ass. But you'd be wrong.

Captain Kangaroo is awesome. I know some of you don't remember him, but he hosted a show for twenty some odd years and had the best mutton chops in the Saturday morning kids' show business. He had a coat with big pockets and lots of lil puppet friends. He actually ran a few cartoons on his show.



What does Barney got? Purple and green foam and a creepy fondness for huggin' kids. He's got some triceratops sidekicks but they were always kinda lame. He sings, he dances, and wants everybody to be friends. Admirable as that might be, I'd have to say that'd put him on the losing end of some actual conflict resolution.



The Captain is a Captain and most likely has some military training. He'd snap Barney's neck no problem. Or maybe pull a bazooka from his big pockets and blast a hole in the purple perv. I don't care if he is a dinosaur, dinosaurs are no match for bazookas.



Course there might be one flaw in my argument. It's that imaginary creatures can't actually do much of anything. So, arguin' about which one is best makes no difference. One might be more popular. The other might have a lot of fans that take things too far. One might not make sense to you. The other might not make much sense to me. But who am I to interrupt your watchin' of either show or to insist that you can't watch that show? I can't tell you what to like whether it be Captain Kangaroo, Barney, God, Allah, or Odin. Your opinion is yours to hold and therefore not mine to change. I can tell you why I like Woody Woodpecker and you should too but if you don't that won't make you a bad person. (Yeah, I just compared all religious deities to Woody Woodpecker. And yes that is a real cartoon character.)



I was talking to my brother the other day and while I love and respect him I gotta wonder where he's gettin' these terrible ideas. He was tellin' me about people arguin' over the mosque they wanna build near Ground Zero. He said the lady arguin' was in support of it sayin' that she loved the Muslim people and their culture. Said she met a guy online and wanted to marry him and help him come to the U.S. (I'm not gonna argue whether the guy's gonna screw her over on that, I believe he would but that's another story.) My brother said the guy shouldn't be allowed to come because he's a terrorist. He said they're all terrorists.



I had to remind my brother of his less than glamorous past. My brother was part of a gang when he was young. He stole car stereos. Got in shootouts. Stole from convenience stores. Shot an old man in the leg on accident. Got locked up for attempted murder. Drove down the road and threw a kitchen appliance at a man that was just walkin' and mindin' his own business. He was even part of a gang battle that was on a news segment in Houston called "City Under Siege".



City Under Siege? You ever heard of that? Back in the day, about early to mid 90's, the gang violence in Houston and surrounding areas was so bad that a special segment of the news had to be created to cover it and other crimes.



Times were a lil rough back then. He got himself into a lot of trouble. You might even be justified in callin' my brother a terrorist. I did when we had that discussion. Maybe it put things in perspective for him which I hope he puts to good use.

Since doin' all those bad things he's straightened out. He's separated himself from a lot of trouble makers. He's gotten involved in his church. He got married and had kids. He's all about his kids now. He busts his ass to help them become good people and stay outta trouble.

I'd only caution him to not forget where we come from. We are not the ruling class. We are not the ones to look down on others. None of the people that he and I are surrounded by are the elite. When he talks bad about a minority group he's talkin' bad about us. We are Us and we are Them. We've done wrong. We've done good. We are not perfect. We are not to be spit upon.

A different god, skin color, or favorite cartoon show has no bearing on the quality of a person. It's absurd to argue and kill each other over these things. The Muslim people are largely misunderstood. It is that misunderstanding that leads to fear. Every group is misunderstood at one time or another.

As intelligent people we need to see past stereotypes or the dogmas of religion. All religions are s'posed to teach love and peace and lately I see 'em bein' used as a separation tactic. "Separate Us from Them. They want to kill Us. They aren't like Us. You don't want to be like Them. We are good and They are bad." It's not like that. Everybody wants to be good but a few fear mongers are strappin' bombs to people's chests and tellin' others to piss on places of worship.

That's not what reasonable people do. Reasonable people think. They wonder what people are really gettin' upset over. They ask what reasonable solutions are to these problems. Whatever the answer is it surely isn't racism or facism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTV_I4atWNw