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Just trying to encourage Unity

Don said:

"Well, I thought I was being facetious, but they say
all mocking humor 
is based
on a grain of truth, and I find I really don't like
this sort of thing.  
I
mean, we did the light a candle thing last week, and
that was fine, but 
what's
this new thing supposed to achieve?  To show unity
with what?  That
announcement says "We as citizens of this great
country can make a big
difference if we join together as a nation.", but it
doesn't suggest 
what that
difference might be.  Why not take all the energy,
organizational skill 
and
effort that this undertaking demands and do something
productive with 
it?
Maybe we should all get together for 15 minutes and
brainstorm ideas 
for ways
to stop the cycle of violence that feeds terrorism? 
Maybe we should 
take 15
minutes and do nice things for our Muslim neighbors to
show the world 
that we
are united in our belief that people should not be
judged by race or 
creed?
Maybe we should be looking for things to do that take
longer than a 15 
minute
committment?  What is turning all those lights going
to achieve other 
than a
lot of pollution, an overload of the power
infrastructure, and a waste 
of
money?  The world knows our resolve.  We've got flags
every ten feet 
across the
whole country, for crying out loud.  I sympathize with
the intent (I 
think;
since it's not clear what they hope to achieve with
this, it's hard to 
know if
I support them or not, but let's give them the benefit
of the doubt.), 
but the
mode of expression seems... well, empty.  Particularly
since one of the
criticisms the rest of the world has with America is
how wasteful we 
are.  We
have something like 10% of the world's population, and
we use 80% of 
the
resources.  I don't see how a paryoxcism of waste is
going to send the 
right
message to the rest of the world.  To me, it builds on
the troubling
implications of Bush's "for us or against us" rhetoric
that leaves no 
room to
agree with the goals of the US government but not the
means.  If I go 
turn my
lights on, does that mean I support attacking
Afghanistan?  Does it 
mean I
support Congress's inappropriate abdication of their
constitutional 
powers to
give one man sole authority to decide America's
response?  Whatever 
happened to
checks and balances?

If it were something clear, like "honk if you don't
want the US to bomb
Afghanistan", then I could in good conscience support
it.  But to be 
asked
to participate in something wasteful, merely to show
"unity" for its 
own
sake, with no real sense of what it means, or what one
is in unity 
with...
no, I can't support that.

Dang it, I've done gone and broke my promise not to
get into this 
again.
Shoot.  Sorry.  Gotta go."
-- 
The thought of Americans showing a sense of "Unity"
was very comforting to my heart...I guess I'm just "simple".

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