Just posted this little ditty on Yourish.
Sometimes the world is a funny place in that way that makes you throw your head back and laugh with reckless abandon. And sometimes it is the kind of funny that makes you wonder if somehow you are living inside a piece of Salvador Dali’s artwork.
It is well and good to moan the loss of life and suggest that goodwill be spread to all mankind. It is a noble sentiment but it is not one that is shared by all people. One of the fundamental flaws of some people is the belief that kindness will always generate a similar response. Because the reality is that this is not true. Sometimes treating people the way that you wish to be treated means that you are going to take a boot in the ass and a poke in the eye.
I teach my children to be nice, kind and respectful of others because it is the right thing to do. I also teach them to be aware of when that sort of behavior is not received well. Because good, bad or indifferent there will come a time when others will try to take advantage of them.
And right now a terrorist organization of thugs and slugs is taking advantage of the good will and kindness of many people. Far too many people look at Hamas and praise them for the charitable work they do for their people. That is great. Yet it ignores the reality that they also exploit them.
They exploit them by hiding in hospitals and mosques. They exploit them by intentionally placing them in dangerous situations. They hope that there are civilian casualties so that they can play upon world sympathy. And that is simply wrong.
But the ideology that allows them to intentionally send the innocent into harm’s way is one that we cannot accept as being equal to others. We cannot provide a free pass. We cannot celebrate shared values and coo over how interesting their culture is. Because it celebrates death and that is just not equal to cultures that celebrate life.