Gabrielino Bomb Threat

A few years ago I would have laughed as our trip to Mexico was cancelled due to some “bomb threat”. Since then, in the states of TX, AZ, and NM, have been various incidents of protestors saying that we should have been there. Most recently this week the Mexican ambassador, Arturo Montoya, said “What’s up with those people down in Georgia? They told me they were holding a protest for peace.”

It is always nice to keep track of all these protests and this isn’t the only case I hear about. In Connecticut one couple tried to stop me from taking children to see Toto Overstreet, an overused animated cartoon series. While I don’t usually go into commercial cartoons, I do like the ones by Duckman and now The Quick Brown Fox…but not so much on Overstreet.

I recall that while we were on that trip there was a man whom we had followed and who had crossed the street to get to my car. When I pulled him aside he said he had “lost” one of his sons because of the 9-11 terror strikes on New York. And why wasn’t I informed of that? Also, his son had been in Vietnam, didn’t he understand that? After I had told him that his son was in the U.S. he protested again, saying that the 9-11 attacks were wrong, that we did not have the right to judge other people, that violence was evil, and that God is dead. I told him that I was sorry if he disagreed with me but I stood up for our troops, that our soldiers fought for their families, and for their constitutional rights. Then, after about 15 minutes, I asked him to leave because I did not think anything I said or did offended him. It looked like he had no answer. But perhaps he was offended by my question.

Part II: Peace

One of my core values is peace and I have always thought about this policy in most situations. One of the saddest realities in America today is the world wide array of poverty, violence, disease, and natural disasters which pollute our air, land, water, and soil. This problem is exacerbated by how we want to keep moving forward economically rather than to conserve, conserve, and conserve.