Tuesday, August 15, 2006

The Glory Road

. : Politics : .

I watched a pretty good movie the other night and it got me thinking on a lot of things. I saw Glory Road by Disney. It is a story about the first NCAA basketball team that actively used African-American players in the 60s. One of the things that seemed very foreign to me was the racial hatred portrayed in the movie. The bad looks, the vicious words, the beatings, the KKK blood threats. It all seemed like something out of a horror movie to me. I couldn't help but think how far we have come since that time. I am sure that there are racial problems today, and I see them. But the widespread hate and violence just is not there anymore.

Now several of you are wondering where I am going with this and so here I go...

Let me first apologize in advance to anyone offended by these statements. I am not in any of these situations, but I can see parallels.

The recent struggle in the Middle East between Hezbollah and Israel have really brought to the surface deep rooted hatred. I see people cheering death, I see countrywide struggles over seemingly small things, and I see many many people blinded by their prejudice on both sides of the argument. Many people ask today for Peace in the Middle East, but almost every single one asks with a sly grin of sarcasm. When I was watching Glory Road, I saw an ugly past, but I also saw a better present. I saw a bad situation that I don't think anyone thought would change, but that has changed for the better. So I offer this positive trend as an example of hope to those who think that there will always be constant bickering and war in Holy Land.

Let me know if you don't see these as slight parallels and I will reconsider, but the situations have many of the same undertones.

6 comments:

Shadan said...

Nice Blog...

III said...

Ditto. Great observation, Jordan.

I've even noticed Christians who are blatantly prejudiced against Middle Easterners. When I was flying a month ago, I said to a friend, "Boy, I feel sorry for an American who is Middle Eastern-looking who has to fly. Must be an awful experience." And he responded back with some hateful, searing response against Middle-Easterners.

Mad Rappin EW said...

I'm not sure I agree w/ that. I think there are things in this world to have hope in such as God, beating Philip in fantasy baseball, the Cubs winning the world series before I die, I just don't really have any hope that they will stop fighting in the mideast unless one of them leaves. I'm sure racism has been around forever but my guess is that the hangings and things of that nature of the KKK and similar groups probably only lasted one or two hundred years whereas the fighting over the Holy Land has taken place ever since both deemed it Holy 1500 years ago. So I guess I'm not holding my breath... that's why I think we should just leave them all to themselves and let them handle it because nothing we do is ever going to stop the fighting in the long run.

Mad Rappin EW said...

It's been two weeks. Are you all blogged out?

III said...

Yeah, dog. Suck it up & get back in the saddle. I did today. Check out my Saturday edition & your eyes will be opened as to why the Euro's dominate our sorry rear-ends for 3 days every 2 years at the Ryder Cup.

David Johnson said...

Where you at, yo?

Aight, here's my take on the situation in the Middle East. One group, the Israelis, is (at least somewhat) amenable to reason, the possibility of reconciliation, healing, and the like. One group, the Palestinians (and to be blunt about it, Muslims in general) cannot for religious reasons allow Israel to exist--they can never have peace with Israel while Israel is there. I'm not trying to be "racist" or anything about this. I'll explain why I think these things.

The Koran basically teaches that once an area has come under the rule of the faithful, it cannot be allowed to fall back into the hands of the infidels--a majority of the people who live there may be infidels, but the land must be ruled by Muslims. I believe it says something like "the land cries out for Godly rulership." So they can never back down and be faithful.