Last week, I was explaining a game to Tariq that I used to play as a child.
It’s called, “The Farmer in the Dell.”
If you grew up here in the States, you probably played it, too.
Children gather around in a circle and one child, the farmer, stands in the middle.
Then the children join hands and circle the farmer and sing.
The farmer in the dell, the farmer in the dell…
The farmer picks a wife…
The wife picks a child…
The child picks a nurse…
And it would go on and on, until just one child was left.
The cheese.
And all the kids who were now inside the circle stood and sang at that lone child standing outside, “The cheese stands alone.”
The cheese stands alone.
Tariq’s response was unabashed horror.
A strong realization hit me right then.
Man.
That was a stupid game.
Or… was it?
Libya is far away. Most of us don’t know much about what’s going on except that the word “war” is being thrown around in the guise of the word “intervention.”
Here are some great places to start (or even end):
What’s Happening In Libya Explained (with daily updates) via Mother Jones
Five Arguments Against Intervention via CNN Blogs
It Takes A Village to Support A Military Intervention via the Economist Blogs, Democracy in America
There’s lots more out there, but I’ve tried to make this as easy as possible for you. I even timed myself. It took me eight minutes to read all three of these articles. Okay, I scrolled through the very end of the Mother Jones one and stopped only when I saw something I thought was interesting.
You have eight minutes, right? The least we can do for the young Americans who may be sent to Libya, the people of Libya themselves and ourselves is read three tiny, little articles and give this just eight minutes of our time.
The conviction and rationale behind opinions are far less important to me than the fact that they exist in the first place. It’s not important to me, in other words, to express what I think, but to make you think.
Our president will also be addressing the nation at 7:30 p.m. tonight regarding this issue for those of you who would like to earn extra credit.
Feel free to post links, opinions stated in a respectful manner, or exasperated declarations of “All I want to do is graduate high school, go to Europe, marry Christian Slater and die… it may not sound great to a sconehead like you, but I think it’s swell” in the comments section
That last line? That was for you, Earl.
::sniffs::
@B.E. Earl, You got the quote, right? Where it’s from, right?
Good articles. Thanks for sharing them. I am rather torn on this issue. On the one hand I see the argument about how we “choose” the wars (or “interventions”) in which we engage. In general, I’m a pacifist who thinks that most matters of state should be decided by a chess match or a battle of wits with the world leaders themselves instead of armed combat. But nobody seems to ever want my opinion on things. At the same time, if we see people in peril, we are drawn to help. Sometimes it seems that you must fight fire with fire. The biggest question in all of this (reflected in one of the articles) is WHERE are we going in this endeavor? I think the last 8 years of our military’s involvement in foreign affairs has shown us that a lack of planning at the beginning leads to challenges down the road.
@Rachel, This is actually a nearly exact description of how I feel. Also, people should definitely take your opinions into consideration, you’re one of the most intelligent people I know.
Someone at my job said we should let all the good people who want to leave have a chance to exit Libya then we let whoever is left go at each other until only one man is standing. My response: if their homeland is destroyed where do all the people go to rebuild their lives? And what if it’s Qaddafi standing at the end?
I really wanted to ask her what she’d do if it was her homeland being devastated but it wasn’t an option.
@Poppy, I guess it’s easier to come up with solutions when you haven’t walked a mile in another person’s shoes, right?
“With all that fighting going on over there? I just don’t see why we don’t just turn that entire area into a big sheet of glass…”
… and so goes some of the rhetoric of some of my co-workers who feel like they supersede most of the world in knowledge of current events and world politics. I wish they knew that there are actual, live people affected. People with parents, children and friends. Some of whom live here in the States. If they knew this, may e they wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss them as simply the collateral damage of a volatile region.
@shiny, I suspect that if most people applied the perspective you mention here, the world would be a very different (and better) place. Um, not the sheet of glass perspective… the other one.
I understand why the US is getting involved, but how they are choosing to involve themselves, and not getting involved elsewhere where there are similar concerns, makes me uneasy about the ulterior motives that are not being made public.
Right now, to a nearby outsider, this feels like another “world police” situation.
@SciFi Dad, President Obama did address the issue of why we weren’t getting involved, although VERY peripherally… http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/28/obama-libya-speech-_n_841311.html?ref=tw
Qaddafi, Castro and Ortega are buddies. It’s like the 3 Stooges, without any of the funny.
@Sybil Law,I don’t know, like Mike said on the show, those outfits are pretty funny…
how the heck did YOU know that earl has been LUSTING after Christian Slater ever since HEATHERS?????
@Slyde, My question is … what is wrong with THAT? He’s clearly a man of discerning taste.
I prefer my head stuck firmly in the sand, thank you very much.
@Avitable, Well… just make sure it’s not Libyan sand.
8 minutes? 8 minutes?
Seriously. I could be watching Kirstie Alley on Dancing with the Stars.
My husband is now puffing his chest because he doesn’t have a vote for Obama on his conscience.
I’m with Matt Damon on this.
@Kate, What does Matt Damon say?
That took me a lot longer than 8 minutes and didn’t clearly tell me what to think! Refund!!
Didn’t I see a preview for some new spy show with Christian Slater?
@Ren, Hey, not my fault you read faster. Getting a refund from an ASIAN is up there with climbing Everest in terms of do-ability.