#“I took 600 men to war and not one of them died there shut the fuCK UP

[a-terrible-sound]

“I still believe in goodness/ I still believe that we could be kind”

yea odysseus? that’s what we’re feeling? I think we’ve kinda given up on being kind after throwing a literal baby off a PALACE WALL

[duhragonball]

Hellsing Liveblog Ch. 2-3

Chapter 2 is a flashback to the origin of Sir Integra Hellsing.   As established in Chapter 1, the Hellsing Organization is a secret anti-Halloween-monster task force.   From what I’ve been able to tell, they have a small army of guys and they all live and train in a big mansion, and the Hellsing family runs the whole show.   It’s sort of like the X-Men except they actually do cool shit and you only have to keep track of four or five characters.   

It’s implied throughout this manga that the Hellsing Family is descended from Abraham Van Helsing, the vampire hunter seen in Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula.    Shoot, I just remembered I wanted to read the novel so I’d know what this manga was referencing, but it’s too late, I’ll just have to do that later.   I’ve been meaning to read the Great Gatsby for several years, too, and I just never get around to it.   

On the other hand, Integra claimed that her family had been at this since “ancient times”, suggesting that they predate the events of the Dracula novel.  If Abraham Van Helsing was part of their line, then he may have only been carrying on a tradition instead of founding a new one.   I think the conceit of Hellsing is that it regards the Dracula novel as part of its canon.   That is, in this fictional world, the events in the novel really happened, more or less.    I don’t know if that means the novel exists in this world or not.

Whatever the case, it was Arthur Hellsing running the organization up until 1989, when he suddenly took ill.   On his deathbed, he named his daughter as his successor, and asked his brother Richard to help her run things, since Integra was like, twelve, at the time.

Instead, Richard waited three days and staged a coup, forcing Li’l Integra to hide in the ventilation ducts.   He has to act quickly, and kill her before the whole staff finds out what he’s up to, but if he can kill her, he’ll assume control and be set for life.    I’m not really sure what Richard wants out of this.    Maybe he just really wants to run the family business, or maybe he wants to shut the whole thing down and just be a wealthy nobleman without all the monsters.   Anyway, the search for Integra leads to the “underground sector”, which hasn’t been used in over twenty years, so I guess 1969 is about when it was shut down?    It houses a dark arts lab, a library, speciment room, torture chamber, dissecting room, and a dungeon.   That last one tips Richard off, because before he died, Arthur told her that she could find something that would protect her.  

But all she finds inside is a corpse, and then Richard and his goons show up shortly after.   He plans to kill her slowly to punish her for wasting his time, but when he shoots he in the arm, some of the blood splashes on the corpse, and then it comes to life.

Just like Frosty the Snowman, only horrifying.   Richard tries to kill it, which seems pretty stupid, considering how they thought it was dead a minute ago.   That goes about as well as you’d expect, and after slaughtering the goons and taking Richard’s arm, the corpse kneels before Integra and addresses her as “Master.”

Richard apparently knew nothing of this, but the corpse seems to recognize him, at least as far as a Hellsing who’s not fit to head the family.  As Integra shoots Richard dead, the corpse introduces himself as Alucard, the name her family has always called him.  

One thing I find interesting here is that I could have sworn the Hellsing Ultimate anime established that Richard had poisoned Arthur, presumably thinking he would have a clear shot at the inheritance.   But it’s never mentioned here.   Maybe this was something they added in, because honestly, it just makes too much sense.  The implication of this flashback is that there are certain secrets in the Hellsing Family that only got passed down from parent to child.    Arthur and Richard’s father must have known about Alucard, and Arthur was likely the one who sealed him up in the basement in the first place, but neither of them said a word about him to Richard.   Maybe if they had, Richard might have thought twice before trying to take over.   Like the Cheddar Priest, he thought he had it all figured out, but he didn’t know what he didn’t know.

Back in the present day, Alucard is on the shooting range with Seras, teaching her how to shoot.   Seras already knows how to fire a gun, but Al wants her to hit targets at greater distances, using The Force a vampiric “third eye.”   He demonstrates by shooting a target one kilometer away, and hitting it perfectly.   For some reason, Integra is reading the paper nearby, and reminiscing about the her first meeting with Alucard ten years ago.   For some reason, she takes umbrage with the idea that she’s not still a “little girl” like she was back then.   Seras even ribs her a bit, which ticks Integra off.   Of course, Seras wouldn’t think Integra’s a “little girl”.   Integra’s a few years older than she is.  

The main point of all of this is that it establishes why Alucard works for Integra, and what they did with Seras after Alucard turned her into a vampire.   One way or another, Seras is just drafted to fight the Vampire Wars, or whatever they call it.   I find this kind of unsatisfying, because the anime didn’t expand on it either.   Seras just wakes up in the mansion, and Integra tosses her a uniform and says “Get dressed, kid, your shift starts in twenty minutes.”

I think Seras wants to work for the Hellsing Organization, partly because she has nowhere else to go, and partly because she admires Alucard and wants to join his cause.    But it’s never established that Seras has a choice in the matter.  It’s implied that Alucard is magically bound to the Hellsing family.    Integra called him “the research” that her “father and the others were doing.”  Like, you can’t just have a vampire work for you, you have to do stuff to him to make him obey.   I don’t think they’re mind-controlling Al per se.  He seems fully aware of what his role is, and he’s totally comfortable in it.   But he’s not just doing this voluntarily, either.    Integra has some sort of power over him, and my assumption is that Seras inherited that same quality when Alucard turned her.   So now she’s bound to Integra’s orders in the same way.  

But there’s a lot of unanswered questions in this.    I would think Alucard would be expressly forbidden from making his own ghouls or vampire broods.   Yet he drank Seras’ blood without any problems.  Maybe he’s allowed to do it if he has permission?    That might be it.    But then he brings her back to Integra, and I assume she has to make the decision to either keep Seras or destroy her.   I mean, Seras is handy to have on the team, sure, but if this was a good idea, why didn’t they have Alucard do this before?   I guess the situation just never came up.  

I think a lot about what might have happened if the Cheddar Priest had turned her into a vampire.    Would she have become loyal to him?  He said she would have free will, but she’s pretty deferential to Alucard, so what’s that about?   And if she had become a vampire and turned against the Priest, would Al have allowed her to live?   He was on a mission to destroy vampires, so I would think he would have shot first and asked questions later.    Well, let’s move on.

Chapter 3 jumps ahead to August 12, so Seras has been with the team for a little over a month now.   A bunch of murders have taken place in Birmingham (England, not Alabama), and this time no one waits around to call in Hellsing, though they are still surprised to find out she’s a woman.     

This time, the culprit is on the move, and Integra deduces that they’re choosing specific households full of “devout Christians” and spacious walls to write “blasphemous anti-Christian messages.”   Since they’re moving along Route 17, Integra has a rough idea of where they’ll strike next.  

I don’t know what the point of the “blasphemous messages” or seemingly ritual killings is supposed to be, since the killers are just this young vampire couple who only seem to be interested in this for immortality and power.   Their goal seems to be to kill thirteen families, and “they’ll” see to it that they get stronger.   I don’t know if this means some other party has put them up to this, or maybe they mean “they” as in all the families they’re killing.   It’s like this is an initiation ritual or something, except we’ve already seen Seras become a vampire, and she didn’t have to do anything like this to seal the deal. 

Then again, maybe the point of this chapter is to demonstrate that vampires take a while to get all their powers.  When Alucard confronts them, he scolds them, not for their string of murders, but for their lack of conviction, and their inability to transform or fight without guns.     So maybe this couple was trying to jumpstart the process by feeding on several dozen people in a short span of time.    But Al seems to think that isn’t how it works.    I don’t fully understand his moral code, but he doesn’t seem to object to vampires on principle.   Being a vampire is fine with him, so long as you have a purpose to it.   If you’re only in it for immortality and power, with no other reason, then he doesn’t respect you.   Seras wanted to live, but not necessarily forever, and I think she wanted power, but only enough to fight against evil.   That’s what sets her apart in Alucard’s eyes. 

So he kills the boy, but the girl escapes out the window, but Alucard already had that move scouted.

I’m not sure who’s saying “No!” here.   Maybe the girl vampire running down the road.   Anyway, Alucard put Seras on the roof of the house before he went inside, just in case anyone tried to make a break for it.   So all she has to do is shoot down the runner before she’s out of range.  Except she’s 600 meters away, it’s night time, and Seras doesn’t have a scope for her gun.   But Al reminds her to use her “third eye” and it works.  

After it’s over, Seras realizes that she didn’t even feel the recoil of the gun, and she can see in the dark with no trouble at all.   She wonders what’s happening to her, but that seems like a dumb question to ask one month after turning into a vampire.    I’m guessing the first few weeks of it didn’t feel all that different to her, and she probably knew she’d get stronger and better at shooting guns, but now that it’s actually happening it feels a lot stranger than she expected it to be.   In the anime, Seras also points out that she can hear Alucard talking to her in her mind, which is also weird, but I guess she’s got plenty of other weird stuff to process now.

Back at the base, Integra considers the recent increase in vampire attacks.   They’re all jobbers, like this couple Al and Seras killed, and none of them have any particular agenda, except to kill people.    She begins to wonder if someone’s making all these vampires just to cause trouble.  Hmmm...

So, I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself here, but this foreshadows Milennium quite nicely, but are we saying Milennium made vampires out of that boy and girl?   Were they behind the Cheddar Priest as well?  Also, “two” doesn’t seem like a huge increase in vampire incidents, so I guess there have been some other vampires running around between Chapters 1 and 3.   Oh well. 

[aethelfleds]

genuine q: what’s the salt against Edward I?

Well, the conquest of Wales kinda sucked. To be fair, Wales was being settled bit by bit since Norman times, but Edward kicked the colonization into high gear. There was opposition and rebellion, namely Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales, whose death in battle against the English helped Edward consolidate his power over the Welsh. He shut Llywelyn’s infant daughter up in a nunnery for the rest of her life and took over Wales. His son (the future Edward II) was born at Caernarfon and was made Prince of Wales, which was a bit of a slap in the face. A lot of castles still stand as his (and a few other rulers’) imperial footprint on Wales.

The persecution of Jews during Edward’s reign was horrific. It wasn’t unheard of in medieval England for Jewish communities to be expelled or worse, so I’m not treating him as a total outlier but it’s…a lot. In 1275, he decreed in the Statutum de Judaismo that Jews were forbidden to lend money on usury. They were, however, permitted to craft and sell goods, as well as to farm. Yet they were also forbidden the full rights of land ownership. How could they make a living without land, guild membership, or items to sell? They couldn’t, even though Edward’s decrees made it appear as though they could. Many Jewish people were forced to resort to coin clipping because of this, which was a treasonable offense. Of course, once this happened Edward just had no other option than to imprison them in the Tower of London. I’ve seen the number 600 mentioned, but it’s certainly a large number. AT LEAST 293 London Jews were executed in 1278. How many were left to waste away in the Tower??? Then in 1290, Edward’s Edict of Expulsion demanded that all Jews be expelled from England and English territories. They did not formally return until 1655. There was also a lot of persecution during Henry III’s reign and before, but the events of Edward’s reign certainly had a lasting effect.

And now…Scotland. I’m not going to lie, I can get pretty confused reading about the Great Cause, but I know Edward should’ve just sat there and ate his food. He was really just out to rule all of Britain. I don’t think there was a really coherent history of English overlordship in Scotland, despite Edward wanting to make it so. He was invited to administer during the Great Cause, but not to directly intervene in the actual process of selecting a new king, and certainly not to make himself feudal overlord of all of Scotland. But what did he do? All of that. Honestly, he would’ve fit in great with turn of the century American imperialists. Edward had power over Scotland while the debate continued, but eventually John Balliol was chosen as the new king. Edward immediately relinquished his power and courteously stepped aside for the new king of Scotland. Did you believe that? I hope not, because it’s a lie and the exact opposite of what happened. Despite his promises, Edward refused to loosen his grip on power and tried to use Scotland in his war against France. Scotland then allied with France instead and in response, Edward finally dropped all pretenses and invaded. There was so much bloodshed leading up to England crushing the Scottish rebellion (“Hammer of the Scots” my ass tho). The then king of Scotland, Robert the Bruce, was forced to flee. Edward was able to capture Robert’s wife, daughter, and other female relations. All men with them were brutally killed. Edward then had Robert’s sister Mary and Isabella, Countess of Buchan, suspended from the walls of Roxburgh and Berwick Castles in cages. As for Robert’s 9 year old daughter Marjorie, she was intended for a cage at the Tower of London. But it seems that either he just changed his mind or someone was like “she is…nine years old” so he just had her confined in a convent for 8 years instead!  Anyways, after Edward died the Scots bounced back and beat the English at the Battle of Bannockburn. But the years of violence and extreme trauma caused by this one man who sought to subjugate the whole of Britain???  

[writingfromkitchenator]

Eomer ~ A Thousand Years

A Thousand Years by Christine Perri

600 Followers Song Request Challenge!

Requested by Anon.

From a young age, Eomer got used to hearing that he had an old soul; that the way he handled himself was well beyond his years and experience.  It wasn't something that bothered him, the truth was, he thought little of it, but when ridiculous stories got thrown in too, that was when we would adamantly deny such a thing.

People would talk how he would share war tactics from old generals, which he put down to actually paying attention in history.

Then they'd talk about the way he rode, how it was so similar to that of his grandfather and his father before him.  Eomer disliked this one as the answer to him was obvious, his grandfather was the one that started his lessons on horse back riding.

But far though, the worst in his opinion, was that there was going to be someone special set out for him, that he was such an old soul, that it would be unlikely for him to not to already have a partner.

He couldn't understand how people could think like that and he was quick to shut down anyone that did.

It almost seemed too soon in his life that war was on the doorstep and he found himself on the front lines, helping prepare the men and keep his family safe.

Being banished was a kick in the teeth.

Many followed him and Eomer was quick to lead them around the lands, still protecting the people, still caring for his home, and there quickly became whispered rumours as no young general should be handling it as well as he.

This was his goal, his focus, until he met you.

He initially hadn’t thought much of the four of you traveling through the lands, had actually thought you spies of the enemy until Aragorn had taken control of the situation, introducing them and their purpose.

Eomer stared at you, the calmest of the four, but a warrior nonetheless.  You held yourself easily, ready at a moment’s notice to draw the knives from your belt or the bow from your back.  If you hadn’t been an elf, he’d almost swear that he’d met you before, an odd sparkle behind your eyes as your eyes met.

He quickly shook it off, both of you having tasks to attend to, but he couldn’t deny that you were a near constant thought in the back of his mind until you met again after the battle of Helms Deep.

He’d heard talking before he saw anyone as he patrolled, most of who were left, sleeping. Something about the voice drew him and he was quick to round a corner, stopping dead as he saw you.

You were talking softly to a child who was crying, gently stroking her hair as she trembled next to you, one of her hands wrapped tightly around yours.

Seeming to pick up that you were being watched, you looked up and met gaze, casting a smile and nodding him over.

Eomer hesitates, but joins you.

“She has been sleep walking,” You said softly.  “And cannot remember where her mother was sleeping.”

Eomer crouches in front of the child, giving a kind smile as she sniffles looks up at him, rubbing her eyes. “It’s Clara, right?”

She nods.

“Come, I think I saw where your mother was earlier.”  He held out his arms and Clara instantly moved to him, allowing him to scoop her up, where she rests against his shoulder and looks at you.

“Thank you.”  She said in a small voice.

You smiled at her and stood. “It is alright little one.  Let’s get you back, okay?”

Eomer glances at you and you look at him, gesturing to lead the way.  He was glad it was dark as he felt his face flush and led you around until he found where he was looking for.

Clara squirms in his arms and he puts her down, instantly running over to where her mother was still sleeping.  She waves back at them before quickly curling up into her mother’s side, her mother’s arms wrapping around her.

You give a thoughtful, but sorrowful hum.  “Well, at least something good has come from today.”

Eomer nods.  “Thank you for looking after her.”

You smiled at him. “I’m glad you came along when you did, I was starting to get worried that I would have to leave her alone to find someone because she wouldn’t come with me.  I guess all it took was a little familiarity.”

“Well, she is safe now, that is what matters.”

You follow him out of the room and he was surprised how easily your step fit in with his as you continued walking.

“I must apologise, given all the chaos and hurry, I don’t remember your name.”  You said.

Eomer looks at you, something telling him you knew perfectly well, but he gives a slight bow.  “I am Eomer, my lady.”

You return the gesture. “Y/N of Lothlorien, Lord Eomer. It a pleasure to be able to speak on equal terms.”

He gives a smile. “Just Eomer is fine.  You have helped defend my people, I think that puts us on equal terms.”

The smile you gave him made his heart ache, and he’d had to quickly take his leave for fear of embarrassing himself.  You were so, undoubtedly, familiar too him, and now he wasn’t sure what to do about it.

He seemed to know when you were around, his gaze drawn to you, which would inevitably catch your eye and make you smile.  Eowyn found it most amusing, but he was quick to silence her whenever she broke into giggles when she saw him do it.

He kept telling himself that this was not the time.

And yet, after waking from a vivid nightmare, one where he saw you die, and he was in an awful cold sweat, he knew that something would have to be done.

Silently, he padded around the Golden Hall, needing little need of light as he knew these walls well. Only in pants and an undershirt, he felt light, and yet, he felt still as if he was carrying a heavy burden with him.

He was surprised to find Aragorn awake in the hall and he was quick to catch his eye.

“Have you seen Lady Y/N?”

Aragorn pierces him with a gaze that told him he knew what was going on, that he understood, the small smile almost confirming it, but Eomer didn’t have time to wonder, he wanted to see you.  “Out in the stables, it seemed, like you, she could not sleep.”

Eomer gives his thanks and quickly heads outside, the night air cool and clear.

A haunting tune was coming from the stables and Eomer’s steps slowed as he got closer, carefully peering in, unsure of what he expected and what he was going to say.

You sat at the back of the stables in a small pool of light, playing the tune on a small flute, your eyes closed as you concentrated.  The horses around you were all unfased by your presence, in fact, if Eomer wasn’t mistaken, they seemed just as taken with the song as he was.

Eomer watched you, enraptured, watching your fingers work, the way you never missed a note, the way the music just seemed to flow from you, telling a tale that Eomer wanted to know the end of.

The tune trailed off and Eomer was surprised to find you looking straight at him, a smile ready as you put the flute down and pat the ground next to you.

He doesn’t hesitate, sitting next to you.  “I did not mean to interrupt.”

“You didn’t.”  You said quietly, tucking the flute away.  “I was simply passing the time.”

“It was a beautiful song.” He said.  “Where did you learn it?”

“Someone taught it to me, long ago.”  You stretched your legs out, wincing a little as you’d been seated so long.  “It’s something that I play often, a lot of people find it calming.” You smile.  “Clearly the horses do to.”

“You play them any bit of music and they drift off.”  Eomer said with a smile.  “It’s entertaining for something that is meant to be so fierce in battle.”

Your gaze was on him again and Eomer found himself holding your gaze, even as you give a slight head tilt. “Why are you out here Eomer?”

He cleared his throat and broke away, hands fidgeting together buried in his lap.  “Truthfully, I do not really know.  I am usually not one to put much credit on dreams, but, well…this one scared me.”

There was no judgement in your gaze and without really thinking, he told you of it, of what happened to you and how it made him feel.  Before long, he’d found your hand in his, your thumb brushing over his knuckles, soothing him, more than what your words could have.

He finished his story and found himself looking into your eyes again, wondering why he was so comfortable.

“Eomer,” You said quietly. “Do you mind if I tell you something?”

“Of course not.”

For a moment, you hesitated, looking away, and Eomer braced himself, not sure of what was about to come his way.

Your eyes are a shining a little as you look back at him.  “A long time ago, I fell in love with a man who swore his heart to me,” Eomer’s heart sank, but he doesn’t move and doesn’t let it show.  “Much like this, it was a time of war and he was hurried away to battle, back then, I could not join him as I would now.”

You give a soft sigh and break away from his gaze.  “He died out there, never to return to me, all except for a letter, swearing he would return.”  You stared at the light in front of you, distant for a moment before you returned to his gaze.  “I was…unsure, at first, when I saw you, but there is something about you that speaks to me, much like his own spirit once did.”

Reaching up, you brushed his cheek.  “And while I cannot say that you are the same, I find myself wanting to move on, after all this time.”

Eomer closes his eyes, losing himself in your touch.  “I have always been told that I have an old soul.”

You smile, shifting a little closer.  “You do, but it is unburdened by what it’s seen.  It has simply made you kinder and more loyal to those you love and care for.”

He takes your hand in his, pressing a kiss to your palm as he keeps it on his cheek.  “Y/N…what does this mean for us?”

“Time has brought your heart to me,” You said softly, leaning close.  “I have loved you for a thousand years, I’ll love you for a thousand more.  No matter what.”

Eomer closes the distance between the two of you, pressing his lips to yours, suddenly not caring about anything else, your words feeling right, your touch soothing away any worries and pain, and a silent promise hung in the air around the two of you, one that he was more than willing to keep, no matter what happened.

[magenpeters]

To my dearest daughter

Now that you are ten, I want to write to you about something that is important to me. Have you ever wondered how we know the things that we know? How do we know, for instance, that the stars, which look like tiny pinpricks in the sky, are really huge balls of fire like the Sun and very far away? And how do we know that the Earth is a smaller ball whirling round one of those stars, the Sun? The answer to these questions is 'evidence'.

Sometimes evidence means actually seeing (or hearing, feeling, smelling….) that something is true. Astronauts have traveled far enough from the Earth to see with their own eyes that it is round. Sometimes our eyes need help. The 'evening star' looks like a bright twinkle in the sky but with a telescope you can see that it is a beautiful ball – the planet we call Venus. Something that you learn by direct seeing (or hearing or feeling…) is called an observation.

Often evidence isn't just observation on its own, but observation always lies at the back of it. If there's been a murder, often nobody (except the murderer and the dead person!) actually observed it. But detectives can gather together lots of other observations which may all point towards a particular suspect. If a person's fingerprints match those found on a dagger, this is evidence that he touched it. It doesn't prove that he did the murder, but it can help when it's joined up with lots of other evidence. Sometimes a detective can think about a whole lot of observations and suddenly realize that they all fall into place and make sense if so-and-so did the murder.

Scientists – the specialists in discovering what is true about the world and the universe – often work like detectives. They make a guess (called a hypothesis) about what might be true. They then say to themselves: if that were really true, we ought to see so-and-so. This is called a prediction. For example, if the world is really round, we can predict that a traveler, going on and on in the same direction, should eventually find himself back where he started. When a doctor says that you have measles he doesn't take one look at you and see measles. His first look gives him a hypothesis that you may have measles. Then he says to himself: if she really has measles, I ought to see… Then he runs through his list of predictions and tests them with his eyes (have you got spots?), his hands (is your forehead hot?), and his ears (does your chest wheeze in a measly way?). Only then does he make his decision and say, 'I diagnose that the child has measles.' Sometimes doctors need to do other tests like blood tests or X-rays, which help their eyes, hands and ears to make observations.

The way scientists use evidence to learn about the world is much cleverer and more complicated than I can say in a short letter. But now I want to move on from evidence, which is a good reason for believing something, and warn you against three bad reasons for believing anything. They are called 'tradition', 'authority', and 'revelation'.

First, tradition. A few months ago, I went on television to have a discussion with about 50 children. These children were invited because they'd been brought up in lots of different religions. Some had been brought up as Christians, others as Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs. The man with the microphone went from child to child, asking them what they believed. What they said shows up exactly what I mean by 'tradition'. Their beliefs turned out to have no connection with evidence. They just trotted out the beliefs of their parents and grandparents, which, in turn, were not based upon evidence either. They said things like, 'We Hindus believe so and so.' 'We Muslims believe such and such.' 'We Christians believe something else.' Of course, since they all believed different things, they couldn't all be right. The man with the microphone seemed to think this quite proper, and he didn't even try to get them to argue out their differences with each other. But that isn't the point I want to make. I simply want to ask where their beliefs came from. They came from tradition. Tradition means beliefs handed down from grandparent to parent to child, and so on. Or from books handed down through the centuries. Traditional beliefs often start from almost nothing; perhaps somebody just makes them up originally, like the stories about Thor and Zeus. But after they've been handed down over some centuries, the mere fact that they are so old makes them seem special. People believe things simply because people have believed the same thing over centuries. That's tradition.

The trouble with tradition is that, no matter how long ago a story was made up, it is still exactly as true or untrue as the original story was. If you make up a story that isn't true, handing it down over any number of centuries doesn't make it any truer!

Most people in England have been baptized into the Church of England, but this is only one of many branches of the Christian religion. There are other branches such as the Russian Orthodox, the Roman Catholic and the Methodist churches. They all believe different things. The Jewish religion and the Muslim religion are a bit more different still; and there are different kinds of Jews and of Muslims. People who believe even slightly different things from each other often go to war over their disagreements. So you might think that they must have some pretty good reasons – evidence – for believing what they believe. But actually their different beliefs are entirely due to different traditions.

Let's talk about one particular tradition. Roman Catholics believe that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was so special that she didn't die but was lifted bodily into Heaven. Other Christian traditions disagree, saying that Mary did die like anybody else. These other religions don't talk about her much and, unlike Roman Catholics, they don't call her the 'Queen of Heaven'. The tradition that Mary's body was lifted into Heaven is not a very old one. The Bible says nothing about how or when she died; in fact the poor woman is scarcely mentioned in the Bible at all. The belief that her body was lifted into Heaven wasn't invented until about six centuries after Jesus's time. At first it was just made up, in the same way as any story like Snow White was made up. But, over the centuries, it grew into a tradition and people started to take it seriously simply because the story had been handed down over so many generations. The older the tradition became, the more people took it seriously. It finally was written down as an official Roman Catholic belief only very recently, in 1950. But the story was no more true in 1950 than it was when it was first invented 600 years after Mary's death.

I'll come back to tradition at the end of my letter, and look at it in another way. But first I must deal with the two other bad reasons for believing in anything: authority and revelation.

Authority, as a reason for believing something, means believing it because you are told to believe it by somebody important. In the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope is the most important person, and people believe he must be right just because he is the Pope. In one branch of the Muslim religion, the important people are old men with beards called Ayatollahs. Lots of young Muslims are prepared to commit murder, purely because the Ayatollahs in a faraway country tell them to.

When I say that it was only in 1950 that Roman Catholics were finally told that they had to believe that Mary's body shot off to Heaven, what I mean is that in 1950 the Pope told people that they had to believe it. That was it. The Pope said it was true, so it had to be true! Now, probably some of the things that Pope said in his life were true and some were not true. There is no good reason why, just because he was the Pope, you should believe everything he said, any more than you believe everything that lots of other people say. The present Pope has ordered his followers not to limit the number of babies they have. If people follow his authority as slavishly as he would wish, the results could be terrible famines, diseases and wars, caused by overcrowding.

Of course, even in science, sometimes we haven't seen the evidence ourselves and we have to take somebody else's word for it. I haven't with my own eyes, seen the evidence that light travels at a speed of 186,000 miles per second. Instead, I believe books that tell me the speed of light. This looks like 'authority'. But actually it is much better than authority because the people who wrote the books have seen the evidence and anyone is free to look carefully at the evidence whenever they want. That is very comforting. But not even the priests claim that there is any evidence for their story about Mary's body zooming off to Heaven.

The third kind of bad reason for believing anything is called 'revelation'. If you had asked the Pope in 1950 how he knew that Mary's body disappeared into Heaven, he would probably have said that it had been 'revealed' to him. He shut himself in his room and prayed for guidance. He thought and thought, all by himself, and he became more and more sure inside himself. When religious people just have a feeling inside themselves that something must be true, even though there is no evidence that it is true, they call their feeling 'revelation'. It isn't only popes who claim to have revelations. Lots of religious people do. It is one of their main reasons for believing the things that they do believe. But is it a good reason?

Suppose I told you that your dog was dead. You'd be very upset, and you'd probably say, 'Are you sure? How do you know? How did it happen?' Now suppose I answered: 'I don't actually know that Pepe is dead. I have no evidence. I just have this funny feeling deep inside me that he is dead.' You'd be pretty cross with me for scaring you, because you'd know that an inside 'feeling' on its own is not a good reason for believing that a whippet is dead. You need evidence. We all have inside feelings from time to time, and sometimes they turn out to be right and sometimes they don't. Anyway, different people have opposite feelings, so how are we to decide whose feeling is right? The only way to be sure that a dog is dead is to see him dead, or hear that his heart has stopped; or be told by somebody who has seen or heard some real evidence that he is dead.

People sometimes say that you must believe in feelings deep inside, otherwise you'd never be confident of things like 'My wife loves me'. But this is a bad argument. There can be plenty of evidence that somebody loves you. All through the day when you are with somebody who loves you, you see and hear lots of little tidbits of evidence, and they all add up. It isn't purely inside feeling, like the feeling that priests call revelation. There are outside things to back up the inside feeling: looks in the eye, tender notes in the voice, little favors and kindnesses; this is all real evidence.

Sometimes people have a strong inside feeling that somebody loves them when it is not based upon any evidence, and then they are likely to be completely wrong. There are people with a strong inside feeling that a famous film star loves them, when really the film star hasn't even met them. People like that are ill in their minds. Inside feelings must be backed up by evidence, otherwise you just can't trust them.

Inside feelings are valuable in science too, but only for giving you ideas that you later test by looking for evidence. A scientist can have a 'hunch' about an idea that just 'feels' right. In itself, this is not a good reason for believing something. But it can be a good reason for spending some time doing a particular experiment, or looking in a particular way for evidence. Scientists use inside feelings all the time to get ideas. But they are not worth anything until they are supported by evidence.

I promised that I'd come back to tradition, and look at it in another way. I want to try to explain why tradition is so important to us. All animals are built (by the process called evolution) to survive in the normal place in which their kind live. Lions are built to be good at surviving on the plains of Africa. Crayfish are built to be good at surviving in fresh water, while lobsters are built to be good at surviving in the salt sea. People are animals too, and we are built to be good at surviving in a world full of … other people. Most of us don't hunt for our own food like lions or lobsters, we buy it from other people who have bought it from yet other people. We 'swim' through a 'sea of people'. Just as a fish needs gills to survive in water, people need brains that make them able to deal with other people. Just as the sea is full of salt water, the sea of people is full of difficult things to learn. Like language.

You speak English but your friend speaks German. You each speak the language that fits you to 'swim about' in your own separate 'people sea'. Language is passed down by tradition. There is no other way. In England, Pepe is a dog. In Germany he is ein Hund. Neither of these words is more correct, or more truer than the other. Both are simply handed down. In order to be good at 'swimming about in their people sea', children have to learn the language of their own country, and lots of other things about their own people; and this means that they have to absorb, like blotting paper, an enormous amount of traditional information. (Remember that traditional information just means things that are handed down from grandparents to parents to children.) The child's brain has to be a sucker for traditional information. And the child can't be expected to sort out good and useful traditional information, like the words of a language, from bad or silly traditional information, like believing in witches and devils and ever-living virgins.

It's a pity, but it can't help being the case, that because children have to be suckers for traditional information, they are likely to believe anything the grown-ups tell them, whether true or false, right or wrong. Lots of what grown-ups tell them is true and based on evidence or at least sensible. But if some of it is false, silly or even wicked, there is nothing to stop the children believing that too. Now, when the children grow up, what do they do? Well, of course, they tell it to the next generation of children. So, once something gets itself strongly believed – even if its completely untrue and there never was any reason to believe it in the first place – it can go on forever. Could this be what happened with religions? Belief that there is a god or gods, belief in Heaven, belief that Mary never died, belief that Jesus never had a human father, belief that prayers are answered, belief that wine turns into blood – not one of these beliefs is backed up by any good evidence. Yet millions of people believe them. Perhaps this is because they were told to believe them when they were young enough to believe anything.

Millions of other people believe quite different things, because they were told different things when they were children. Muslim children are told different things from Christian children, and both grow up utterly convinced that they are right and the others are wrong. Even within Christians, Roman Catholics believe different things from Church of England people or Episcopalians, Shakers or Quakers, Mormons or Holy Rollers, and all are utterly convinced that they are right and the others are wrong. They believe different things for exactly the same kind of reason as you speak English and someone speaks German.

Both languages are, in their own country, the right language to speak. But it can't be true that different religions are right in their own countries, because different religions claim that opposite things are true. Mary can't be alive in the Catholic Republic but dead in Protestant Northern Ireland.

What can we do about all this? It is not easy for you to do anything, because you are only ten. But you could try this. Next time somebody tells you something that sounds important, think to yourself: 'Is this the kind of thing that people probably know because of evidence? Or is it the kind of thing that people only believe because of tradition, authority or revelation?' And, next time somebody tells you that something is true, why not say to them: 'What kind of evidence is there for that?' And if they can't give you a good answer, I hope you'll think very carefully before you believe a word they say.

[biofunmy]

The Sudanese Graffiti Artist Assil Diab Is Bringing #BlueForSudan To The Streets

Andrew Renneisen for BuzzFeed News

KHARTOUM, Sudan — Peering out of a tinted window from the backseat of the car as it crawled down an empty side street, the young graffiti artist’s eyes darted back and forth. She had to be sure the authorities weren’t already following her, that she would have enough time to jump out and paint the wall she’d chosen, and be back in the car before anyone alerted the armed soldiers stationed on every other corner. It’s a high-wire act.

But Assil Diab isn’t easily deterred. The 30-year-old street artist has a message she wants to get out. Diab’s graffiti, along with the work of several other local artists, has been screaming from walls and telephone poles all over the Sudanese capital of Khartoum for months now, ever since demonstrators staged a sit-in demanding civilian rule after the military ousted former president Omar al-Bashir.

When Diab took a phone call from a friend in the US, she reassured her that, despite the state’s violent crackdown on protests, she wasn’t scared. “I know everyone’s concerned, but it just got to the point where I decided I’m going to do what I came here to do,” Diab said after she hung up.

After all, she had a wall to paint.

When the protests began in April, Diab mostly painted portraits of people who had been killed by state security forces in the protests leading up to Bashir’s removal. Now, she is covering the city in blue, the color that has come to symbolize the Sudanese uprising and has been popularized by the #BlueForSudan hashtag, which has gone viral around the world. But in Sudan, repeated internet shut downs over the last month have left most people with no idea of its meaning. Diab has resolved to change that, one wall at a time.

“They don’t know what’s happening, and I’m not connected to the internet [when I’m here],” said Diab, who grew up in Khartoum but travels back and forth between the capital and her home in Doha, Qatar. “But that’s why I need to paint.”

Diab is part of a group of artists behind the creative renaissance that’s emerged in Sudan since the sit-in began. The peaceful demonstration became known for the vibrant street art that took over walls and overpasses, and old revolutionary songs and poems sung by protesters of all ages.

But that ended suddenly on June 3 when the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Sudan’s paramilitary troops, killed more than 100 people and injured at least 600 more. The government ordered an internet shutdown the same day. At least 40 dead bodies were recovered from the Nile River, and Sudanese medical staff have reported that dozens of men, women, and children were raped, all in a single week. The Transitional Military Council, established to lead the country during its three-year period between Bashir’s rule and the country’s next elections, has since admitted that it had ordered troops to break up the protest, which dealt a serious blow to the pro-democracy movement’s momentum. The country’s military leadership and the civilian opposition coalition agreed to a power-sharing deal on Friday, after months of negotiation, but some celebrating in the streets remain wary after the still recent violence.

Andrew Renneisen for BuzzFeed News

Faces of those killed in anti-government protests in Khartoum.

Online, the Sudanese diaspora mobilized to bring the rest of the world’s attention to the uprising taking place at home, especially after 26-year-old Mohamed Hashim Mattar, a British Sudanese engineer, was killed during the violent breakup of the sit-in. Mattar’s social media profile photo had been a solid shade of deep turquoise blue when he died, so to honor his life — and the lives of other people killed during the uprising — his friends changed their profile photos blue, too, and encouraged the rest of the world to do the same.

Within a few days, celebrities like Rihanna, Cardi B, Bas, and Sophia Bush followed suit. People outside the country changed their social feeds to a massive sea of blue, accompanied by the hashtags #BlueForMattar and #BlueForSudan, though there has been criticism of people exploiting the hashtag in order to increase their follower count.

Diab said she had met Mattar briefly at the airport in Khartoum after realizing they’d been on the same flight from Doha. She remembered him being so excited to join the sit-in that he went straight there after landing.

As a Sudanese diasporan who has the privilege of traveling between Khartoum and Doha with relative ease, Diab feels obliged to help bridge the gaps she’s seen inside and outside Sudan: both between Sudanese people and the rest of the world, and between online and offline activism. “It’s a revolution, and we all need to stay connected,” she said. “So we took the idea of painting the walls blue from the internet, and are bringing it into the real world.”

Her project adds another phase to the typical real-life-to-hashtag cycle: Mattar’s death inspired the viral #BlueForSudan, and now the massive online movement — which was created both to honor his life and to draw the world’s attention to the anti-government protests — is being explained to the very people it is meant to support.

Andrew Renneisen for BuzzFeed News

A portrait of Mohamed Hashim Mattar by Assil Diab. Mattar was killed during anti-government protests.

After Diab inspected the wall to make sure the surface was smooth and wouldn’t cause the paint to peel, the driver popped the trunk, revealing buckets of blue paint and some brushes. Using the car’s headlights to guide them, they dipped the roller brushes in paint and started covering the wall. A few of the kids joined in, offering to fill in the cracks with smaller brushes. As she painted, Diab glanced behind her at the sound of every sputtering tuk-tuk motor. Her art and activism have put her in danger with the RSF — which grew out of the Janjaweed militias accused of committing war crimes in Darfur — before, and she wanted to avoid them at all costs.

“They came to my house before, about 10 days ago,” she said with a laugh common to activists who’ve been repeatedly harassed by the authorities.

“They were banging on the door and ringing the doorbell at the same time, which is freaky, you know?” she said. “When I looked out, they had their guns aimed at the door and they were using terror tactics to intimidate me.”

Diab said that for her and the small group she works with, “safety is number one, especially now. If we’re out on a main street, it’s a bit hard for me to feel comfortable painting. My back is facing everything else, and these guys…” she said, trailing off.

“All they have to do is raise their gun and shoot you. They’re not gonna ask who I am, or why I’m doing all of this.”

Tamerra Griffin / BuzzFeed News

It meant that Diab couldn’t just stroll up to any random wall and start painting — she had to create a special process to ensure everyone’s safety.

Before painting martyrs’ portraits, either Diab or someone working with her reaches out to the family for permission. But if they’re painting a #BlueForSudan wall, she said, someone from her team “drives to the area an hour earlier and makes sure we have people from the community standing around, pretending to drink coffee, just looking out.” Everyone involved shares their phone numbers, so that if anyone sees the RSF approach, they can alert each other.

But painting the sides of houses, abandoned walls, and telephone poles in Mattar’s blue is only part of the mission. For Diab, the project means nothing if the communities don’t understand its significance, or how much those outside the country are supporting them. That’s why she and her small team of volunteers have also been talking to those who live in the areas they paint, telling them about the meaning of the particular shade (which Diab had custom-made by a painter in Khartoum to make sure it matched the blue that went viral) and what the hashtag means.

“As soon as you start explaining it … people say things like, ‘Oh, my cousin has some internet. Maybe I should go there and check out this hashtag,’” Diab said. “Someone [from an older generation] actually wrote it down yesterday.”

The first wall of the night belonged to the home of Ha’zaa Hassan, who was 18 years old when he was killed on June 3. She had previously painted Hassan’s portrait, and as soon as his mother, Ahlam, saw her approach, she quickly folded her into a tight hug. The greeting drew a small crowd of children and teens hanging out nearby. Then, with the urgency and precision of a surgeon performing an emergency procedure, Diab got to work.

Andrew Renneisen for BuzzFeed News

A portrait of Ha’zaa Hassan by Diab.

Diab’s first foray into graffiti art could not have been more different. In 2011, she was on a photography internship in Brooklyn when she saw graffiti for the first time, and quickly fell in love with it. When she returned to Doha, she took a position assisting eL Seed, a famous Tunisian graffiti artist.

“I picked up the know-how of spray painting really quickly,” she said, “to the point where [eL Seed] was like, ‘You know, you’re going somewhere with this.’ He really pushed me into it.”

When she wasn’t working on the project with him, Diab studied YouTube videos to learn new graffiti styles. “Now I know how to use spray paint better than I do a brush,” she said.

In 2013, she started a new job as a creative designer at Al Jazeera, but decided to take a risk and quit after eight months to pursue graffiti full-time. She hasn’t looked back since.

But the joy of painting at home in Khartoum and making a living doing what she’s most passionate about still isn’t enough to protect Diab from the stereotypes faced by women who defy society’s expectations of them.

“Yesterday when we were painting, I could hear the kids nearby saying, ‘Look at how she’s dressed,’” said Diab, who was wearing a pair of fitted sweatpants and a long-sleeved button-down shirt. “That’s always a comment I hear. I’m not a hijabi, my hair is out, I’m wearing jeans.” Sometimes, she said, the kids will call her a prostitute, because they typically see her walking around at night.

And while those comments sting, especially because they come from children — “Maybe their dad is saying that about their sisters,” she wondered — Diab sees them as an opportunity to show that women are more than the clothes they wear. It doesn’t stop her from inviting those same kids to help her paint, either.

“I want people to get used to this, because it’s not [about] how I’m dressed, right? It’s what I’m doing, and if people could just focus on what I’m trying to do here, I can be put into use.”

Other times, the sexism is more subtle and comes from within the activist community. Diab recalled a time when a man asked her if he could join her crew and help spread her graffiti around Khartoum. When she brought him on, she emphasized the importance of following through on the tasks he was given, because they all depended on each other and one person’s mistake could compromise everyone’s safety.

But the new volunteer was unreliable, regularly missing phone calls and showing up late to meetings. Assil was frustrated. “If someone’s not doing what they should be doing and we all get in trouble, you basically just fucked us all up,” she said.

When she confronted him about it, though, he pushed back, saying that what they were doing wasn’t a business and that he was only there to support her, so how could she be so demanding?

“I was like, ‘This is not about me. This is about Sudan. And you came asking me to join,’” she remembered telling the man.

But it was more than that.

“I felt, deep down inside, that he had an issue with a woman telling him what to do,” she said. “I mean, if you’re a revolutionary, and you’re going out in the street protesting against the government who thinks the same way you’re thinking right now? That makes you a hypocrite, because what is it that you want to change about Sudan if you don’t want that change to be a woman also having equal rights as you?”

Andrew Renneisen for BuzzFeed News

Diab at her family’s home in Khartoum.

Within 15 minutes, Diab has finished the blue wall near Hazzah’s house. She’d spray-painted “#BlueForSudan” in black-and-white letters that gave the text a three-dimensional effect and framed it with a prayer to Hazzah in Arabic, which gained a huge round of applause from the kids who’d gathered to watch her. (They didn’t quite understand the English hashtag, until she broke it down for them in Arabic.) The final touches to her #BlueForSudan wall were splatters of red paint around the lettering, to symbolize the blood of those who were killed on June 3.

Some of the kids rushed to bring cold bottles of water to Diab and her friends before they left. She had returned the paint buckets to the trunk just as quickly as she’d brought them out, and was already scheming with her team about the next wall to paint.

And then, they were off into the night.

Sahred From Source link World News

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[warchildgames]

The American world we live in today is full of double talk. I try to ignore it, I try hard. The harder you try to ignore bad things the more you come in contact with them. As a person I’ve always thought that if you do right, stay on the straight and narrow, obeyed rules and laws and just generally tried to be a normal citizen you were within your safe limitation of the law…But that’s only if you fall into a category of what the law will protect…To be honest with you and give my personal opinion the law does not protect black people. Even worse off it feels as if the world does not promote us either.

He took a knee because being black is a burden…

How is it possible for a Nation that is supposed to be UNITED together against things that are unjust and cruel to wave a finger all while promoting the same ugliness? How can a city (Ferguson) be turned into a war zone on our own soil and not be seen as an issue? How can the actions of the multiple shootings of black men (Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and so many more) be seen as things that do not impose on the Truth, Justice and the American way? To go even deeper, how can one Colin Kaepernick be turned into a monster for simply taking a knee during the national anthem before a football game? He didn’t take a knee because he was being rebellious or disrespectful. He took a knee because being black is a burden on American society, but it’s the weight every black man, woman and child has to deal with when living in America. We are looked at as only being good at sports, rap music and any thing else that comes with being “black”. But it’s really sad when the athletes, rappers and other members of black society that do try to speak positivity are looked down upon.

Hopsin

Tech N9ne

Kendrick Lamar

We are a people who are only supposed to take the sidelines, never succeed, never be greater than we are told to be. We are told to just keep working, keep your head down and not stand out. “Shut up and play the game”. Sad part is those who do achieve more than what they are expected to be are shunned by other people…Other AFRICAN Americans, whose ancestry traces back to the same tribes that were brought here in boats many years ago. Those same tribes that can relate back to the same people they are trying to keep down. Tribal lineage doesn’t matter in American views. You can be shot down just like anyone else no matter if you are famous or not. This thought alone by itself is the main thing that scares me and is something I think about every day I wake up and thank God that I’m alive.

…fighting for memories and monuments is more important than fighting for unity and peace?

The Black Lives Matter movement has been pushing for Black rights since 2013 and has always been pushed back with negativity. (All lives matter, Blue Lives Matter and the latest White Lives Matter.) Black Lives Matter has been seen as a racist term and has been frowned upon by American Society, yet a few days ago the Unite the Right protest happened in Virginia where white supremacy groups united against the removal of Confederate monuments and memorials. The protest turned violent amongst the protestors and counter protestors made up of many other civil rights groups, including BLM.I can’t understand how fighting for memories and monuments is more important than fighting for unity and peace? This very thought in itself scares me to think that placement of a historical monuments is more important than the life of my 4 month old daughter. And this just in, Trump has condemned the Protestors after 48 hours has passed. Talk about moving with the Speed of Justice.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing-Edmund Burke

On that topic! He is one that has stirred this pot. A President (Break that down and it’s Precedent as in you are setting the precedent of how you run the nation.) is one who should set the direction of a nation and not stir it up into a breeding ground for fascism and hate. Racism never died, it just lied dormant and festered and we as a nation have let it get too gargantuan from the mess we have fed it. Don’t get it twisted though, Trump isn’t the main Chef. It’s like David Banner said about Trump, “This may be the best thing to ever happen to black people, maybe in history because now there is no excuse…I think the veil of America has been ripped off. The fake mask has been ripped off”. Welcome to the ugly side. A visage where people of other races cannot win an Oscar. A nation where a black lead character cannot have a show of their own without criticism. A world where movies with an all black cast is seen as racist. There’s only so many movies, shows and awards you can give to other people before this was finally revealed. The truth has always been there and now that we are in the era we are in now it’s just had the light shone on it.

“This may be the best thing to ever happen to black people, maybe in history because now there is no excuse”-David Banner

Can’t win an Oscar

Can’t have our own show

Can’t have our own movies

Let’s not forget everyone who thought that voting for this man was the best move ever. Following what a business man turned politician is pretty much the myth of lemmings come to life. People followed the helmet haired idiot all the way down to the bottom. He fooled members of the LGBT community, Black community, Hispanic, Caucasian so on and so forth. We have sewn seeds of the future in poor soil and the rain ain’t coming for a good long minute. He even had good friends and acquaintances fooled as well. You’re friends voted for him despite the fact that they backed you and pumped up everything you said. Notice how I said FRIENDS, didn’t give a specific color. No one in their right mind can sit back and blame black, brown, yellow or white. Some people have the intention of doing wrong simply because it’s their nature and that has nothing to do with color. This is an US (Untied States) problem! The problem didn’t begin on its own and needs to have an US (United Solution) to fix it. All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing-Edmund Burke

But the question is how? How can we begin to fix this? We need to take our government back. I’m not asking for a just a revolution, but a VELVET Revolution. Too much blood has been shed as it is, too much hate has been spread. The revolution urge you all to consider is this:

Get involved with your government because the best weapon is the one that is being used against you. All that knowledge that has been gathered to work against you can be used effectively for you as well.

Boycott if you know something is wrong. DO NOT support it. Many people claimed that they would boycott the NFL, I plan on doing just that. How many others will TRUELY do the same?

Find like minded people because we are all suffering through this. Some people have privilege others don’t. Some don’t want it. If people come together and network skills to make good happen, it becomes a victory in itself.

It ain’t called snitchin if it’s the truth if you know someone is doing something wrong, SAY SOMETHING! That goes for civilians as well as law enforcement. The only way to get rid of the bad ones is to actually do something instead of saying nothing! If you got a problem in your house, aren’t you the one to solve it? Doesn’t the same apply to your neighborhood? How about your state? What about your country? Don’t take this as a reason to go bash and shove out anyone. It sounds like the same mentality of everyone that is protesting but it is not. This is the mentality that is backed by our rights as American citizens. What is an American citizen? Anyone who lives in this country and has an ounce of respect for the freedoms that come with being here. A people who want to live amongst one another, have their kids get along with one another. Not white, not black, PEOPLE! Just PEOPLE! A UNIFIED people who are here to live in UNITY and PEACE.

Live! These are times of grief and tension, especially for people of color. If they can easily persecute and kill black people, they can easily move onto other groups as well and have already have. Many middle eastern cultures have changed their religious dress style in fear of death in a nation that is supposed to be free for everyone. If they wanted to risk death they would have stayed in their own lands instead of coming here to seek it out. This is fear bred from hate. Fear wants you to hide, cower. Fear wants you to know you can die at any time. Don’t be afraid, if you are afraid you have already let fear win. Instead live and live well. Live smart and know your situation but don’t be afraid of it. We do not have the luxury of being bullet proof but we do have the luxury to enjoy what many people fought and died to provide. Freedom.

I could go on and on about this until I’ve written an entire essay on why America wants you to shut up. The fact of the matter is, we won’t. In order for evil to NOT triumph there must be good people willing to stand up and fight for what is necessary in order to see that peace prospers. There can be no peace without war. But War is something that can be had without any physical violence. We should not have to slander one another to get our points across. If we can’t work together we might as well burn this nation down, light the match and watch everything that the years have accumulated turn to ash…and then nothing. I’ve lived here too long to let that happen and refuse to see our future generations ruined because old people keep teaching old hatreds. The only way we can even get through this is together…TOGETHER. #Unifyordie

-War is never silent

The War Report: The World Wants You to Shut Up! The American world we live in today is full of double talk. I try to ignore it, I try hard.