The best things in life are hardly free, in fact most of the time they can end up killing you. Smoking causes cancer, drinking kills your liver, sex… what can I say… there’s AIDS, STD’s and now this. The best food is unhealthy; the best cars cause the most pollution. The list goes on and on. So unless you like Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, you better be ready to pay with your life for the things you love.
Is life unfair? If you believe in God, do you think He purposely attached a higher price tag to things that he knew we humans would love? Or is it human nature to want the things that are bad for us. I think it’s neither. I think we go looking for the dangers in everything we enjoy. Our conscience doesn’t allow us to simply enjoy the things we do without worrying about consequences. So each time we find something we love, we start looking for reasons we shouldn’t be doing it.
Fortunately for me, I don’t care :-) I think abstinence is for people who give in to the temptation of denying themselves pleasure. So I’m going to listen to my grand mothers words of wisdom “Take what you want from life.. Take it and pay for it”.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Speak Up
Why is it that it’s always the extremists who speak up the loudest and the liberals whose voices are never heard? Is it below the dignity of the intellectuals to protest against what they perceive as injustice? Or are the liberals just complacent “As long as it doesn’t affect us”?
Sure, we do speak up once in a while like in the Jessica Lal case, but only when the issue is close to home. With most issues, as horrifying as they might seem, we (I include myself here) just don’t feel the need to speak out. There might be a genocide going on in The Sudan, but it doesn’t affect us. Civil War in Iraq, but it doesn’t affect us.
With extremists however, Richard Gere kisses Shilpa Shetty and they protest all over the country, burning effigies. Say what you want about extremists, but at least they stand up for what they believe in. We liberals just seem to lack the courage of our convictions.
I leave you with a short poem written by a man who survived the Nazis.
They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
-Martin Niemöller
Sure, we do speak up once in a while like in the Jessica Lal case, but only when the issue is close to home. With most issues, as horrifying as they might seem, we (I include myself here) just don’t feel the need to speak out. There might be a genocide going on in The Sudan, but it doesn’t affect us. Civil War in Iraq, but it doesn’t affect us.
With extremists however, Richard Gere kisses Shilpa Shetty and they protest all over the country, burning effigies. Say what you want about extremists, but at least they stand up for what they believe in. We liberals just seem to lack the courage of our convictions.
I leave you with a short poem written by a man who survived the Nazis.
They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
-Martin Niemöller
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