Don’t close your blinds

I received this off the Internet and I can’t improve on it. I print it here in the form I received it.

The other day, my nine-year-old son wanted to know why we were at war. My husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I were in the Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and defend our country again today. I knew that my husband would give him a good explanation.

My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to go stand in our front living room window. He said, “Son, stand there and tell me what you see.”

“I see trees and cars and our neighbors’ houses,” he replied.

“OK, now I want you to pretend that our house and our yard is the United States of America and you are President Bush.”

Our son giggled and said, “OK.”

“Now, son, I want you to look out the window and pretend that every house and yard on this block is a different country,” my husband said.

“OK, Dad, I'm pretending.”

“Now I want you to stand there and look out the window and pretend you see Saddam come out of his house with his wife, he has her by the hair and is hitting her. You see her bleeding and crying. He hits her in the face, he throws her on the ground, then he starts to kick her to death. Their children run out and are afraid to stop him, they are screaming and crying, they are watching this but do nothing because they are kids and they are afraid of their father. You see all of this, son; what do you do?”

“I’d call the police, Dad.”

“OK. Pretend that the police are the United Nations. They take your call. They listen to what you know and saw but they refuse to help. What do you do then son?”

“Dad — but the police are supposed to help!” my son started to whine.

“They don't want to, son, because they say that it is not their place or your place to get involved and that you should stay out of it,” my husband said.

“But Dad, he killed her!” my son exclaimed.

“I know he did — but the police tell you to stay out of it. Now I want you to look out that window and pretend you see our neighbor who you’re pretending is Saddam turn around and do the same thing to his children.”

“Daddy ... he kills them?”

“Yes, son, he does. What do you do?”

“Well, if the police don't want to help, I will go and ask my next-door neighbor to help me stop him,” our son said.

“Son, our next-door neighbor sees what is happening and refuses to get involved as well. He refuses to open the door and help you stop him," my husband said.

“But Dad, I need help! I can’t stop him by myself!”

“What do you do, son?”

Our son starts to cry.

“OK, no one wants to help you. The man across the street saw you ask for help and saw that no one would help you stop him. He stands taller and puffs out his chest. Guess what he does next, son?”

“What, Daddy?”

“He walks across the street to the old lady’s house and breaks down her door and drags her out, steals all her stuff and sets her house on fire and then he kills her. He turns around and sees you standing in the window and laughs at you. What do you do?”

“Daddy ...”

“What do you do?”

Our son is crying and he looks down and he whispers, “I’d close the blinds, Daddy.”

My husband looks at our son with tears in his eyes and asks him, “Why?”

“Because, Daddy ... the police are supposed to help people who need them, and they won’t help; you always say that neighbors are supposed to help neighbors, but they won’t help either ... they won’t help me stop him ... I'm afraid ... I can’t do it by myself, Daddy ... I can’t look out my window and just watch him do all these terrible things and, and, do nothing ... so I’m just going to close the blinds so I can’t see what he’s doing ... and I'm going to pretend that it is not happening.

I start to cry. My husband looks at our nine-year-old son standing in the window, looking pitiful and ashamed at his answers to my husband’s questions and he says, “Son.”

“Yes, Daddy.”

“Open the blinds because that man ... he’s at your front door. What do you do?”

My son looks at his father, anger and defiance in his eyes. He balls up his tiny fists and looks his father square in the eyes, without hesitation he says, “I defend my family, Dad! I’m not gonna let him hurt Mommy or my sister, Dad! I’m gonna fight him, Dad, I’m gonna fight him!”

I see a tear roll down my husband’s cheek and he grabs our son to his chest and hugs him tight, and says, “It’s too late to fight him, he’s too strong and he's already at your front door, son; you should have stopped him before he killed his wife, and his children and the old lady across the way. You have to do what’s right, even if you have to do it alone, before it’s too late.

“That scenario I just gave you is why we are at war with Iraq. When good men stand by and let evil happen, son, those are the greatest atrocities in the world. You must never be afraid to do what is right, even if you have to do it alone. Be proud to be an American! Be proud of our troops! Support them! Support America so that in the future our children will never have to close their blinds.”

Author unknown, but I wish I did know whoever wrote it! My kind of American.

(The church’s Web site is under construction temporarily and will be up and running again shortly.)

Too Simple for Democrats to figure out

Submitted by CarpeDieminPTC on Mon, 11/14/2005 - 10:53am.

The Democratic/Kerry/Clinton/Carter reply is simple.

The neighbor who is beating and killing his family was most likely not loved as a child, was not educated in a public school, has had to work for a living, instead of living off the Government.

You must first "feel the pain" of this neighbor named Sadamm. Short of that, its "none of our business" to get involved. There is no reason to ever forcibly take control of another person merely because you have the power.

Besides, the father in this story is probably lying about what the neighbor is doing. We believe the danger is really your father who appears to us as being Hitler.

We think that the neighborhood shouldn't have liberty spread throughout it. We dont' think those neighbors could even handle democracy anyway. Besides, if our home wasn't so pretty, if our yard didn't look so nice, then we would never have any reason to fear. But instead we spend too much money on our property. We should be mowing their lawns for them. We should be loaning them our car, not expecting it to be returned. We should allow them to rape and kill our daughters when they have left our property and are walking down the street, because, we had no right to be so haughty.

The answer is to undertand how horrible a neighbor we really are. We are racists, sexist, christian right wingers who deserve what we get. We should be ashamed of ourselves. We should completely disarm ourselves. We should communicate and try and understand where these other neighbors are coming from. Look at our French neighbors, they have the right idea, even though some of their house guests have started to burn down their house, it makes no difference, because understanding is what we need.

We think our neighbors named Great Britain, Australia, Israel, Bulgary, Japan, etc. etc. etc., should have to look out for themselves. Soon they too will understand that our neighborhood is going to change, and there isn't anything we should do about it.

Besides, its the homeowners association's burden to figure out how to handle this misunderstanding. Even though the president of the association has been getting monetary kickbacks from these neighbors, and then refuses to enforce any of their rules against him, nonethesless, its none of our business.

There are somethings worth dying for, but freedom, liberty, and a quality of life that encourages personal self worth and growth, isn't one of them.

Seize the Day in Peachtree City

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