Who is Shutruk Nahante?

"I am Shutruk Nahante, King of Anshand and Sussa, Soverign of the land of Elam. I destroyed Sippar, took the stele of Niran-Sin, and brought it back to Elam, where I erected it as an offering to my god." ~ Shutruk Nahunte, 1158 BC


"Great ambition and conquest without contribution is without significance.  What will your contribution be? How will history remember you? "  ~ Kevin Kline in The Emperor's Club


Why these quotes? We have reached a time in our history when what you have done is far less important than how many likes, hits, views, quotes or comments you can get. Where mediocrity is the cause celeb, an ass will make you famous and a "role model" and trademarking a baby name is headline news, even when it would best be used in a garden centre.  


People are refusing to see, or are unaware of the reality that real contributions that last are not comprised of the above, and a sore lack of substance to a time capsule created to memorialize the 21st century to date.  It would leave those in years to come wondering, and not in a good way. 


Contributions are comprised of many things and from many people: Socrates, Plato, Cleisthenes, Solon, Aristotle.  The Moors brought glass lenses to the Crusaders, Chinese created gunpowder, the pyramids of the Incas, Maya, Egyptians and Aztecs, Mummification by many cultures.  Sun Tzu created the Art of War still used as a guide in conflict and conquer.  Mohammed created his view of Allah, and the Buddah removed the omnipotent to revel in the beauty and process and path of all life. Right Angles - both definition and idea came from Africa, as did the idea of community governance and housed the forefather of man, Homo Sapiens. Someone built the Moai ( statues ) of Easter Island, and it has been recently revealed through pottery fragments that the Japanese found Peru some 500 years or more before Columbus "discovered" the Americas. 


The striking fact about this information is that not one single sex, race, nation or geographical area has a monopoly on innovations that stood the test of time and were noted and remembered by history. 


So then, because this is me - I take a look at what passes for "best we have on offer" from the GOP in terms of candidates.  And I think .. Really?  Is there a single one who has the capacity, the capability of being little more than a stain on that book ? 


They are all, to a one, rich, white males.  Some have earned their money 'honestly' some garnered it from our tax dollars.  But every single one of them is divisive and detrimental because of their attitude toward Americans.  They are a group of men screeching to all who will listen that it is an Us versus Them. Problem is, unless you are a rich, white male and think of America in terms of Donna Reed and pearls and Jesus .... you are "them".  


They've even taken the essential premise that is ( as I see it ) racist and prejudiced - and no one is calling them on that.  Really?  Really?!! 


They are hard for me to stomach, these statements.  Even harder to write.  Because, let me be honest, I am a white, anglo-saxon female, who has ties to the Revolution, the Mayflower and the Church in my family.  My experience is not one fraught with pages of examples of not getting in, or ahead, or snubbed because of how I look.  My father was a Republican, from a long line of them: mother voted Democratic when she naturalized.  She was a member of NOW and worshipped at the feet of Steinam, my father screamed about government and "them" and always felt and spoke as if he were one step "better" or "higher" than others who didn't look like him. 


So - as children, it's normal. We gravitate to like - people that look alike, sound alike, sit in the same church, then we get older and perhaps gravitate to the "ideas" we do tend to be most comfortable with those who are most like us, liberals with liberals, conservatives with conservatives, zebras prefer to be with other zebras to donkeys or wildebeasts.  It's a natural 'gravitation' that often happens without thought.  But when your ideas and attitudes are stuck in the playground mode, and are outdated, closeminded and frankly not even close to reflective of the world around you, or you truly believe that your "white is right" ( or whatever phrase best reflects your staying with 'your own kind') ..you cease to be valid - and tar all who follow you with that brush.  And sadly, these statements are pouring forth like cream to kittens, and being lapped up without question or challenge.  


So - now you are on edge, and wondering "Is she calling me a racist?"  


Have you not questioned, seriously questioned and researched and perhaps had a second thought when you heard 


Santorum ( google it frequently ) 
"I don't want to make black people's lives better with welfare" 
The reality is that African-Americans self identify as  less than 20% of the US population - more caucasians are on welfare, disability and aid than any other race. 




Brewer ( Governor of Arizona ) 
"This law is a fair, effective and necessary response to what amounts to Washington turning it's back on border security"
What borders Arizona? Mexico. Who carries there documents with them all the time? I have a green card.  I keep it safe since I shouldn't need to produce it. Especially not for a "random check".  


Gingrich
"Bilingual education teaches the language of living in the ghetto".  Really? Funny - my daughter was educated in a bilingual system and speaks French and English. In university, she took Latin and Ancient Greek.  Most countries have a requirement that educates children in more than one language. My daughter's best friend, daughter of Vietnamese immigrants speaks English, French, Vietnamese, Spanish AND German and is in Medical School.  Yep - looks ghetto to me. ( and please - what IS a ghetto - cause I've seen some trailer parks in east scratch your ass Arizona dn Missouri and Texas where all the folks were caucasian - and it was tore up and disgusting.  ) 


But, my favourite is Mr Ron Paul - King of the "blank stare" You only 'hope' the wheels are turning in there somewhere.  HE said - 
"I never read that stuff. I was probably aware of it 10 years after it was written, and it's been going on 20 that people ask me about it." The is - a series of monthly publications full of homophobic and racist content, statements and rants, on HIS company letterhead - and signed, by him.  In fact, Jonathan Chait, a columnist for New York Magazine states "statements of racist paranoia appeared regularly enough in Paul's newsletters to represent a consistent ideological theme". 




And this is the best there is on offer? Has the look of the President, the colour of his skin, the texture of his hair so threatened Joe Redneck that he feels that he cannot tell his children they too, can be president? That one man of caramel complexion is so glaringly overshadowing the portraits of the 43 white men that preceded him? That the cliffs in South Dakota with the white men upon them, every image of Uncle Sam, every portrait on the currency is so ingrained on your limited world view that you can't stand the change? Are you so calcified and afraid that you may be wrong, and that would open a whole can of worms? Then I shan't tell you that Santa is a myth, there is no Easter Bunny - and Jesus was not a blonde-ish white man with blue eyes.  Deal with it. 


What this whole bunch is doing is solidifying and emboldening those who I once thought was a relatively isolated minority of mouth-breathers, troglodytes that are reveling in their ignorance being validated.   


But - few people are talking about it. ANY of it.  Race and racism is uncomfortable and gets emotionally charged when people are more apt to talk the talk and not walk the walk.   I would be an incredibly rich woman today if I took a dollar from every idiot who told me "I'm not racist, my friend A is ___ and we've been friends for years. She's slept over at my house too."  That tells me so much. 


When you honestly tell me - before the discussion is ever raised - that your friends are all funny and smart and writers or readers and make you laugh and share your tears and live all over or right next door.  And weeks later, when I come to visit, and you send a friend to meet me, and the last thing before signing off is that I am meeting a stranger - and oh yeah - you can recognize them because they are an albino.  I know you are walking the walk.  Those others .... they tell me of Anton the Albino who is a friend who came over for dinner once in 1982. 


I've rambled enough -I made my point. Look at the quote from the movie, the one Kevin Kline delivered.  Do any of them look like more than a post-script ... would you want ET to know any of them in the year 4000 ? 

It's a trend ... or something REALLY important

I say that as if I were the arbiter of 'importance'.  But really - just how many times does the average rational thoughtful human being need to see the same behaviours repeated almost 'to the template' by a group of others before they speak out? 

Today I hit my "critical mass".  One more time was once too often.  See - there are a group of 'self appointed' masters of the other space I blog at.  Funny - on a sex site one would only expect to see master in terms of the dom / sub relationship.  But not here.  These twits are helpfully providing their superior popular half baked opinions on who one should interact with, how one should interact, what you should write on, and *gasp* all you needed to know ( including personal information ) about the 'people' out there.  

The old  .. I know better and the 'whole story' so trust me - coming from someone that you only 'know' from the internet.  Really?  Umm .. can anyone say school days lunchroom anyone?

See - the joy of a site like that is the persona you can create to show the better parts of yourself, or a side that isn't exactly 'ready for primetime television'.  But - there are more who actually are just being themselves - learning from the interactions and discovering a place where you can get advice and be heard.  It strokes that little place we all have that needs stroking and you know what?  It feels GOOD.  Yes - I said it .. it feels GOOD when people appreciate what you think and how you express it.  

But - to every silver lining - there is a cloud - that thick miasma of agenda and jealousy and liars and control.  And they are omnipresent.  They even can, and do, ruin the whole tone and tenor of a space if left to run rampant.  Mud ALL over the place.  And - you could be next.  Because - they can.  If someone doesn't speak up and say - ENOUGH. 

Today I spoke.  Not because I particularly care about any in the game.  I don't.  I just find it completely ironic that the same ones who said it all would be done when they dethroned the 'former queen' are now hot and heavy again.  And the targets - the same - dredging up the old stuff - and throwing in some new for obfuscation.  Just because they are not exactly repeating the story - just adding details.  

I'm tired of being one of those on the sidelines - or one of the 'collateral damage' victims.  Thinking that I haven't a need to speak out is akin to watching the neighbours rousted out of their house at 3 am in 1939 Berlin.  Just because you aren't on that list today -- you could be tomorrow.   There is much being said about kids who are bullied today - and I bring you the genesis .. 

Those who are old enough to be their parents, may be their parents - and should know better.  Wasn't it Christ who said "Whatever you neglected to do unto one of these least of these, you neglected to do unto Me!" ?   

Yeah.  I thought so.

Is it ever really this simple?

I read a line today that simply stated, "he didn't love me like I loved him. Now I look for that sort of return always".  I wondered if anyone would actually distill something as complex as love in a relationship down to measuring just how much you are loved in return?

Apparently they do.  And that makes me sad. Perhaps because I really cannot determine just what would lead someone to make all decisions based on the equality of feeling felt, and just how do you really make those sorts of measures.  Is it as simple as just declaring I love you this much, while spreading your arms?

 
What about who says it more? Do you ask? Do you demand? 

Who determines who is more "committed" to the idea of love, and for that matter, do both people actually HAVE the same idea of love? 

On the whole, the entire idea of being equal in love is rather sad, even after thinking on it.  

I'm not saying that unrequited love is something to throw yourself into, but if I were to measure all of my friends, lovers, relationships into a bowl then one by one decide who always returned my effort equally.  Well, let's just say I won't do that. 

Because I know that I will come up short.  And I know that others will too. 

Because love, to me, is not measured it is felt and freely given.