Video Diary- Hometown Baghdad

Bullets... Bullets... Fear... Death... Bullets... Bullets... One young Iraqi went as far as describing the nightly gun battles outside his home as a "Symphony of Bullets". He said this during one of the daily electrical blackouts he, and his family, face every three hours. Another Iraqi youth gave a tour of his college campus, which had recently been hit by a rocket, and took the time to point out where a fellow classmate had recently had his brains removed from his skull. The same young man his later seen eating dinner with his family. Simple enough, right? No. The salad, which his mother has prepared for him, his siblings, and their father, is considered "forbidden", or illegal by the Islam extremists prowling their hometown. The young man comments that just by a particular salad with his family "I am considered an infidel". Do you know this place? You should. This is the place we have grown to know very well over the last four years. Although you may not recognize it, due to the lack of political aspects and lies we have grown to associate it with, this is the city of Baghdad, Iraq. The latter statements are taken from the internet documentary entitled Hometown Baghdad.

Hometown Baghdad is a video diary production set up by Chat The Planet and a group of young Iraqi citizens in an effort to bring a first hand view of the Iraq War to the western public. The experiment equips these young Iraqis with video cameras and encourages them to document their day to day routines as they cope with life in their war torn homeland. Moving and thought provoking, these video blogs show Americans and other western citizens a side of the insurgent conflict that the national media has not attempted to present to us. Dinner with family, attending a university, and visiting friends are all subjects that have been documented by the production. These actions may seem average and like those we all embark on throughout our daily routines but for the Iraqi people these procedures come at a high price. That price is the fear for their lives.

Watching these videos it is not easy to imagine yourself, or someone you know, living with such insecure circumstances. Comparing American crime to that of Iraq’s is a truly ignorant association. Gangs and thugs in America do not carry rocket launchers nor do they detonate a bomb attached to themselves near crowded areas throughout town. The majority of young American children are not faced with the probability of watching a man die, in the middle of the street, from a firing squad of insurgents as they return home from their school. Parents do not wave their children off to school with the fear of their being caught in the middle of a gun fight as they attend their daily recess. College students in America do not fear the possibility of abduction and torture due to their education. Although in some parts of the United States these occurances do transpire on a lesser degree, they are not so casual or daily as they are in Baghdad and the rest of Iraq.

If you have not yet seen these videos, I highly encourage you to see them. They are very moving and offer a different side to the war in Iraq. http://hometownbaghdad.com

Can somebody give me a f**king BREAK!!!

I'm feeling very worn out lately. Between classes, work, and my family I don't seem to have any time for myself. Sleep is slowly becoming a myth that I can only dream about as I continue throughout my days like a zombie. I have my last three finals of the spring semester coming up monday and tuesday so that will elimanate classes from my life for a couple of months. Unfortunately though, tourist season is beginning to pick up around town and that means more time spent working at the damn BP.

I can't seem to win anymore. I've made my life around stretching myself too thin for everyone around me and losing myself in the process. The desires that I have hoped to make reality before my 21st birthday are beginning to disapeer into the shadow of my yesterday with no true reasoning behind having them in the first place.

I've gotta take a vacation in order to rethink myself and where I'm steering my life ASAP....

I Don't Stab Bibles!!!

Monday night was another slow, boring night at my slow, boring job. In an attempt to have an intelligent conversation with the guy I was working with I made a big mistake.

Religion was the topic and I just had to bring up my views on the Creation Theory vs. the Evolution Theory. My coworker is a firm believer in God and the theory provided by the church which we know as the Creation Theory. Unfortunately my views did not match his idea of the way we came to be in our present state and I believed I suffered a tremendous loss of brownie points in the way he views me. Because I support the Evolution Theory and the scientific perspective of human development he proceeded to accuse me of being atheist and a fool. When another coworker's bible was found under the counter he jokingly, but still offensive to me and my beliefs, exclaimed that he should not allow me to have because I "may stab it with a knife". Although, at the time, I brushed it off (and I have no hard feelings toward the guy whom I consider a friend), I am now seeing the wait of his words and the dangerous amount of ignorence they hold.

Why is it that, according to many Christians, evolution believers cannot believe in both eveolution and God at the same time? Not one time during our small, unofficial debate did I announce my disbelief in God. I merely denounced my belief and the credibility of the Creation Theory. God is a subject and belief that I try not to touch on because I have no solid view on the Almighty's existence. That is subject I'm still searching for a reason to accept. I'm not going to make myself believe the existence of a higher being only because I'm told too. I want my acceptance of God to be a personal epiphany brought on as a spiritual journey not because the leaders of the Church, which is a man-made not God-made institution, tell me I should.

I believe in the Evolution Theory because of my own personal reasons. Like the belief in the Creation Theory it can not, and should not, be cancelled out by the other. Like they say, "To each his own."

The Shock of Reality

Now that a full day and a half have passed since the horrific events in Virginia took place, I still find myself feeling shocked about the circumstances surrounding the case. I honestly didn't feel the reality of the shooting until turning on the news today and seeing the faces of a small number of the victims. I looked at these young kids and I saw myself, I saw my friends, and I saw my fellow classmates. These young kids shot, all of which were my age or a couple of years older, were just like me. Yesterday, while the shots were ringing throughout Virginia Tech's dormotories, I too sat in a college classroom surrounded by classmates and feeling secure. Of course I never questioned the feeling of security on Somerset Community College's campus, I suppose I just assumed that it would be provided for me. Now as the photos of the victims continue to filter out, I imagine they felt the same way as they filed in to their 900 AM morning French or Agriculture class. Yesterday, as I sat in class, and these events were unfolding, it never crossed my mind that I may not return home. I never imagined that the girl in the desk behind me, or the guy two rows away, may never be given the chance to continue with their lives and fulfill the dreams that brought them to class that morning to begin with. But, as we know, nearly three dozen of America's college students were faced with this outcome.

Although I am not a firm beleiver in prayer, I now find myself praying not only for the victims of yesterday's attack but for the my own classmates. Many of which I do not know the name that belongs to the face. The girl behind me in history class, the group of truly obnoxious kids in the corner of my Sociology class, and the Virginia Tech professor who lost his life while barracading the door of his classroom... I pray for them. I pray because no matter what name or click we give ourselves while we are young, the cheerleader, the geek, the jock, the overacheivor...in the face of evil we have no name. In the face of evil we are all the same...

Virginia Tech Shooting

Thirty-three people, including the gunmen, were killed today at Virginia Tech in Virginia. It is being called the worst shooting massacre in American history but could possibly been prevented if nessacery proceeders would have been followed. The emotions of greif, sympathy, and sadness are now being joined by those of anger and disbelief at how this shooting rampage was carried out. The media are reporting that the knowledge of two shootings located in an on-campus dormitory was distributed to faculty and students as they college opened early Monday morning. If this was not the case and awareness of a shooting crime had been brought to the attention of students and faculty, the shooting could have been prevented or at least decreased the devastating outcome.Students locked in their classroom while these events were taking place were given no knowledge of what was going on in the building by neither law enforcement or university authorities. Instead they were forced to turn to their classroom's televisions to find the details.This case is bringing up dozens of questions that seem to hold no answer even for law enforcement officials on the case. Why was the university not put into lockdown with the occurence of the first shooting? Why was a single gunmen allowed to massacre nearly three dozen people before finally being stopped by his own gun? When are we going to learn that our nation's open gun policy needs desperate ratifications in order to decrease the likelihood of future scenarios as these?Although it is still early in the case, these questions need answers and solutions to prevent further events as this one. The people of America need to stand up against these types of events and demand change of our country's gun policies.My heart is with those lost this morning and their families.