A National Day of Mourning...
Aug. 26th, 2010 12:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darth_stitchI'm sure that most of you have seen what's happened on CNN and other news places all over the world by now:
8 Dead in Philippine Hostage Crisis
I'm angry, pissed off, cringing with shame at the entire mess that this was. I could point fingers, lay blame, maybe pick a few fights with the ignorant assholes who want to make this about race and laugh at my poor benighted country, smugly forgetting that they've got skeletons in their national closets worse than ours.
Then again, I'll just be adding to the hate. That's not going to help anybody.
Instead, this is a National Day of Mourning and I will mourn:
I will mourn our Philippine National Police - because I'm sure there are still a few good men and women there in uniform, who are trying to serve my countrymen in the best possible way they can. But they have to deal with the fact that for the past month, our police were accused of outright murdering a carnapping ring suspect, torturing some poor snatcher and this latest poor crazed psychopath who decided to involve innocent people in his quest for self-destruction.
I will mourn my countrymen who will be looked at with disdain by the rest of the world, who are, like me, cringing with shame that this happened right before our eyes and be faced with accusations of terrorism, ignorance, monumental stupidity.
I will mourn for the families of those who were killed by that crazed fool. They weren't doing anything but be in the wrong place at the wrong time. They're not different from any of us. I could have been on that bus. My mother could have been on that bus. Any of us could have been that unlucky.
I will mourn for Mendoza, even as I deplore and condemn what he did. I'm sure he must have realized that doing this wasn't going to get him his job back or his benefits. I strongly suspect that he might have even done this as an ultimate act of vengeance. I hate what he did, that he had to involve innocent people in this crazed, desperate scheme but I will mourn not for himself personally, but for the family he's left behind, the people who are going to have to shoulder the price for his monstrous and dishonorable actions.
Compassion's going to be far from a lot of people's thoughts right now. I'm not going to do the same. I'm tired of the hate. I'm tired of the stupidity. I'm tired of the greed and crassness that allows the soldiers and policemen of my country to go barely armed, barely equipped and be poorly trained.
Enough is enough.
8 Dead in Philippine Hostage Crisis
I'm angry, pissed off, cringing with shame at the entire mess that this was. I could point fingers, lay blame, maybe pick a few fights with the ignorant assholes who want to make this about race and laugh at my poor benighted country, smugly forgetting that they've got skeletons in their national closets worse than ours.
Then again, I'll just be adding to the hate. That's not going to help anybody.
Instead, this is a National Day of Mourning and I will mourn:
I will mourn our Philippine National Police - because I'm sure there are still a few good men and women there in uniform, who are trying to serve my countrymen in the best possible way they can. But they have to deal with the fact that for the past month, our police were accused of outright murdering a carnapping ring suspect, torturing some poor snatcher and this latest poor crazed psychopath who decided to involve innocent people in his quest for self-destruction.
I will mourn my countrymen who will be looked at with disdain by the rest of the world, who are, like me, cringing with shame that this happened right before our eyes and be faced with accusations of terrorism, ignorance, monumental stupidity.
I will mourn for the families of those who were killed by that crazed fool. They weren't doing anything but be in the wrong place at the wrong time. They're not different from any of us. I could have been on that bus. My mother could have been on that bus. Any of us could have been that unlucky.
I will mourn for Mendoza, even as I deplore and condemn what he did. I'm sure he must have realized that doing this wasn't going to get him his job back or his benefits. I strongly suspect that he might have even done this as an ultimate act of vengeance. I hate what he did, that he had to involve innocent people in this crazed, desperate scheme but I will mourn not for himself personally, but for the family he's left behind, the people who are going to have to shoulder the price for his monstrous and dishonorable actions.
Compassion's going to be far from a lot of people's thoughts right now. I'm not going to do the same. I'm tired of the hate. I'm tired of the stupidity. I'm tired of the greed and crassness that allows the soldiers and policemen of my country to go barely armed, barely equipped and be poorly trained.
Enough is enough.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-08-26 04:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-26 04:37 am (UTC)I think we just want to laugh at her right now because if we think about Mendoza anymore, we'll just cry. *sigh*
*hugs back*
no subject
Date: 2010-08-26 04:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-26 04:55 am (UTC)Ooookay. I guess the rest of my country needed something to laugh AT, because otherwise, we'd probably hide our faces for the next 50 years or something. I'll take humiliating English slip-ups over psycho batshittery. Hell, it's her THIRD LANGUAGE - honestly, people should give her a break. *rolls eyes*
no subject
Date: 2010-08-26 09:55 am (UTC)xx
no subject
Date: 2010-08-26 02:15 pm (UTC)*hugs back*