with great power comes great responsibility
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be. - Thomas Jefferson
If I've repeated the above quote before, its only because it has such great meaning to me. We all have great power in our hands, and there is much potential for that power to be used. Sometimes we need to reel it in, but other times we need to put it to good use.
This UCLA incident has really disturbed me. It's disturbing on so many levels - but what bothers me the most, and this is something that bothers me about alot of things, is the fact that this could have happened to any one of us. I can't remember the number of times that I've been unable to produce school ID in the library. On a deeper level, though, is this just about school id. Word on teh street is that this was an incident of racial profiling. Would it be more acceptable if it was not? Even if this was a random check and the guy that got tasered was not a minority - it cannot be acceptable.
How is it that we are regressing. We live in the 21st century, we are at the height of technological and scholarly advancement ... or are we? Have we progressed at all ...
I don't think we have.
We still differentiate amongst each other based on any number of factors - race, religion, appearance ... the list goes on. There is so much hate in our society that it makes it terribly difficult to progress. I was talking to a friend the other day (on IM of course, because we lack social skills), and we kept exchanging news articles that we were reading - and piece after piece ... it was more bad news. More news stories about war, death, restrictions on peoples manifestations of belief ... there was no happy news. We'r always struggling against something, whether its against the outside world or internally with ourselves.
At least in terms of world struggle, what bothers me is ... there are people out there with great power to make a change. I can't make any immediate change in the world - inshaAllah, small actions here and there will make some difference - but a real, life-changing effect is in the hands of other people, that are in positions of power. I want to know what it would take to get these people to use their power with caution. I wish we could reign in all the power that people use without thinking and just stop for a second to reflect on the terror and harm that is invoked.
Just stop everything.
And fix things one thing at a time. Lets start by outlawing tasers.
If I've repeated the above quote before, its only because it has such great meaning to me. We all have great power in our hands, and there is much potential for that power to be used. Sometimes we need to reel it in, but other times we need to put it to good use.
This UCLA incident has really disturbed me. It's disturbing on so many levels - but what bothers me the most, and this is something that bothers me about alot of things, is the fact that this could have happened to any one of us. I can't remember the number of times that I've been unable to produce school ID in the library. On a deeper level, though, is this just about school id. Word on teh street is that this was an incident of racial profiling. Would it be more acceptable if it was not? Even if this was a random check and the guy that got tasered was not a minority - it cannot be acceptable.
How is it that we are regressing. We live in the 21st century, we are at the height of technological and scholarly advancement ... or are we? Have we progressed at all ...
I don't think we have.
We still differentiate amongst each other based on any number of factors - race, religion, appearance ... the list goes on. There is so much hate in our society that it makes it terribly difficult to progress. I was talking to a friend the other day (on IM of course, because we lack social skills), and we kept exchanging news articles that we were reading - and piece after piece ... it was more bad news. More news stories about war, death, restrictions on peoples manifestations of belief ... there was no happy news. We'r always struggling against something, whether its against the outside world or internally with ourselves.
At least in terms of world struggle, what bothers me is ... there are people out there with great power to make a change. I can't make any immediate change in the world - inshaAllah, small actions here and there will make some difference - but a real, life-changing effect is in the hands of other people, that are in positions of power. I want to know what it would take to get these people to use their power with caution. I wish we could reign in all the power that people use without thinking and just stop for a second to reflect on the terror and harm that is invoked.
Just stop everything.
And fix things one thing at a time. Lets start by outlawing tasers.
posted by zai5h at Saturday, November 18, 2006
2 Comments:
oh zee i'm so bad... now i have the jewel song stuck in my head. "picked up the paper it was more bad news. more hearts being broken and people being used..."
ok but thanks for the post. i am currently shocked at the number of cop apologists and muslims who are blaming the guy. i mean i dont care what religion or race this guy is, using a taser on someone in a school library is just outrageous no matter how you look at it!! if people bug me again i'm sending them your post. ok i just had to put my name as anonymous so if i send someone they won't know i wrote this. ;) ha ha....
yeah, i don't think anyone denies that the kid should have had his ID on him, and its school policy etc etc. its the response that was so way out of line!
btw, theres a facebook group where the cop apologists are like - but he didn't have his id ... urgh.
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