a WoRd aBout ReLigioN

I hang a lot at the Air America Radio Al Franken blog. We have some crazy fun conversations, some wrong-wing trolls pop in for a little rough and tumble, and occasionally we talk about the serious issues of the day, usually riffing off of what Al or Katherine or what Randi Rhodes talks about later in the day on her show. Today (and yesterday) we started in on a conversation about religion, which seems to rule the roost of our government these days.

Of course, it got me thinking about my own religious past life, and of course, any discussion like that begins in the year of 1964.

I don't remember having any recollection of religion when I was born. In fact, I had no recollection of anything, but religion? Hell, I don't think so. Of course, in Buddhism, a child brings his baggage with him. In Christianity, we are all born sinners, each and every little bundle of joy that arrives in the world. In Christianity, you have to be baptized to help in the first stage of being rescued from the grip of hell, the sooner the better, so your soul can be safe in the hands of Jesus, just in case you happen to die at the age of day one.

Whatever.

It's a bit of a toss-up in life as to which religion you happen to be born into. It depends on where you born and into what family you were born into. Each family believes something different, each culture worships their own icons.

I was conceived in Pakistan in 1963, sometime in July. My birth parents were in the Peace Corps. Things happened, and here I am. Both were, I am assuming, of the Christian faith. She maybe Roman Catholic, he maybe Episcopalian. But still, if they had been Pakistani, they would more than likely have been Muslims. My adoptive mother was the daughter of a Baptist minister. My adoptive father didn't really give a care about religion. Family legend has it that at the time I came home, Dad hadn't been in a church since the pastor locked the door and wouldn't let people leave until they gave a donation. I don't know if it's true or not, but it makes a good story.

So here were five chances to be of two different strains of religion; Islamic or Christian. Within these strains the chances are that I could have been Sunni, Shite, or maybe even Sufi; I could have been Baptist, Roman Catholic or Episcopalian. Or I could have been somewhat agnostic, like my father.

So, six different possibilities within two different religious strains and one "what, you want me to give money? Open the damn door" possibility.

Who can really say that any of the six are the right or the wrong way to have been born, to have been brought into the world of religion, of faith, for a little bundle of mewling baby who doesn't even know that there is such a thing called "God"?

It's a crap shoot, my friends. All a crap shoot. The dice of birth is rolled and "poof," you have a religion.

It's like magic, don't you think?

Carpe Cranium Virtualtees

Comparisions

I was on the subway today (terrorist alert be damned), reading am/New York, a free news rag printed by Newsday (or is it the New York Post that prints it? there's a rival rag out there called METRO printed by one or the other, but I digress). Some days I don't feel like reading the gigantic Times and I like my news in sound bites on those days. I read way too much daily news on the Internet or watch it on the TV or listen to it on radio, and certain days I need to just chill out on too much information. I rarely buy the Daily News or Post, but occasionally like to scan these papers, which takes about as long as it does to read am/New York or Metro. And you don't have to pay for it at all! (Come on, a quarter for the Post? I'd rather save the tree.)

Anyway, the Op-Ed and letters page of am/New York prints a quote at the top of the page each day. Today's quote:

"Everything is destroyed -- the ground shook and took everything down. All the government people, the press people, they are just driving past."
--Syad Hassan of Pakistan on the earthquake that's killed more than 20,000 people there,

which reminded me of this quote,

"We understood that the police couldn't help us, but we couldn't understand why the National Guard couldn't help us, because we kept seeing them but they never would stop and help us."
Charmaine Neville during Hurricane Katrina.

Reading Mr. Hassan's words reminded me of Ms. Neville's words, and the earthquake (which was a thousand times worse than Katrina, IMHO), reminded me of people in both Louisiana and Mississippi who spoke of the government people, the press people, who would just drive by, and not help, for whatever reason: logistics, shock, no supplies, overwhelming needs, a thousand and one reasons in the face of utter desperation.

In one aspect, it's understandable why, under the magnitude of both disasters, systems break down. But that doesn't excuse the way the folk on the street feel about the systems and government when they do break down.

We expect our governments, whether in Pakistan or the United States, to help us in our hours of need. It's a bit natural, if you ask me, to make this assumption. Whether it's when we lose our jobs by downsizing or lose our homes by natural disaster. That's why we are called "Americans" or "Pakistanis." Our respective countries expect us to consider ourselves citizens, to be productive, to be civil, to pay some sort of tax or levy, to lay down our own lives at certain times, whatever. Why should we not expect something from our country in return? It's a reciprocal relationship, and if our government expects us to wait on the side of the road until help comes, then I'll wait to pay my taxes for X number of years and see how long the government tolerates that crap.

Whether your an American or a Pakistani, no one wants to wait while the press files their stories and the government moves on to another place and passes a citizen by while their family drowns or lies under a building.

On a lighter note, here's another comparision, via Mr. Doggity.



Uncanny, isn't it?