Waiting to Wake Up

We came back.
They turned on the lights.
Waved flags and home made signs and banners.
"Welcome home," they said.
We traded in our weapons for wives and girlfriends. We traded body armor for name brands, Camelbacks for beer bottles, boots for sneakers, the staccato rhythm of large and small calibers for whatever's new on the radio.
But we're still waiting to wake up, because there's a large part of ourselves that we left there. Somewhere along the way, it became home. The heat, the stench, the glaring sun reflecting off the sand. The knowledge that today could be the day. In the least safest place on the planet, it was the safest place to be.
"It's over," they said. "You're back home," they told us.
But what do we do now? Because it isn't home. We can't be who we were when we left, because we aren't those idealistic innocent kids anymore. We buried that innocence in the sand when the lifeblood spilled from our friends and we watched their souls drift into the sky. We can't be who we had to become back there, back home.
It scares people.
They call us crazy, psycho, murderer, baby killer. "Why are you acting like that?"
"This isn't the Army."
"Don't think like that."
"You're not there anymore so stop acting like that," they yell, hiss, scream, and tell us.
We can't be who we were.
We can't be who we were made to become.
So what are we? Where are we?
We're not there, and we're certainly not here.
We're ghosts-shadows-stuck in limbo in a 3D vivid dreamscape, nodding, smiling, pretending.
Waiting. Patiently waiting to wake up.

"They say that a hero will save us. I'm not gonna stand here and wait..."

So, one of my heroes, Lance Armstrong, recently admitted to doping during his cycling career after years of vehemently denying it. As a result, he stepped down as head of the LiveStrong cancer foundation he started. LiveStrong, itself, is in the process of restructuring and distancing itself from Armstrong and the scandal. As he was the founder, the face, the voice of the foundation, many find it difficult to separate the cause (LiveStrong) from the character (Armstrong). le,) One person I came into contact with voiced that while he still "supports the cause," he cannot support the character (which is understandable,) and would no longer show his support by wearing the yellow LiveStrong bracelet. I reminded him that LiveStrong was the "cause" and not the character, thus, the not wearing the bracelet is, in fact, a withdrawal of support from the cause. His response was that people would (understandably, to a point) equate LiveStrong with Armstrong and that he wished "heroes" were really heroes. These are my thoughts:

If people cannot acknowledge the difference between the cause and the person's character, that is on them. You say you support the cause, yet you take off the bracelet. That shows that you care more about other people's opinion than you do actually supporting the cause. That is certainly not supporting the cause. That is nothing more than fake support, much like the overly propagandized "Support our troops." True support for the cause, any cause, means continually showing and exhibiting pride in the cause through all circumstances, not just as long as things go the way we want them to. Giving lip service to the cause, while in reality hiding your support simply because you are scared some obscure person who has no relevance to you or to the cause is going to have a negative opinion...that is cowardice and following the crowd at its finest. The strength of the cause and its effectiveness are solely based on what YOU believe it to be, not the person next to you. With such fickle and shifting "support," that is why and how causes fall. If you truly believe in the cause, then forgive the character for his shortcomings and flaws, and believe in the cause wholeheartedly, not just as long as it has a pleasing image. As far as heroes go, what makes them heroes is not their perfection, but the conquering of their flaws. The "hero-ness" comes from overcoming the obstacles, barriers, flaws, mistakes, and fears. Everyone calls and wishes for a hero. Forget wishing someone else to be the hero. Rise up, conquer your own fears, flaws, and mistakes, and become your own hero. Do not sit by and call for a change. Rise up and BE the change.

"You are racist and ungodly."---Or Are You?

I am sick and tired of people equating speaking out against the wrongdoing of the government or the president to being "ungodly" or "hateful" or "malicious" and other such baseless adjectives. Speaking against the wrongdoing of the government has nothing to do with being "ungodly" or "unchristian." It has everything to do with standing up for those rights and privileges we, as citizens, hold to be inherent and self-evident. Yes, the Bible does say to pray for your leaders. However, in NO WAY does this mean we are to simply sit idly by while the values this nation was founded upon are trampled, degraded, and twisted to accommodate shifting political winds. I am tired of this being interpreted to mean that one should say nothing against the corruption of the government. Had the founding fathers been so self-righteous in their religious fervor, they would have said nothing against their own corrupt government, and you would have no country of your own in which to freely follow and voice your beliefs. On a personal note, if I speak against the inherent corruption and outright bias of the government, it has NOTHING to do with the fact that the president is black. During slavery times, blacks had NO PROBLEM speaking against the wrongdoings of a corrupt WHITE government. Through the early 1900s, through the civil rights era, through Vietnam, blacks had no problem speaking against the wrongdoings of a corrupt WHITE government. Whether black or white, wrong is wrong. So, why is it considered Uncle Tom, or "sellout," or not black enough when a black person doesn't agree with this current administration's policies and actions? We were not reprimanded and called racist and unchristian for speaking against Bush and his uninformed and failed policies. If a black person disagrees with the current president, that person is called racist against his own people, crazy, stupid, a fool, ignorant, a sellout, an Uncle Tom. I ask you this: Because our president is black, he can do no wrong? Is he not still human? At what point did he attain perfection? Is he now above reproach because he is a black president? It is proclaimed that none of this has anything to do with race. If that is the case, why are we, as a people, the first to play the race card? No one accused anyone of being racist for speaking against Bush, or Clinton, or Bush Sr. Why, then, as soon as someone speaks against some facet of the Obama administration, is that person deemed a racist, whether they be black, purple, white, or blue? Before you follow the crowd of popular opinion and judge someone for their opinion or belief, look to your own motivations and reasoning first.