wSep 11, 2006


9/11

Soon after September 11th, my favorite TV show of all time, The West Wing, aired an episode titled "Isaac and Ishmael" which dealt with issues such as terrorism. The following is a scene containing my favorite character from the series (Josh) and his conversation with a student from an unfortunate group that happened to be touring the White House that day.

STUDENT: Can I ask one more question?

JOSH: Yeah.

STUDENT: Do you favor the death penalty?

JOSH: No.

STUDENT: But you think we should kill these people?

JOSH: You don't have the choices in a war that you do in a jury room. But I - I - I wish... wish we didn't have to. I think death is too simple.

STUDENT: What would you do instead?

JOSH: I'd put 'em in a small cell, and make them watch home movies of the birthdays and baptisms and weddings of every single person they killed, over and over, every day, for the rest of their lives. [clears his throat] And then they'd get punched in the mouth every night at bedtime. By a different person, every night. There'd be a long list of volunteers, but that's all right. We'll wait...But listen, don't worry about all this right now. We got you covered. Worry about school. Worry about what you're gonna tell your parents when you break curfew. You're gonna meet guys, you're gonna meet girls... [looks at Billy] Not so much you, Fred.

(The students chuckle weakly.)

JOSH: Learn things. Be good to each other. Read the newspapers, go the movies, go to a party. Read a book. In the meantime, remember pluralism. You want to get these people? I mean, you really want to reach in and kill them where they live? Keep accepting more than one idea. Makes 'em absolutely crazy.
scribbled mystickeeper at 2:47 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:

That's a really great scene, with some really great sentiment.

I love pluralism. I find I've been apologizing for America a lot over here, not because people hate us, but because I hate the image that we project to the international community. I think we don't do a very good job of exporting pluralism, and I secretly love America a lot, I just don't want people to think that I love the dumbed down, distorted, simplified image that everyone sees of us.

Anyhow. I hope you're getting more sleep. If it helps, I'm totally getting like 4 hours/night, too.

By Blogger Gretchen, at 5:57 AM, September 14, 2006  

Yeeeahhh....Last night I went to sleep at 2:00 and my alarm went off at 7:00.

I need to stop doing this!

By Blogger mystickeeper, at 8:37 AM, September 14, 2006  

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