The Pod People

American strategists have calculated the proportion of civilians killed in this century's major wars. In the First World War 5 per cent of those killed were civilians, in the Second World War 48 per cent, while in a Third World War 90-95 per cent would be civilians.
- Colin Ward -

The data of this war is readily available to anyone. We can view the Iraqi mortality rate before and after the invasion. The coalition casualty count is available and the National Priorities Project even breaks down the social cost by state, city, and community! Of course we have to care enough about human life to take a realistic look at the costs of this war! It's so easy to pretend we are not responsible for the atrocities being done in our name.

But we are responsible! The people consent to these crimes against humanity. It is us who allow the destruction to continue. It is you and I who through our silence, give our approval for the deaths of thousands of men, women, and children! Why do we turn a blind eye and a deaf ear toward the machine of war?

Is it because we place consumerism and comfort above humanity? Are we so comfortable in our little shells that it becomes easy to ignore what the cost of our comfort is? Perhaps part of the problem lies in the religious doomsday predictions of Armageddon which seem to be very prevalent within our politics as of late. Is the church taking over the state? Are we supposed to place God and Country above civility or humanity? What the hell are we becoming and who is stealing our hearts and minds while we are asleep? It's almost like a scene from the classic movie, "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers"!

The townspeople really are being replaced by simulations grown from plantlike pods, perfect physical duplicates who kill and dispose of their human victims. The "pod people" are indistinguishable from normal people except for their utter lack of emotion... In my practice, I've seen how people have allowed their humanity to drain away. Only it happened slowly instead of all at once. They didn't seem to mind...All of us--a little bit--we harden our hearts, grow callous. Only when we have to fight to stay human do we realize how precious it is to us, how dear.

Just how precious is humanity? Apparently not as precious as petroleum, profits, or power! At what point do the people of this planet awaken and proclaim "enough"? How much are we willing to overlook? How long will we remain hypnotically lost in the mass-entertainment-media and replace the scenes of these atrocities with those of American Idol? We continually talk about how Simon is such a dick rather than discuss the fact another 60 children died yesterday. It's such a consumeristic-self hypnosis!

I wonder how much different our views would be if we had been born in Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Korea, Africa? When politics and religion harden our hearts and poison our minds, it's time to refute the lies and doctrines of them both. For they both seem to bring more death and destruction rather than life and peace! Both institutions seem to have been taken over by the Pod People. Perhaps it's not too late and now is the time for all of us to check in our closets, under our beds, in our gardens, or in our governmental offices and make certain there are no pods there just waiting to steal our hearts and our humanity!