Helping Hand

Practicing

     Occasionally, I helped Ahmed. I knew what it was like going to college. I own a home and work full time and I graduated from college. I did all of this for two years. He was going to college and rented and he wasn't even working. How in the world would this be such a burden to him? He had more freedom than I did. I still helped him as much as I could.

     I worked at a company where I purchased discounted computer programs. I ordered one for him. He asked me to help him with some of his papers. Even thought my life was hectic, I made an attempt to edit his papers. I was dead tired. I graduated about one year before I met him and I was not prepared to be doing anything college related ever again. I did not and do not plan on going back. College was a scam.

     He never thought he was doing well. He did not get an A on everything. When he got a C, he was really sad. I even tried telling him that he was doing better than he thought he was. There was one paper that I could not help with. Evidently, my help made a difference because his instructor mentioned that his paper was not as good as the other ones.

     Ahmed decided to use me as a source for his projects. He said I was good at research. I accepted because I did not have too much to do at the time. All I did was read government websites because those were the only ones I was permitted to read at work. It was easy since he was studying politics and I was writing about politically charged topics.

     I realized more problems were happening than everyone thought. As he studied, more events were happening. More problems in this world were brewing.

     Many of us Americans take so much for granted. We take advantage of so many rights. We end up failing to notice or understand what other people are going through. Even though we do not understand, we try to take charge of it even though we have not resolved our own personal issues. By the way, how do we expect to solve the world problems when we have the same problems at home and cannot fix it?

     Ahmed was writing a paper on The Reluctant Fundamentalist. I believe that the story was about the suspicion escalating between an American and a Pakistani. His paper was about how people can be persuaded to be a terrorist. I agreed because most people are easily persuaded when they are gullible and angry. Because of this movie, I began to watch more movies with the actor Riz Ahmed.

     I was beginning to see Americans from another perspective. One in particular was The Road to Guantanamo. I began to think that Americans look like a bunch of Nazis. I already realized and remembered that the people in the Middle East had been through turmoil. Did we forget Saddam Hussein? We came along and we were making things worse.

     I had watched and listened to reports of the drones killing civilians. I have heard the reports of people being held in Guantanamo without trial. How un-American is that? People pitch a fit for letting terrorists go and state that the CIA created terrorist groups. We are the ones who have created them. You try to control a person they will go out of control. Nobody wants to be told what to do or say. Who are we to go into another country and tell them what to do?

     What if the world was reversed? I do recall that we had a huge ordeal with the British. We never liked them telling us what to do. I watched a movie called Control Room and watched footage of President Bush telling another country to hand over Hussein. If that happened here I think we would gladly hand President Obama over. Who do we think we are?

     I never liked what I saw, read, or listened to. It is a double standard. I have read statements such as, "They need to stop bombing stuff." All I can say is: likewise. They accuse Muslims of being terrorists and list all of their faults. I once read a statement in school that said, "Every time you point a finger, you have three more pointing back at you." Maybe we should list the faults of Christians and blame the "non-Muslim" problems in America on Christians. Who knows? Arabs probably did that already.

     I wish people would open their eyes for once. Perhaps get an education. It isn't religion that teaches violence and hatred. People are the ones that teach this. People who do not know how to read or have a terrible life are being taken advantage of. Bigots are the ones who are teaching hatred and spread nothing but a hateful message and call it religion.

     We really need to go after the bad guys. People who are calling themselves "Christian" and "Muslim" are attacking each other along with the innocent bystanders. They are making the judgment for God? Are you God? No, you are not.

     Children are being shot for wanting an education. Girls are being shot because someone thinks that it is a sin and that Western ideas are horrible. Where do they think we get these ideas from? It never started in the West to begin with. In fact, educated and smart women go further back than modern civilization. How do you expect a female to survive when she becomes a widow?

    Women face acid attacks and genital mutilation. Women are raped just because they are present. This is happening here as well. Why does a "rape culture" exist anyway? Why are we saying it is "just Muslims?" Can you not see what is happening or are you to blind stricken from focusing on what is going on in another country?

     We have crap going on in America. People are getting away with crime. Someone will rape another and end up in the military to avoid the time. Military allows rape and encourages bad behavior. People think that this is okay to do. We take these people and we stick them in another country and then they rape and murder the civilians.

     We were pissing people off. Our troops desecrated graves and urinated on skulls. A soldier went to a village and murdered a bunch of people. We recently sentenced people who killed 10 Iraqis. Americans set the Quran on fire. There is a huge deal of disrespect for people who have nothing to do with terrorism. They are victims of terrorism just as much as we are.

     This is the main reason why I support not going into another country. Number one, we terrorized them. Number two, we are not taking care of our own problems. Number three, we need to stop babysitting and we need to start teaching people to stand up for themselves. What makes anyone think that we can trust our soldiers to go fight in another country?

     Ahmed begged to differ. I am not certain if anyone is aware of how immature and vile we are and have been. We are not helping anyone. A majority of people do not intend on helping Arabs; most Americans want Arabs to be nuked.