Wednesday, August 26, 2015

August 26th: Grossly Overly Politicized

Watching the 2016 Presidential race heat up from outside of the country has been a fascinating cultural experience. As a general rule, the information is mostly volunteer access, meaning that I have to go find the information, rather than the more standard American access, which is less of a choice and more of an overwhelming avalanche. That being said, it puts the burden on the consumer of the information to look for a balance of opinions and to see a variety of perspectives.


Take, for example, the recent GOP debate that took place in Cleveland earlier this month. I was unable to watch the debate first-hand live; it was taking place at 3 AM local time. Waking up the next morning, every news source and social medium had an influx of information, not only breaking down the content of each candidate’s platform, but also dissecting every detail of HOW that information was presented.


I started on social media (my favorite and most biased outlet), which primarily consisted of reactions from non-professionals. These were everyday Americans, the voters, commenting and critiquing the candidates that they would one day see on a ballot. The opinions generally skewed to the left, as most of my digital community share my liberal ideals.


Next, I moved to my news outlets of choice. Primarily, I like the coverage of USA Today, because it is one of the few newspapers in the country that has done the best work to transition into digital and online formats, making it easy to access traditional journalism styles in a modern format. I explored what the journalistic community had to share about the event. Again, USA Today tends to sit on the left side of the aisle, and even more so CNN. Much of what I found on these pages were breakdowns of the ways that candidates presented themselves, the politicking between individuals on the podium, and collections of soundbites that had Republicans digging at each other and looking to crack holes in their opponents.


So far, I had found almost no actual issue-based coverage so I gritted my teeth and headed to Fox News. I generally don’t enjoy Fox’s coverage, as they are way too far to the right for me, and their bias is far too easily identified, but in this case, when looking at a GOP debate that was, in fact, hosted by Fox, I was intrigued to see how they would cover it. Better than any other news source, there were details about what exactly each candidate stood for, and how well they got that point across.


After almost 2 hours of research, I felt like I had a decent understanding of what happened and where each candidate stood on various issues. Considering how easy it is to find SOME information, I was very surprised to learn how hard I had to work to find ALL of the information.


It is easy to blame my absence from the country for the difficulty. In reality, though, it is just as hard in America to see through all of the biases and angles to get to the real issue: the issues. We can find easy information about the feud between Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell (ok, his feud with women in general), but what will he actually do to create greater stability in the Middle East? We know that Rand Paul is being a child in criticizing Chris Christie for hugging President Obama after Hurricane Sandy, but where does Paul stand when it comes to disaster relief?


Our gathering of information has turned into a full time job. We are bombarded with so much information about the political world that we now need to distinguish between what is real and what is crap. As hard is it might be, we need to do it, for fear that we will be unwitting bystanders in a system that encourages our politicians to belittle us, condescend us, and avoid us, for fear that we may actually demand that they lead.

The major theme of the Zoot Perspective’s evaluation of the next 15 months of the Presidential race is that we need to elevate the level of debate. We need to be asking the right questions and demanding that our politicians give us real, honest answers. I only get one vote, but I am going to make you earn it, Mr(s). Soon-To-Be-President.

If you enjoy the work of the Zoot Perspective, please visit my GoFundMe page, to help support me on my journey. Thank you very much.

For more content from ZPMedia, visit www.zootperspective.com.

Sunday, August 2, 2015

August 2nd: Baseless Hatred

Separated by only a few hours, two acts of terrorism, committed by Jewish Israelis, left the entire country begging to know why peace is a notion so far away from us.

The first occurred at Jerusalem’s Gay Pride Parade, where six people were stabbed by a man who had just been released from jail for committing the same crime ten years prior. The man is an Orthodox Jew who was determined to personally end what he believes to be the wrong of homosexuality, trying to end lives because of who someone loves.

Later on Thursday night, a Palestinian family’s house was burned, again by Jewish terrorists, resulting in a dead infant and a family both physically and emotionally devastated. The events led the Palestinians to declare Friday as a “Day of Rage.”

As an American coming to live in Jerusalem, I was all too familiar with the fear of terrorism and the baseless hatred that ran rampant in this beautiful place. What I wasn’t expecting was for it to come from people who identify as I do, as Jewish.

I refuse to call them that, though. They are not true Jews, according to any understanding I know. Jews are not ruled by hate, nor do they look to take life. Jews do not destroy life in an attempt to maintain their own existence, and do not denigrate others to the point of inhumanity because of the lives they live.

For the first time, I truly identify with the millions of Muslim Americans who are forced every day to answer for the atrocities carried out by the tiny minority who use their faith as a rallying cry for destruction. I know the feeling of wanting nothing to do with those who claim to use my God as the excuse for their actions. I know the feeling of embarrassment, of shame at knowing that Jewish people were the ones inflicting suffering on a child, on men and women celebrating the joys of freedom. I know the feeling of wanting to stand up and say “No, they are not like me. They are not what my faith is.” I only hope that we can use that feeling to come together in comfort, rather than to increase the gulf between us.

To not expect this kind of violence is sadly ignorant, though, especially coming from America. This is no different than the life we are leading right now at home. It seems every day we are faced with another act of violence and devastation, committed by individuals who use their own faith and skewed version of morality to destroy the lives of other Americans. Who am I to judge the Israeli conflict when my own country is tearing itself apart?

It is on days like this that it is nearly impossible to see any light in the world. Our own hatred as a global community is suffocating, choking us off from our ability to find the beauty that is all over the place, but we choose to ignore because someone else’s attempts at happiness fill us with discomfort and rage.

But we have no choice. We, as a society, have no choice but to keep moving forward, to keep spreading understanding and love in the world. We have no choice but to use these acts of destruction as the building blocks for change, and the inspiration for new understanding. We have to band together, to publicly denounce even our own people who choose to highjack our faith and our principles for their own hateful means. And we have to use this as an excuse to come together, to not inspire days of rage, but to inspire days of shared love and comfort.

May the shadow of hatred be forced out by the light of love, and may we all come together to better understand one another and pursue true justice and peace.

If you enjoy the work of the Zoot Perspective, please visit my GoFundMe page, to help support me on my journey. Thank you very much.

For more content from ZPMedia, visit www.zootperspective.com.