some more thoughts...

Today has been a super fantastic wonderful day. We lost an hour of sleep last night which is not super, fantastic or wonderful, but I slept right through my alarm until noon. I missed my economics class which is a-okay with me. (Sorry mom, I’m the one paying the bills now so I can make the rules!) It’s been rainy all day which surprisingly I didn’t mind. In fact it reminded me a bit of being back in Ireland and it was quite refreshing to feel the rain on my face again. Unquestionably, the best part of my day is when I received the email telling me a final exam of mine has been cancelled!

I’ve gotten some work done today, but I spent most of the day just wandering around the boat and finally feeling like I have time to enjoy being at sea. I now have only 2 papers and 1 final exam left for the entire semester. Hopefully my busy days are over and I can relax for this last month of such an amazing journey.

I’ve had some interesting responses to yesterday’s blog. (Aimee, Sheetz is Pennsylvania’s equivalent of Centra.) I had someone from Independence, Missouri comment on my blog. I sometimes forget that the whole world can log on and read what I’m writing. I wonder how many people out there have read my thoughts… Well anyway, this comment particularly struck me. I’ve been realizing how incredibly small this world of ours is and someone from Independence, Missouri leaves me a message. I lived for two years in Lee’s Summit, Missouri which is maybe a 5 minute drive from Independence. This person could be anywhere in the world, and he’s some place I used to call home. It truly is a small world.

We’re passing through the Straight of Gibraltar as I type. I can see Spain out our starboard side and Morocco to the port side. I can see two continents. Two countries that aren’t that different from one another and that are so close in location, yet TSS decided we couldn’t go to Morocco because of ‘terrorism’. A family friend told my mom I shouldn’t go to Morocco to study because of radical Islamic fundamentalists who are practicing ‘terrorism’ there. I’m not sure if anyone remembers the bombings in Madrid in 2004 and 2006? Why is Spain not safe because of ‘terrorism’? Can these people point to Morocco on a map? How about Spain? I don’t think it’s good advice or a good decision to not visit or study in a country because it could possibly be slightly unsafe. I’m not going to get anything done sitting on the couch listening to the media…I can’t change things from my living room. We must be participants, not bystanders.

I guess it’s ironic that I write this on the eve of the 5th anniversary of America’s War on ‘Terrorism’ in Iraq. I wonder how many people have died as a result of this war? Today in class we got into a discussion about Algeria, South Africa and Iraq and when war or terrorism or violence is justified. It reminded me of a paper I wrote a few years ago and I will share part of that with you…

Terrorists create panic through arbitrary violence and by targeting innocent peoples. As Michael Walzer describes, “randomness is the crucial feature of terrorist activity”. The targeting of seemingly innocent non-combatants is often essential to the creation of panic and fear. Walzer continues, “If one wishes fear to spread and intensify over time, it is not desirable to kill specific people identified in some particular way with a regime, a party or a policy”. The killing of those not directly involved in the military is important for the panic feature discussed above, although those doing the killing would argue that the ‘innocent’ are actually within their own right, guilty. Supporting a certain religion can be enough to make a person guilty and justify their death. Or if a person works for a company that makes airplane parts and those airplanes are used in war or fighting, is that person wholly innocent or guilty of perpetuating violence and war? Is this a good enough reason to kill or harm this person? The killing of innocents is “aimless, except that the victims are likely to share what they cannot avoid, a collective identity”.

I don’t have any concluding thoughts for tonight because this topic is constantly evolving and changing in my own mind. I guess this weekend when we’re all with family and friends enjoying Easter, we should think about those that are mourning the loss of their loved ones simply because they are the wrong race, the wrong nationality, the wrong sex or the wrong religion…

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