Down With People

I saw on the news recently that in South Africa, the people responsible for Sesame Street have introduced a muppet who's HIV+ in an effort to teach children that people with HIV are not horrible monsters who're going to give you a terrible disease.

The part that really got my attention was that the U.S. Congress got itself all up in arms and started questioning the Childrens' Television Workshop people in the U.S. if they had similar plans, and how inappropriate it was to expose children that young to this sort of message.

And it all seemed to me to be just another example of how hopelessly provincial Americans can be when it comes to issues of this sort. How, I ask myself, is it inappropriate to teach a child compassion at any age? And if you're that concerned that a child is going to start asking tough questions about what the disease is that this little muppet has, why don't you instead work on ways of teaching that child about the disease without teaching them that it's linked to sex? 'Cuz, you know, not everyone gets this disease from sex.

But we're a nation descended from Puritans, remember; the very self same people who taught us that vacations are evil and you shouldn't enjoy sex, ever. And there are those who would claim that America has come far by subscribing to that Puritan work ethic, and truthfully, I couldn't argue the point. But at what cost? Generations of Americans have worked harder and harder, and gotten farther and farther - but I wonder if it was worth the cost in children who didn't know their fathers... who feel so disassociated with everyone around them that they think acting out violently is okay, as long as it gets you what you want.

Granted, these are pretty broad generalizations; there a plenty of Americans who teach their children well, and manage to balance work and life. But still, sometimes I think the corporations have taken the place of real ideals, and it's for them that we throw away our lives, if only in a figurative sense.

I'm thinking of attending my very first-ever protest rally tomorrow in Central Park. It's a protest against the Bush administration's assertion that we need to wage war on Iraq. I've grown increasingly uncomfortable with what I see as the U.S.'s (and not just under Bush, mind you) big bully on the block attitude toward the rest of the world and what it wants. As I wrote to a friend, recently, I'm all for tracking down and punishing the perpetrators of the hideous crimes of September 11, 2001; but I don't think that declaring war on Iraq and smashing yet another ancient and beautiful mid-eastern civilization into stone age rubble is going to help in the "War on Terrorism." These people don't need the help of idiots like Saddam Hussein... they've got money and support from the likes of Usama bin Laden's family.

I think we should be calling a spade a spade - the only good that's going to come out of war with Iraq is that a regime more amenable to the U.S.'s needs for oil might result. But I think it's important to remember that same thinking is what led to Saddam Hussein in the first place, and it was the U.S. who primarily kept him in power. Maybe it's time for a little longer-range planning.