A Cool Glass of Water

With the death of Osama bin Laden the world and especially America has taken a step back and appropriately began to ask some important and introspective questions.  "Is the war on terror over?"  "Should we leave Afghanistan?"  "Are we prompting more attacks?"  "What are Truthers, Birthers, or Deathers?"  Or, "Should our phones be tracking our movements?"  To say the least it has been an interesting few weeks as the nation struggles to come to grips with these questions.  And with some long overdue harmony over the bin Laden raid the issues have not been as divisive or malicious lately.  Right now the two sides have taken a respite from the rhetoric and there is a calm like that cool glass of water after working outside in the heat.  You take a drink, plop down in a chair, congratulate yourself on a job well done and relax before you have to get up again and start the clean up process.  Right now America is finishing up their water and convincing themselves it is time to get back to the madness before it gets too late; after all, the election is only eighteen months away.

So before we get back to work let us reflect on the respite and properly address an issue that came up last week.

The morning after the bin Laden raid a pre-coffee debate ensued over the appropriateness of the celebration over the man's death.  One person compared it to the televised celebrations from Afghanistan when the American journalist was killed.  Another took the moral stance that one should not celebrate the death of another human.  And yet another held that it was not the death that was being celebrated in the streets of D.C. and Times Square but an outpouring of pent-up emotion stored up over the past decade.  Be it fear, terror, anger, sadness, anxiety, frustration, or feelings of injustice; in the moment we found out the Osama was dead we could all finally release our baggage.  In that moment our burdens were lifted and we could relax and let down our guard, plop down on the couch and congratulate ourselves.  And you could probably tell which side of the argument we were on.  But the question remained; was it appropriate to celebrate as a direct result of a man's death regardless of motivation?  Well, let us ask the opposite.  Is it appropriate to mourn when a person dies?  Certainly it is a societal expectation, but it is not required or mandated.

Mourning is a deeply personal coping mechanism that cannot be taught or influenced that provides an individual a way to deal with the feelings and emotions stirred up in the loss of someone or something special.  In the past month we at II have experienced some personal tragedies and have had a first hand look at mourning.  One of our writer's friends lost his father a few weeks ago.  That man's wife lost her closest grandmother.  Their mutual friend lost his caretaker grandmother just days ago.  And the writer's aunt is being lost to dementia from a few recent strokes and taking the health of her loving husband with her.  And we have noted how each of the survivors have made their own grieving style.  The writer's friend wore all black clothing for two weeks and needed to socialize with other people while his wife needed solitude.  When our writer lost his father as a nine year old boy friends and family became afraid because his grieving was private.  It is not normal for a child to not cry when he loses his father and hero.  And therein is the keyword: normal.  We all recognize that people grieve in different ways, but there are certain characteristics that have come to be expected during the process like sadness, depression, quietude, or solemness.  But is celebration far fetched?

Our writer had a good friend in college named Robertson McQuilkin.  The man was in his eighties when they met and his wife had been suffering from decades of degenerative Alzheimer's.  McQuilkin's house was a small and humble home on the corner of a well traveled street.  On the days when his wife would recognize him he would fly a flag out on the front of the house to signify that he was having a good day.  When visited, he would leave his wife in the bedroom and close the door in order to give his full attention to his guests.  When talking with him you would never tell if his mind was wondering because he dedicated himself to the situation or conversation at hand.  He was a rare breed of man that would make you feel special and loved even if he did not know you.  So it was easy to empathize with him and his situation with his wife.  He dedicated the last decades of her life tending to her every need and loving her wholeheartedly.  Even now it is difficult to hold back the emotions of sadness and grief at his Sisyphian struggle.  And as you can imagine in the latter days, the flag flew less and less.  However when she finally died there was little grief and almost non-existent sadness.  In truth there was a collective release of emotion as this both man and woman were freed from their crushing and overwhelming afflictions.  There was the deliverance of a woman whose millstone had been lifted and of a man whose albatross had been cut away.  The celebration that followed her death was altogether cleansing, healing, mourning, and very appropriate.  It was the same sort of rejoicing the world experienced when Mandela was released and the very same when bin Laden was killed.

Two weeks ago we wrote a hurried essay as the southern storms that brought several tornadoes bore down on II headquarters.  We compared the news coverage of the severe weather to the royal wedding of William and Catherine.  The piece was not good enough to publish but the point was that just as we could set aside the non-essentials and inwardly reflect while being engrossed in the storm coverage, so should we let ourselves be caught up in the fantasy of the marriage between the Prince and the pauper girl.  Not everything in life demands critical analysis or commentary.  Just relax and enjoy.

And from this relaxation period the world has been able to refocus and begin to ask some genuine questions.  So it is only befitting that we close with with some words from an eloquent, pro-revolution, black panther associated, Muslim from Chicago, and honorary Impudent Iconoclast; Wasalu Muhammad Jaco.

The official song of The Impudent Iconoclast:


"It’s so loud Inside my head
With words that I should have said!
As I drown in my regrets
I can’t take back the words I never said
I can’t take back the words I never said

"I really think the war on terror is a bunch of bullshit
Just a poor excuse for you to use up all your bullets
How much money does it take to really make a full clip
9/11 building 7 did they really pull it
And a bunch of other cover ups
Your childs future was the first to go with budget cuts
If you think that hurts then, wait here comes the uppercut
The school was garbage in the first place, that's on the up and up
Keep you at the bottom but tease you with the uppercrust
You get it then they move you so you never keeping up enough
If you turn on TV all you see’s a bunch of “what the fucks”
Dude is dating so and so blabbering bout such and such
And that ain't Jersey Shore, homie that's the news
And these the same people that supposed to be telling us the truth
Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist
Gaza strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say shit
That's why I ain't vote for him, next one either
I’ma part of the problem, my problem is I’m peaceful
And I believe in the people.

"It’s so loud inside my head
With words that I should have said!
As I drown in my regrets
I can’t take back the words I never said

"Now you can say it ain't our fault if we never heard it
But if we know better than we probably deserve it
Jihad is not a holy war, wheres that in the worship?
Murdering is not Islam!
And you are not observant
And you are not a muslim
Israel don’t take my side cause look how far you’ve pushed them
Walk with me into the ghetto, this where all the Kush went
Complain about the liquor store but what you drinking liquor for?
Complain about the gloom but when’d you pick a broom up?
Just listening to Pac ain't gone make it stop
A rebel in your thoughts, ain't gon make it halt
If you don’t become an actor you’ll never be a factor
Pills with million side effects
Take em when the pains felt
Wash them down with Diet soda!
Killin off your brain cells
Crooked banks around the World
Would gladly give a loan today
So if you ever miss payment
They can take your home away!

"It’s so loud inside my head
With words that I should have said!
As I drown in my regrets
I can’t take back the words I never said, never said
I can’t take back the words I never said

"I think that all the silence is worse than all the violence
Fear is such a weak emotion that's why I despise it
We scared of almost everything, afraid to even tell the truth
So scared of what you think of me, I’m scared of even telling you
Sometimes I’m like the only person I feel safe to tell it to
I’m locked inside a cell in me, I know that there’s a jail in you
Consider this your bailing out, so take a breath, inhale a few
My screams is finally getting free, my thoughts is finally yelling through

"It’s so loud Inside my head
With words that I should have said!
As I drown in my regrets
I can’t take back the words I never said."