Yankee Doodle Dandee...

"Yankee Doodle went to town,
Riding in on Sunday,
Saw some people living there,
And killed them all by Monday."
-Hassan Ibrahim, from the documentary Control Room

This was an evening of documentaries for me. I watched Ben Stein's compelling documentary Expelled (in itself worthy of a blog entry, but not the focus of this one) with my friends youth group, then followed it up with Control Room which documents Al Jazeera's news coverage on the eve of Gulf War II (aka the Iraq War). It was saddening, inspiring, engaging, and angering. Hassan, from the above quote, is a journalist that is rightfully skeptical and critical of Bush's method of bringing democracy to the Iraqi people, namely war.

The documentary shows how Al Jazeera despite criticism attempted to show the human side of war, i.e. civilian casualties, angry survivors, and a frightened populace. It shows how Al Jazeera covered the war through that lense in contrast to the American journalists who were also there in Iraq.

From what I could tell Al Jazeera is perfectly fine showing gruesome images of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians alike, which U.S. media has specific policies against. That's one of the pivotal points of the documentary which tries to show the difference between the Western and Middle Eastern coverage of the same war in an attempt to enlighten its audience.

It just made me more distrusting of news outlets here in the U.S. It also made me want to become an ex-patriate. (The verb form of ex-patriate means to renounce allegiance to one's country and abandon one's nationality voluntarily...I really like that idea.) If I didn't have college loan debt, I would be on a plane tomorrow to anywhere but here. One of my friends was sighing after the documentary and I told her that at least she gets to leave for two years since she's joining the Peace Corps (which I really wish I would have done many mornings).

I mean I love my family and friends so much. More than college loans, they are what keep me here in KCK. But I long to shed this country from my skin and see other places. I do not think there is any nation without evil in its history and without governmental inadequacies. However I also don't think there is any government that parades around behaving so piously whilst having such an unapologetic view of its past sins such as the U.S. Government. So I don't think there is a paradise for me to escape to, but I just don't want to live here or raise a family here.

Not unless I were the President.

But that is another story, for another time.