I thought I would change the look of my website.
Before you critique it, you need to know that it received the “Ann Seal of Approval”.
I found this web posting by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to be particularly revealing in thinking about what may have lead to his extremism.
“I have no one to speak too [sic],” read a posting from January 2005, when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was attending boarding school. “No one to consult, no one to support me and I feel depressed and lonely. I do not know what to do. And then I think this loneliness leads me to other problems.”
This quote was in a lesson by Steve Saccone at Moasic in LA.
“The substance of your conversations mirrors the substance of the relationships that exist in your life.”
Steve Saccone
The dramatic unsuccessful attack by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on a NW Airlines flight from Amsterdam has prompted a huge amount of well deserved attention. There are so many questions to be answered and continuing revelations, I expect the reporting will continue for a many days. There are many interesting insights that are emerging. One particular insight occurred to me as watched a Fox News report yesterday.
The Fox reporter posed the question, “How could this young man from a wealthy and successful family go so wrong?” He went on to describe the how incredulous it is to think that a person who enjoyed the benefits of education, his family’s million dollar homes, a wealthy, prominent, well respected father could chose to abandon such for terror and violence. Another reporter later described the 23 year old as “having all that life could offer”.
What I heard was a revealing commentary on our culture and the values we hold. The clear implication was that somehow education, wealth, prestige and possessions insure families against wayward children. Being fair and balanced, I suppose that when a uneducated terrorist from circumstances of poverty is reported, the commentary would be something like: “It is understandable, given his circumstances, that he would lash out in anger and violence.
It is a beautiful morning. I’m out riding my bike to the beach. There are lots of busy streets and intersections. I decide to cross at one particularly busy intersection so decided to use the pedestrian crosswalk. I waited for the light and when it turned green, I proceeded across forgetting the pedestrian light. Halfway across a woman in car turning left had to wait for me and rudely shouted “Wait for your light, idiot!”
I had an impulse of anger but then I realize it was true. I’m sorry, even if it is true it’s not what I want to hear. Why are people so rude???