World Mourns Robin William' Death as Genocide Largely Ignored in Middle East

WARNING: Prepare to be offended – Since every person feels the need to chime in on Robin Williams’ death through social media as a collective mourning process for our nation of tabloid obsessed, celebrity worshiping citizens, I would like to offer a counterpoint that I hope will at least shock some people into realizing there has been a total loss of perspective within our society’s sense of importance.

 

Robin Williams’ death is sad and as a fan of many of his movies, I too am saddened that he’s gone. As a Christian I’m also saddened for him and his family if he was not saved at the time of his death. That however, is between he and God and I will make no judgment calls.

 

Facebook, Twitter and every news agency is currently awash in individuals expressing their sadness while voicing worlds of both inspiration and condolence.  While this in and of itself is a reasonable thing to do when someone who as affected millions of lives passes, I believe that the overwhelming response itself shows the clear lack of perspective that is pervasive in our tabloid society.

 

Something I have seen catching on in social media is the quote from Aladdin, “Genie, you’re free.” People who are posting it are doing so as a “cute” way of tying one of his characters into the idea of being freed from the emotional chains that bound him while he was alive. I must say LOUDLY that I reject this notion that suicide is an expression of “freedom”. Everyone who cares about loved ones who have struggled with depression knows that the last thing they would want their depressed loved one to believe is that suicide will “free them” from their struggles. As a society we must stop this ignorant moniker that may lead others who struggle with depression to see Robin Williams’ suicide as somehow “inspirational”. Here are articles echoing this perspective.

 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/12/genie-you-re-free-suicide-is-not-liberation.html#

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/08/12/suicide-contagion-and-social-media-the-dangers-of-sharing-genie-youre-free/

 

Having said that I believe we all need to step back and look at things from an objective standpoint. What happened? ONE man died. He was not murdered, he killed himself. Based on what society tells us to value or desire, one would say that he had EVERYTHING. He had wealth, fame and adoring fans around the whole world. He got to do what he loved for decades and was rewarded handsomely for it. He was known for being funny, supporting our troops and philanthropic causes. He was also known for having substance abuse problems, having fairly crass stand-up routines (which could be a shock for those who’ve only experienced his performances in family friendly movies) and his trademark acting style was not original but technically inspired by the acting style of his mentor, Jonathan Winters. (Don’t believe me? Watch Winters play Lennie Pike in “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World” released in 1963… 14 years before Robin Williams’ career begins. ) But again, we lost ONE man who happened to be famous.

 

At the same time, on the other side of the world we have literal genocide happening EVERYDAY. Thousands of innocent civilians, both Christian and peaceful Muslim sects are being murdered, EVERYDAY. It is a global tragedy unfolding in our midst. Men are being rounded up, driven out into the desert and shot. Women are being raped and mutilated. Children are being literally dismembered. People are being buried alive by the hundreds in mass graves. Families are fleeing into the mountains and deserts, desperately seeking sanctuary from the murderous hands of ISIS (Islamic State as they’re now called) and other extremist groups. And to top it off, this tragedy did not just start yesterday, last week or last month. It has been a continually escalating problem that has bled over from one country to another, throughout the Middle East for several years. Wherever regime change has occurred, genocide propagated by the “freedom fighters” (Islamic extremist groups) has followed. In Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Iraq and others, this has been a common theme. Meanwhile, because it is somehow in the United States’ interests to have the Syrian government overthrown, with money, food and weapons we have bipartisanly sponsored many of the very groups responsible for genocidal war crimes against innocent minority groups. Do you wonder why it’s taken the Obama Administration so long to act against ISIS in Iraq? It’s because this group was and IS waging a proxy war on our behalf in Syria. How can you continue to support their efforts in one country while fighting them in another? You can have only one master. The meager humanitarian and military efforts the US government has made of late is nothing more than a PR campaign meant to look like we’re actually trying to protect the innocent multitudes from the very group we sponsored!  Below is an excerpt from an article detailing the “impact” our food drops have had on Iraq. I think “impact” is an appropriate word to describe it as you’ll see why.

 

“Two American aid flights have also made it to the mountain, where they have dropped off more than 36,000 meals and 7,000 gallons of drinking water to help the refugees, and last night two RAF C-130 transport planes were also on the way.”

 

“However, Iraqi officials said that much of the US aid had been “useless” because it was dropped from 15,000ft without parachutes and exploded on impact.”

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/11024037/Iraq-crisis-It-is-death-valley.-Up-to-70-per-cent-of-them-are-dead.html

 

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/08/fellow-christian-brothers-sisters-know-government-supporting-islamic-terrorists.html

 

http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-sponsored-terrorism-in-iraq-and-constructive-chaos-in-the-middle-east/5387653

 

http://www.globalresearch.ca/who-is-ambassador-robert-stephen-ford-the-architect-of-us-sponsored-terrorism-in-syria/5385973

 

 

My point in saying all of this is simple. While we take to social media to join in a collective memorial service for a person who committed suicide even though he had EVERYTHING you could want in life, a massive humanitarian tragedy is unfolding where hundreds of thousands of innocent Christians and peaceful Muslims are dying martyrs deaths day in and day out. Why are we not collectively outraged by this? Why are we not posting our outrage on Facebook and Twitter or better yet, descending on Washington D.C. to express our outrage and disgust? Perhaps if Robin Williams would have been executed by ISIS militants and the video was shown on TMZ would our nation’s population finally react with an appropriate level of outrage at what is happening in the Middle East?

 

I say the following with 100% certainty: This Sunday, Christian churches all across America will mention Robin Williams’ death but few will speak of the tragedy unfolding across the globe where hundreds of thousands of Christian brothers and sisters are paying the ultimate price for their faith. Where is the outpouring of prayer for the protection of the innocent? Where is the call to action to pressure our leaders to not only move to protect our brethren, but also to cease funding these groups who engage in genocidal tactics? There have been peaceful Christian communities in Syria that have existed continuously since the religion’s establishment 2000 years ago and within the past several years the “freedom fighters” WE support, have wiped them out! They were living there peacefully under the Assad regime whom we’re told is the villain! There is no outcry on their behalf, but a comedian ends his own life and the world must stand still while we grieve???

 

I cannot keep my frustration inside any longer. One man’s depressed act of selfishness does not supersede the tragic genocide of hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children who wanted to live out their meager lives in peace! No fame, no wealth, no adoring fans. Just humble, challenging lives built on family values and their unwavering faith. If only we could unite behind causes that really matter instead of obsessing over tabloid mindlessness, perhaps we as a society could actually create a better world rather than ignoring it as it burns.

 

#WakeUpPeople1776