Driving carefully along the narrow street, she said, "I presented you
with an outline of how an industrious, generous, and kind people have
been led into blindly participating in the destruction of not just their
society, but so many others along the way. Their system has been co rrupt
for years, and the population duped, but they will come to see how this
happened."
"Why not pick on Canada? I mean, you know that I know we‘re no
better; we‘re just more polite about it."
"I‘m not picking on anyone; your views are impaired by almost
caring about Canada."
"Almost?"
"You literally aren‘t capable of caring about much other than yourself
right now, but we‘re changing that."
"I have nothing against Americans."
"You also have nothing heartfelt to say for them, but because you are
familiar with their society you can see the points I‘ll make from a safer
distance. Fundamentally, they will apply to Canada."
"Uh huh. How will they correct their situation?"
"The same way you will recover your sanity." Without further
explanation, she said, "You also believe that I slammed both you and the
media you represented for being irresponsible, which they often are in a
crucial way, but editorial staff don‘t realize what they are doing anymore
than you did, because they‘re inside the manipulations they unwittingly
perpetuate. That said, a free press is the life-breath of developing and
sustaining cultures; we‘ll probably get into that later this week."
"Anything else I may have twisted?"
"You believe that I secretly judge soldiers for their abhorrent acts,"
she continued unconcerned, "because I made a point of stating that these
acts didn‘t happen by themselves."
"What else was I to believe?" I asked her honestly.
"Kha- lib explained that in our first Saturday class: The key word is
act."
Leaving me to recall that lesson, she said. "I‘m deeply saddened
when anyone chooses to defeat their personalities in a way that does not
tolerate the ignorant enthusiasm of youth, or the perverse mechanisms of
their versions of nationalism."
"You lead me to believe otherwise," I said.
"You did that when I was finding out what you are really like; I never
lied to you."
"Maybe not directly." I couldn‘t recall. "But you didn‘t tell me the
whole truth, either."
