The knee-jerk dismissal (by some) of Putin's remarks is so drearily typical of the 'Ugly American'

[Raksha]

159. I can't speak for anyone but myself, obviously, but is there some reason we can't do both?

Re "If it means that we shouldn't call for reform anywhere until we ourselves are perfect, that's a very hypocritical thing around here."

I agree with you. I see calling for justice at home and calling for justice overseas, and being equally passionate and sincere about both, as two sides of the same coin.

Re "Specifically, should any US citizen be bitching about an Israeli occupation until we give the US back to the Native Americans? Should we have only fought the Japanese in WWII and left Germany alone?"

Again, why not do both at the same time? That's what I do. Giving the U.S. (the whole country) back to the Native Americans isn't practical or desirable, but we can still do whatever we can to increase their self-sufficiency and quality of life on the few scraps of marginal land they still control or would like to control.

For example: Two days ago I signed a petition asking the government to buy back the site of Wounded Knee and Pine Ridge and turning it over to the Oglalla Sioux. It is currently owned by a greedy profiteering non-Native individual who is asking $4.9 million for it--when the actual assessed value of the land, not counting its priceless cultural and historical value--is $14,000! I kid you not.

This morning I made a small donation to Amnesty International for the assistance of Syrian refugees, which I'm happy to say was sponsored by my heroine Joan Baez. I'm kind of surprised (although I shouldn't be) that with all the talk about those two million Syrian refugees, that there haven't been a lot more high-profile relief drives to help them directly. It seems they are being invoked basically as propaganda fodder, and not being seen as real people.

As far as Israel/Palestine goes I favor a two-state solution. That's way too complicated to get into here, though--in fact it's a whole other DU forum.

Yeah, so I'm a bleeding heart liberal! I don't see that as anything to be ashamed of.

I'm also getting more than a little bit bored with zero-sum arguments.