The Collateral Damage of Mendacious Minds

Only minds deluded by righteous fiction can find validity in the war-induced words, "collateral damage." When I read those words, and when I feel myself tempted to see them as utterances of sane people, I think of San Diego and my grandchildren, and imagine that some "great man," seeking to kill a "major terrorist," has killed Alan and Dianne and their mother Dagny, my beautiful daughter. "Collateral damage" becomes up close and personal then, and -- well yes -- I lose my cool with the thought and blame innocent Christians for the acts of their fellow travellers. But truth be told, we are all responsible for the bastardizations of language and ideas that let such words as "collateral damage" creep into our conversation with reality.

Our minds operate holistically, hidden truths and falsehoods working subconsciously together to produce our view of the world. And out of that "fragmented, confused, and incomplete" view, we do what we do to ourselves and others . . . .

We call it "collateral damage." How else could we live with the horror?