Given current events, you might think this is a subjective piece, for or against one side of the unfolding conflict. But this is actually a plea for objectivity. I was driving to work today and shocked at the language the journalists were using on the radio news. As long as countries consider themselves victims and others the enemy, this language promotes entrenched conflict. If you want to stop being taken advantage of, this oppositional, or as cultural theory says, binary opposition (two bipolar perspectives) then this language must stop.

Before we can see a solution to this conflict – the same one that causes people to throw up their hands and say, "it’ll never end or change" – we have to change the language we use. Everyone. Politicians, the media, everyday citizens.

Then we’ll pull aside this smokescreen of conflict to deal with real problems.

Like where does the money go that’s donated to these ‘victims"? And how can a democractially elected government take action that is so harmful to its people? Or where is the boundary between defense and aggression?

Your thoughts? What can we do to see a different pattern of behavior in the occupied territory?

All in all, a scary way to start 2009.