Recently I did a minor good deed for a complete stranger, and after thanking me he said, "You must be a Christian." I’ve been told that before, and it always irritates me. The next time I’m going to say that no, I’m actually Jewish/Hindu/Buddhist/Muslim/Atheist. I’d like a reaction to that. Would you still invite me to the church you created in your basement? Would you throw my five dollars back at me? Were you mistaken?

Technically, I am "Christian." But that’s not what makes me a good person (at least I try). You’d think the world could tally up the pedophile priests and figure that out for themselves. You’d think we could look back on the Nazis, the witch-burners, and the Spanish Inquisition, which basically introduced systematic torture and fascism to the world, and come to the conclusion that Christianity does not equal goodness, kindness, giving, or peace on Earth.

My brief Sunday school education did teach me that the basis of Christianity is good deeds, charity. A collection plate to benefit the leaky church roof means nothing to me. Preaching charity once a week does not erase the history, the past two millennia, of Christianity’s flaws, and actions speak louder than words. No one and nothing is perfect. And the next person out there to give their time or money really will be a non-Christian. And what will you say then?

Jennifer Leblanc

"My client is the victim of this abhorrent crime. I believe her sentence contravenes the Islamic Sharia law and violates the pertinent international convention… The judicial bodies should have dealt with this girl as the victim rather than the culprit." —Lawyer Abdel Rahman al-Lahem, speaking about the sentence handed down to his client, who was the victim of a gang rape in Saudi Arabia.  She is sentenced to 200 lashes and 6 months in jail.  From the Shia minority in Saudi Arabia, the woman, who is now 19, was gang-raped 14 times a year and a half ago in an eastern province of the kingdom.  Despite the brutal rape, the woman was punished for violating laws on segregation of the sexes, as she was in the car of an unrelated man when she was raped, and unrelated men and women are forbidden from congregating.  When she appealed her original sentence of 90 lashes, her sentence was more than doubled, as the judges accused her of trying to manipulate the media.  Seven men were sentenced to prison for the rape, the least sentence being less than one year, and the heaviest sentence being five years.  The rapists could have received the death penalty.  
 

Mimi Hanaoka

Maybe it’s because I see the path of how WWII (even WWI) led to the world we have today (WWII — Cold War — Middle East — War on Terror). Maybe it’s the unprecedented Armageddon-like nature of WWII for entire continents. But I’m endlessly fascinated by WWII. More specifically, the European theater.

"Unprecedented" would be the word I could use in every sentence here. When, in the history of our world, had a group (six million, to be more accurate) of human beings been systematically collected, experimented on, and erased? When had every corner of the world been engaged in, and then forever geographically and ethnically altered by, a single war? The largest-scale war ever. Entire towns and villages were bombed to ashes. Europe was dragged from the old world to the new world. Some countries are still reeling, 60 years later, economically, emotionally, culturally. Others — such as England and France — are sound in the 21st century but still dealing with the influx of immigrants, as with Romania, which was just admitted into the European Union last year.

What effect could the American Baby Boom have had on the world population when Russia alone lost 25 million people in the war? I could write bits and pieces and speculate forever.
The War by Ken Burns is only told by the American perspective. It’s not even close to a definitive account. A documentary never can be — we would have to spend the rest of our lives watching. WWII documentaries and books are, at best, pieces of a giant historic puzzle that will never be completed. Considering the scope of the war and the people involved, The War would have to be much longer than it’s seven-part, 14-hour length. Burns acknowledges this:

The Second World War was fought in thousands of places, too many for any one accounting. This is the story of four American towns and how their citizens experienced that war.

But it’s still worth 14 hours of your time.

•Did you know that American housewives were asked to save and turn in the fat they cooked bacon in to help the war effort? If you’re a nerd like me, you’ll want to know why: the nitroglycerin in the fat was used to make explosives. 

•The Allies expected the advance far into France a few days after landing on the beach at Normandy. It took them until July because of the unforgiving Normandy countryside. But when they rolled into Paris, every French woman kissed every soldier on both cheeks.

•The Americans could have a few hundred German soldiers surrounded, and they’d surrender. They could have a single Japanese soldier captured, and he’d fight everyone to the death. The Germans and Americans took a reprieve from bombing and shooting every afternoon to tend to their wounded and dead. The Japanese were relentless and non-stop.

•One soldier recounts his first bombing mission, and being physically sick after landing back at the base, knowing he had just killed people. Another recounts how instead of remorse (he was a Sunday school teacher and choir boy back at home), he felt pride and excitement after his first kill.

•Still another describes coming face to face with a German soldier, his hands in the air. The German reached into his coat, most likely to get a gun. The American knocks him out. Turns out, the German was reaching in to get a picture of his wife and children, a sign of his humanity, to say, I’m the enemy, but I’m a father and husband, I’m a man. "That’s war," the American soldier says.

The War is far from perfect, but it’s still worth your time. 

Jennifer Leblanc