POLITICS AND NATURE

Two days since Christmas and the harsh vicious nature of life again has smacked the world. Thomas Hobbes wrote that life was “nasty, brutish, and short” and so it was for Benazir Bhutto. Rarely does humanity abide by Jesus’ call to turn the other cheek. Pakistanis retaliated against a state trying to crush dissent. Will justice find its way into the halls of Pakistani governance?

Violence leaves sadness and terror in its wake. Bhutto knew the end was possibly near. Still, she provided a voice of reason in a sea of madness. Security measures didn’t save John, Bobby, Malcolm, Martin, or Huey. Perhaps we shouldn’t be astonished a presidential contender in today’s Wild West, gunned down by a fanatic, learned a lesson of power and life the hard way. Our hearts go out to the people of Pakistan.

Pakistan, of course, has been a central front on the War on Terror. No one seems to know who gunned down Benazir. She was 54 years old. The daughter of a former leader of Pakistan who founded the Pakistan People’s Party and served as president and prime minister until he was ousted by a coup (apparently the norm for Pakistan) in 1977. He was convicted of murder, I guess, (crafting the killing of an opponent) and executed in 1979. Not the most promising of family genealogy.

Bhutto herself was committed of corruption charges. I don’t know the details behind her corruption charges but it’s a bit odd how prime ministers don’t get voted out of office but shoved out by strong armed bandits who then take the mantel of leadership while accusing whoever they kicked to the curb of terrible crimes and corrupt activities.

For all I know, Benazir Bhutto was guilty as charged, although I have found no evidence of this. Of course, I’m no investigative reporter. I doubt it. And she spent the last eight years away from her home nation and she came back into the limelight and battled the terrorists with ideas. It may seem the terrorists have won with a bullet, but her words will live on much longer than some coward who refused to face the music by taking out himself and 20 or so others armed with a self destructive ideology.