Wisdom of Gingrich

One of the perks of not being a city councilor anymore, is that I'm reading nothing on sewer easements and community development block grant applications, which leaves me a lot more time to read...yes it's true...books.

I am currently reading my autographed copy of Newt Gingrich's latest book, Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America. It's a bit strange to be wading into national and international issues again, after three years of being mired in local issues. In fact, as someone who used to think of himself as a pretty knowledgeable guy on national and international events, I'm realizing I'm going to have at least a two year hole in my knowledge.

Anyway...I read one passage in Newt's book that I thought summed up very well a lot of why Americans don't understand the current war we find ourselves in. The fact is, words matter and the words we choose to describe things effect the way we perceive things. As we all know, perception to often is reality. Here's what Gingrich writes:

"Because post-modern analysts refuse to take religion seriously, we describe "suicide bombers" while our opponents describe martyrs. We see them as psychologically deranged, where they see themselves as dedicated to God."

The long and short of it is, as long as our media continues to filter our current military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan through a secular sieve, the public is going to be at a loss to understand the vehement hatred that is being leveled at our troops and our nation.

In other words, you can't take God out of a holy war.