what makes this Bomb different?

["Kenneth Hawkins" <ken.hawkins@xxxxxxxx>]

>>> Keithjmoon70@aol.com 01/17/03 06:16AM >>>
>>Pete just admits who we really are.  He is struggling with the fact that
there is an evil thing in us that is trying to completely destroy us.
Unpleasant?  You bet it is.  But this is what makes him my hero in the music
world.  How easy it would be to live a pretend life.  A spoon-fed life. A
"successful" life. He will have none of that.  He can see things and he is
pointing at them.  They are inside of him and they are also inside of us if
we admit it.  He is my hero because he does.<<

Jon, you hit the nail on the head.  It is extremely interesting to consider
the events of the last week in light of what Pete has written about the
Lifehouse concept and his points in A Different Bomb.  He actually says in the
Lifehouse interview with Matt on his website (which can still be read) that he
knew many people who chose, instead of engaging life w/ all its rough edges,
to "opt out" and hide out, along with those who become numb with what the Grid
puts out, i.e., the "couch potatos."  He had that option too but says he kept
in the fight to be engaged, to speak out, to "show up," to make things better.
And this resonates with his 12 Step program as well, because succumbing to the
haze of alcohol and/or drug abuse is "another" way of opting out of life.  One
that Pete knows about and has fought valiantly against for years.

What did Pete mean by titling his essay "A Different Bomb" with the word
"Different" in italics???   in his interview with Matt on Lifehouse, he
pointed out that he was born into a world that had been turned upside down by
the atomic bomb.  It literally changed everything from what had come before -
a sea change as it were.  The A-Bomb, I might add, can arguably be seen to
have both positive and negative aspects.  It can/could be used for good/evil.
Now Pete draws attention to A Different Bomb - the Grid, the Internet, the
dark and evil things that it is being perverted to as a means of "medicating"
or numbing out the masses.  It too signals a sea change in society.  It too
has light and dark areas.  Pete is saying that the dark side is gaining the
upper hand and something MUST be done about it.

He rightly drew parallels from an addiction to Internet pornography to other
types of addiction, rightly understood as a disease.  And, in the diary
entries from last summer and fall, he began to call for treatment - not
automatic incarceration or witchhunts - of those whose addiction to
pornography were leading them to the siren call of child porn.  Look around
and you can easily see that the sexualization of children is rampant in main
stream "respectable" media.  The tabloids blast pedophilia on page 1 and
feature nude teens on page 3!  Its no wonder that Operation Ore has snared
thousands of people from every walk of life.

>>>I am in no way suggesting that he is a pedophile.  This is a horrible sin.
But it is a sin among many sins.  He made one thing very clear: He does not
agree with this sin and is fighting against it.<<<

Nor am I.  It is clear that Pete is fighting it, and whether it turns out that
he is fighting against it partly in himself does not matter to me.  It would
not make him less a hero in my eyes, because I know the Good in him has got
the upper hand.  It is possible, after all, to hate the sin and love the
sinner.  Pete has not given me any reason to doubt his word (well, he has told
the occasional fib) but not when it comes to this matter.  It is deadly
serious.  Pray for him, his family and close friends, and for us.

Ken in MD

Don't listen to the words I say, weighing up if I'm enlightened,
Don't shiver as you pass me by, 'cause mister I'm the one who's frightened,
The police just came and left, they wanted me and no one else,
Don't pretend that you know me 'cause I don't even know myself,
I said I don't know myself.