Prescott, AZ and The Drum of War

Prescott, AZ and The Drum of War

It is the only place in the world you can visit downtown and see a man dressed up as an 1800s cowboy while texting on his iphone as he pridefully strolls past a seemingly endless row of bars, churches, and priceless antique shops.

It is a town filled with hilarious and often times news worthy hypocrisy.

Old people driving 45 mph over the speed limit while shaking their fist at a terrified 20 year old who is trying their best to avoid your Cadillac Escalade. Christian girls preaching the love of Jesus Christ as they shout insults at the girl who couldn’t afford the yoga pants that cling to your ass crack like the half digested Chipotle you ate for lunch. #science #thanksStephenHawking

A town that has made it its mission to defending the life of every sperm, egg, and pubic hair this

side of the Atlantic Ocean and yet has been pounding the drums of war this past week like they are a coked up Neil Peart who is calling for blood, high casualty counts, and one more encore of Space Invader.

Growing up in this hypocrisy wasn’t easy. My mother worked at Planned Parenthood, my father looked like he was the human embodiment of LSD, and I had a mouth like a well-informed sailor who was driving on the New Jersey turnpike looking to get in a fight.

I was a quick target for anyone looking for a bullseye and in a town that where the local Rugers is the top-seller of handguns in the world, it was hunting season for me.

I lost friends because my mom was a baby killer, I lost friends because I thought homosexuality wasn’t a sin, I lost friends (and this is true) because I ate my McDonalds french fries before we had a chance to thank Jesus for this bountiful meal.

I don’t know if there is ever going to proof that God doesn’t exist, but a Big Mac is pretty damning evidence that the man upstairs has no control over the horrors in this world.

This bullshit would come in floods.  I would see my friends get numb to the current and begin waiting to eat their french fries until their religious charade was over or remaining silent when shit like “I don’t know why they painted that black kid on the mural” casually slipped out of their mouths like they were talking about the weather.

I never got numb. I got louder. I am going to eat my french fries and the only person I am going to thank is Jesús behind the counter.

Thank you Jesús for this food baby that I am about to have and may you spare me of the Hamburgler Squirts. #ButtStuff


This past week Prescott lost a friend who was killed in the push back. Not the push back that I was used to, but a push back much more courageous to fight.

R.I.P. Kayla Mueller - 1988 - 2015

The streets of Heaven are too crowded with angels.

In Prescott, you begin to quickly gravitate to the people who stand-up to the river's current and say hell no. Kayla and I met when we were children and her story continued to interweave with my life. She was my sister’s student at Tri-City Prep where she picked up the flag of Darfur and raised awareness of the genocide that was being undertaken by Omar al-Bashir. She was in the same program as me at NAU where she was motivated by the Syrian conflict to travel to Turkey and help out with the refugee problem. She died pushing back and bringing to light the Syrian refugee epidemic that so many in Prescott and this entire country have refused to learn about.

The bad part you ask?

Her death is now being used as a mallet to the bang the war drum that she worked so hard to silence, escalating the Syrian refugee problem and cementing it as a permanent wound in the Middle East.

I have seen so many Facebook posts from local Prescottonians in the past few days that call for the obliteration of ISIS and for America to reclaim its glory as the destroyer of the Middle East. I understand the frustration. I really do. But, this will never work and only make the problem worse.

Many of my readers (a majority of them from Prescott) have no idea what the current situation of the refugees are in the Middle East. No one can blame you for wanting these men dead. I want them dead too, but Kayla wasn't trying to kill them. She was trying to protect their victims. 

In honor of Kayla, I will try and do my best to explain the gravity of the situation, why it matters, and why we need to silence that drum. And I will try and do it in less than 4 minutes. 

The Refugee Crisis

Currently there are an estimated 4 million refugees that have been displaced because of the Syrian Civil War. Now if you are anything like me, you have no idea if that number is small or big or scary or ignorable.

In order to even begin to imagine the scope of this situation, we are going to have to break down that number in a way that means anything to us. The brunt of this refugee crisis has hit two nations incredibly hard.  Lebanon and Jordan

Let’s first look at

Lebanon

Lebanon has done everything it can to avoid having Syrian Refugees. In Lebanon, refugees are not allowed to own land, hold a job, apply for citizenship, rent a house, or even set up a tent. They
have done this because of the very real possibility that their country will collapse because of how many refugees they have.

Lebanon has an estimated 1.8 million refugees which is absolutely insane.


Lebanon only has a population of 4.5 million people, so that means if the same level of the refugee crisis was happening in the United States we would have 125 million+ refugees

One in 3 people in Lebanon is a Syrian Refugee

                                                                    
                                                        Jordan

Jordan doesn’t have it much better. They have accepted refugees but they have put them in the middle of the desert and basically in one huge camp. To the right is a former Iraqi refugee camp that was forced to evacuate because of the new conflict. ISIS as well as bombings by the opposition forced this camp to evacuate.  Over 80,000 refugees were forced to bring everything they could and make their way through the Jordan desert where they will spend most of their life in a refugee camp.

Now, because of that move the 4th biggest city in Jordan now is a Syrian Refugee Camp. Imagine how seriously we would take the refugee problem if we had a camp bigger than the size of Houston. 

The worst part you ask?

These refugees didn’t come with anything. They lack language skills, money, or any hope that any government will truly save them for this atrocity. For many of them, they will be stuck in this horrible wasteland between nations, never having a home again, and never getting out of these camps.

Lebanon has been holding Palestinian refugees since 1948 and that refugee population now tops 500,000. These camps continue to grow and babies are born into a hell that none of us can imagine.

I just hope they are thanking Jesús before they eat their fries. He did such a good job making them.

Kayla refused to quit. These odds seem impossible, but instead of staying in Prescott and going to the rodeo dance she did something about it. She refused to become numb from the constant barrage of bullshit that would enter her daily life. She gave up everything to go to Turkey to lend a desperately needed hand in an seemingly unsolvable problem. This courage is so moving that I can’t continue to stay silent on the matter, I can’t continue to let the river of bullshit numb me any longer.

Obama submitted a bill to Congress today that would authorize the use of force and escalate a situation in the Middle East by placing American ground troops into the situation. The United States has been criticized by every major politician and country for not being involved enough in the fighting.  A conflict that has already cost the American taxpayer over $1 billion dollars or $300 million dollars per month. They want to escalate this conflict? How well did it work before to double down on Iraq?

Do we really want to involve ourselves again in the Middle East when we are just one sour bottle of Jack Daniels from all out war? Are we the sobering cup of coffee or are we the drunk douchebag who thinks what he really needs to do is another kegstand to win over Wendy?

She's over there fucking the kid without the Burger King crown on his head

Let me show you a different path.

For Wendy!

The entire amount that has been spent for that huge refugee camp up there?

$327 million.                                                                                                           

The amount spent on the Iraq war so far?

$2.1 trillion.

Only $5 billion dollars has been spent by the entire globe to solve the Syrian refugee crisis. For comparison, the world spent $5 billion last year on ringtones alone.

We have the power to solve the refugee crisis. Imagine the good we could have done with the Iraq War budget. Kayla was not on a suicide mission. Rather than have America go back into Iraq and potentially spending just as much money as we did before, we could be a power of good instead. I fear as many pundits do, that recommitting America to Iraq will further entrench us in a conflict where we can only do more harm.

Rather than continue this hypocrisy to say we stand for freedom and prosperity in the world while we continue to drop bombs on their heads, while we do nothing for them as refugees spend their lives in a hollowed out train cars, let us actually stand for freedom and prosperity and do something for the 4 million people that Kayla was trying to help.

Prescott, you have some of the most amazing people I have ever met in my life. Giants that stood above the rest as leaders among their peers. Visionaries who saw new ways of approaching the world that inspire the most disgruntled among us. Geniuses who are able to dissect a problem and emerge victorious despite doubts and criticisms that enveloped them.

Kayla was one of these unique Prescottonians. None of us would even hesitate to put her in this category.

 I am not sure what I am going to do with the next few years of my life, but I will be damned if I don’t stand up and run with Kayla’s flag because this conflict is far from over and she is sadly not going to be last casualty .

Live Deliberately

John Danger Kelly