It Is What It Is

I recently went to The New Museum in NYC. It was unlike any museum I had ever visited (you can tell just from viewing the outside of the building). Each floor was dedicated to a different installation but the one the stuck me the most was called It Is What It Is. There were couches and chairs set up in the middle of a warehouse sized room and there was a very serious discussion going on. Next to this was a hunk of twisted, rusted metal that with closer inspection one could tell had once been a car. At first I could not understand why these people were having a conversation in the midst of an exhibition. As I moved into the room I realized that the conversation was being led by an Iraqi doctor. Sitting down to listen to the group the doctor was explaining how Iraq was unlike anything the media portrayed of his country. He went on to talk about the bomb that had gone off in one of the country's main shopping centers, which is where the car had come from, and all the devastation he had witnessed in his profession. Hearing this man's take on the war was unsettling. The media portrays Iraq as anti-American, angry, and uneducated to just name a few. This man in front of us was none of those things. He came of his own accord to this exhibition to enlighten us of his beloved country. There was no spite in his voice, no anger. He seemed hopeful and was glad to be sharing his stories with us.
It is extremely unfortunate how whatever the media says is what most readily accept as the truth. We are no longer allowed the right to form our own opinions of events since there is so much information being thrown at us through television and radio. One is forced to dig through mountains of reporting in order to discover the unbiased truth. Just because there is a war going on does not mean that everyone from all sides are against the other. Both sides working together to enlighten the other of their ways of life, rather than forcing belief systems upon each other is what is going to save us all.