what happened to the war on terror?

well, apparently, it's alive and well. last week, i was very surprised to see the war on terror represented by a woman in a burqa on cnn. in fact, the term can hardly be considered "surprise." mortification, disappointment, outrage. i suppose those words describe my feelings a little more accurately.

now, in light of our recent readings about the media being in a position to tell me what to think about, rather than necessarily what to think, i chose to do just that. i want to think about this issue. i don't want to forget the fact that while i sit so comfortably in my relative peace and freedom, she might not have either. she might go to sleep tonight wondering if she will wake up in the morning, or what the impact of all of the violence around her will have on her children. she might wish that she could attend a university program at royal roads. she might wish to be loved.

or she might smile. and under her burqa, she might feel joy. she might hug her child or kiss her husband. she might feel contentment. she might see beauty in the warmth of the sunrise.

she is not a terrorist.

WHY did cnn choose to use an image of a woman in a burqa to represent terrorism and all of the horrible things that go along with it? WHY did they visually assign blame to a woman who likely had nothing to do with times square, or car bombs, or radical ideology? WHY did they associate an unrelated facet of afghani culture with terrorist plots and hatred towards americans? WHAT does this mean for our society? HOW did that image make it through the 5 filters of propaganda to make it to my tv? WHEN will our culture stop profiling and villifying all middle-easterners as terrorists?

does this have a shade of 1930s nazi germany? do images of middle-easterners with text suggesting that they have terrorist connections create a subtle fear in the north american populace, and create justification for our own hatred? i refuse to believe that others are the cause of all of my problems.

i decided that, this week, i'm going to expect the media to use propaganda for peace, and i'm going to find an example of it. there must be some, right, edward bernays? i hope you're right.