Thursday 26 January 2006
And
necessary! This is the theme for the World Social Forum that I (along
with tens of thousands of people from all over the world) am attending
in Caracas this week. I know the idea of a world where everyone lives
in peace and with justice is very "subversive," but the theme is very
close to my heart and soul. We need a new world. This one is broken.
Before
my son Casey was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004, I had never traveled
much to speak of. I had gone to Israel and Mexico and that was about
it. I had a barely used passport. Since
I began to speak out against the dishonesty and deception that led to
this illegal and morally reprehensible occupation of Iraq, I have
journeyed all over the United States and now am starting to fill my
passport with stamps. Our
world is so beautiful, and the people who inhabit it are, for the most,
part loving - and all they want is a good life for themselves and their
children. They just want to feel safe and secure in their communities.
They want to be warm and fed. They want clean drinking water and they
want to dance and laugh when appropriate. They want to live long lives
with their families and they want their children to bury them at the end of their time here. In short, the people of the world want what we Americans want.
It
is our governments who want to demonize and marginalize other cultures,
religions, races and ethnic groups. George Bush and his cold-hearted
cronies and his easily misled and willingly blind followers want to
"fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here!" Who
are these "thems" that we are fighting over there? Are they the babies
lying in their cribs when a bomb (chemical or conventional) is dropped
on their house? Is it the mother who has gone shopping for her family's
daily food who is killed by a car bomber who never even thought to
commit such a heinous act until his country was occupied by a foreign
invader? Is it the grandmas and grandpas who are too old, or too
stubborn, to leave their lifelong homes when the coalition troops are
illegally carpet bombing civilian centers? We
as citizens of the United States of America must stop allowing our
leaders to give the orders to kill innocent people. I almost said: we
must stop allowing our leaders to "kill" innocent people. But we all
know the cowards don't fight their own fantasy battles or send their
own children to fight in the causes that they idiotically and
diabolically iterate are "noble." No, they order our children to go
over and do their dishonest and destructive dirty work! Our soldiers
are taught that "Hajis," the brown skinned people of Iraq who clean
their toilets, showers, and wash their clothes, are less than people
... which makes them easier to kill. The dehumanization of the Iraqi
people is also dehumanizing our soldiers. Our children. I
got a hate email from a "patriotic American" once who told me that when
we see the mothers and fathers of Iraq screaming because their babies
have been killed, that they "are just acting for the cameras. They are
animals, who don't care about their children because they know they can
produce another." This is the mentality of General Sherman when he said
"the only good Indian is a dead Indian." This wicked rhetoric is the
rhetoric that dehumanizes us all. A
new world is necessary and it can only be possible if we believe and
live the belief that every human being is inherently the same as we
are. They feel pain when they are hurt. They have hunger pains when
they haven't eaten. Their mouths go dry when they are thirsty. They
mourn when they experience a loss. They shiver when they are cold. They
laugh when they are happy. How can we condone our leaders' killing our
brothers and sisters like this, or even allow it? A
new world is necessary, and it can only be possible if we rein in the
depraved corporations that thrive off of the flesh and blood of our
neighbors all over the world and here in America. War profiteers like
Halliburton, Bechtel and General Electric, who are racking up obscene
profits and increasing the bottom line of their shareholders while they
are running roughshod over this planet. Malevolent companies such as
Dow who dump chemicals and other pollutants into the water and
atmosphere that kill people, our environment and our future! Companies
like Wal Mart that exploit workers in the US and abroad to enrich a
family that already has more than enough money to fund healthcare and a
living wage for all of its employees and have a little extra left over
to pay their country club fees. A
new world is necessary, and it can only be possible if we decrease our
dependency on oil and use some of the money that we are pouring into
the desert sands and sewers of Iraq to expand research on renewable
energy sources and expound and promote the renewable sources we already
have, such as bio-diesel. I have talked to many citizens of Venezuela
who are understandably nervous about a US invasion, and they know that
it is not about the idea that President Chavez is a "dictator," which
he is not, he is a democratically elected leader who is very popular in
his country. The people of Venezuela are very savvy and they know that
if the US invades their country that it won't be because we are
spreading "freedom and democracy" to them. They know they already have
it. A
new world is necessary but not possible, until we Americans get over
the arrogant idea that we can solve the Iraq issue and the human rights
violations problems alone. We have to reach out to fellow members of
the human race all over the world to forge the bonds that are crucial
to protecting innocent members of humankind who are impoverished or
killed by our government and corporatism that has gone wild and is
largely unchecked. Peace
and justice are intimately connected, and the world can't have one
without the other. True and lasting peace can only occur when we the
people force our leadership that is dependent on the war machine for
their jobs and for their lives and demand justice for the crimes
against humanity that are perpetrated on the world on a daily basis by
such "leaders." A
new world is possible, and it is attainable. For this new world to
become a reality, it is necessary for us to take into our beings what
Martin Luther King Jr. said of his own eulogy, but more importantly,
the way he lived his life: "I'd
like somebody to mention that day, that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to
give his life serving others. I'd like for somebody to say that day,
that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to love somebody. I want you to say
that day, that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to
be able to say that day, that I did try, in my life, to clothe those
who were naked. I want you to say, on that day, that I did try, in my
life, to visit those who were in prison. I want you to say that I tried
to love and serve humanity. Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum
major, say that I was a drum major for justice; say that I was a drum
major for peace; I was a drum major for righteousness."
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