SpaceToast
Really Really Experienced
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2002
- Posts
- 309
As many of you know, there was a sizeable peace rally today in Boston. I got an email foreward for it from an ex-girlfriend (being the only person she knew in Boston), and wrote the following back. I thought I'd post it here just to open up a bit of discussion, on the eve of Election Day-
-M@
-----
It was one of the most truly sick spectacles of my life going to hear Howard Zinn speak at my school approximately a week after September 11 of last year. I went out of respect for the author, and because we were all, suddenly, simultaneously, and nervously, thinking. Perhaps that's an overstatement: we merely didn't know. For a moment, in its own way as glorious as the cheers directed toward rescue workers at "Ground Zero," we just didn't think we knew.
I went for some intelligent discussion. I got a rally. Zinn had brought in the head of a local Socialist party, (an uncomfortable, kneedly little gent of the sort that one might hope his daughter wouldn't bring home from Harvard) who was speaking in advocacy of Socialism. He brought a Palestinian woman, who spoke passionately about the evils of Israel. There were others, who I've since forgotten. Lastly was Zinn, who spoke in advocacy of peace.
Even in a heavily supportive, severely overcrowded auditorium of chanting students (I was sitting on the windowsill, and there were people behind me outside on each others' shoulders trying to hear) Zinn offered nothing in the way of practical discussion, instead steering toward scoring points with the already converted mass, and indeed fumbling the most important question from the audience at the end; what then should we do?
One girl, on the verge of tears, stood up at the end and decried the Palestinian woman's point that we should hate Israel, instead of the Arab world -- trading one hatred for another. The girl was booed. (The Palestinian woman too fumbled her response badly.)
A peace rally is a war rally, is a peace rally, is a war rally. The preachers preach. The flock cries "hail Mary!" Nothing is solved.
And the harm is done. The harm is ignored. Peace is not always possible. Military force is not always the best course of action. Isolationism didn't turn out well, nor did Colonialism. By doing nothing, we encourage local strong-arms around the world to perform any despicable acts they wish, to consolidate their power, without fear of retribution. By acting, we change the dynamics of the region, leaving new imbalances and hot-spots that can flare up again in years to come. We're against imposing our ideals on other cultures, unless it means women's clitorises won't be forcibly removed anymore.
I hate arrogance, and I hate dogma; I hate Bush's just as much as Zinn's. Maybe I'll go to part of the rally just to report, but I've seen it already. And I'm tired of it. I'm tired of vital national issues being treated as religious issues. We need to be practical. We need to discuss ideas as rational, sane people. That was the idea behind Democracy, not this crap.
Don't compress the issues. Life is this hard-
-M@
-M@
-----
It was one of the most truly sick spectacles of my life going to hear Howard Zinn speak at my school approximately a week after September 11 of last year. I went out of respect for the author, and because we were all, suddenly, simultaneously, and nervously, thinking. Perhaps that's an overstatement: we merely didn't know. For a moment, in its own way as glorious as the cheers directed toward rescue workers at "Ground Zero," we just didn't think we knew.
I went for some intelligent discussion. I got a rally. Zinn had brought in the head of a local Socialist party, (an uncomfortable, kneedly little gent of the sort that one might hope his daughter wouldn't bring home from Harvard) who was speaking in advocacy of Socialism. He brought a Palestinian woman, who spoke passionately about the evils of Israel. There were others, who I've since forgotten. Lastly was Zinn, who spoke in advocacy of peace.
Even in a heavily supportive, severely overcrowded auditorium of chanting students (I was sitting on the windowsill, and there were people behind me outside on each others' shoulders trying to hear) Zinn offered nothing in the way of practical discussion, instead steering toward scoring points with the already converted mass, and indeed fumbling the most important question from the audience at the end; what then should we do?
One girl, on the verge of tears, stood up at the end and decried the Palestinian woman's point that we should hate Israel, instead of the Arab world -- trading one hatred for another. The girl was booed. (The Palestinian woman too fumbled her response badly.)
A peace rally is a war rally, is a peace rally, is a war rally. The preachers preach. The flock cries "hail Mary!" Nothing is solved.
And the harm is done. The harm is ignored. Peace is not always possible. Military force is not always the best course of action. Isolationism didn't turn out well, nor did Colonialism. By doing nothing, we encourage local strong-arms around the world to perform any despicable acts they wish, to consolidate their power, without fear of retribution. By acting, we change the dynamics of the region, leaving new imbalances and hot-spots that can flare up again in years to come. We're against imposing our ideals on other cultures, unless it means women's clitorises won't be forcibly removed anymore.
I hate arrogance, and I hate dogma; I hate Bush's just as much as Zinn's. Maybe I'll go to part of the rally just to report, but I've seen it already. And I'm tired of it. I'm tired of vital national issues being treated as religious issues. We need to be practical. We need to discuss ideas as rational, sane people. That was the idea behind Democracy, not this crap.
Don't compress the issues. Life is this hard-
-M@
