Up all night
gets me thinking. There was this grand movement in the '60s and '70s, where Americans started to realize what had been done in the name of freedom and democracy, in the name of our nation, in the name of its citizens. They were overwhelmed by the numbers, the sheer mass of suffering our country was inflicting upon so many innocent people. And a lot of those who die in wars are innocecnt people.
There is a silent protest that is being done on our campus right now. On the front lawn there have been 5,000 red flags placed in the ground, to represent just over 5,000 dead US military in Iraq. There are 100,000 white flags, each representing approximately 6 Iraqi people (soldiers and civilians) that have died in Iraq since the beginning of US presence there. Remember when G. W. Bush said we had won the war in the middle east?
Well, we're still killing people.
One of my friends and I were walking past the flag protest yesterday, and she expressed to me the feeling of being so taken over by the sea of white flags, (from far away it looks like a strange, bright white snow) by the sheer enormity of the numbers, but not feeling like there was anything to do with that feeling of frustration and anger at the slaughter of innocent people. And really, what can we do to express how we feel to the government? How can we make them listen? March on Washington with several hundreds of thousands? We've done it, recently, with other protests like it all over the US, but the press isn't paying attention and thus, the average person in the US isn't going to pay attention, and thus the government doesn't care. They don't have to change anything until the -majority- makes a statement on this matter, but would a majority expressing a desire to end the war even change anything? In a free, democratic society, you'd think the answer to this question was more clear.
When the overwhelming feeling of mass suffering being inflicted in the world began to arise in persons in the US during the Vietnam War, several things happened. The arts were incredibly politically oriented, and had a lot to say about a country where nudity is censored, civil liberties are curtailed, yet war and other serious criminal acts (ie. politics, corporate gain) are tolerated, or even revered. (Here I'm thinking of soldiers who come home to banners of welcome and thanks, yellow ribbons to show support, and a proud family with "My son's a marine" on their car bumpers. This was a less common sentiment during Vietnam because the people had reached a greater frustration with, and no longer "patriotically" revered the soldier.) There were great movements of people, going somewhere, protesting in their own way, doing something to show their discomfort with the actions of their country. They didn't know what to do, so something and anything became the way to express dissastisfaction.
When years of peaceful protesting didn't have any effect on US policy in Vietnam, and the war was worsening, groups such as the Weatherman Underground Organization sprung up out of frustration, out of the necessity to be noticed. The Weatherman were a split from the college organization called Students for a Democratic Society (the group now organizing the peaceful flag protest on my campus). The Weatherman became a group of college age persons who went underground (ie. changed physical appearance, cut off all ties to family and friends, changed names, moved to safe houses) in order to be able the "Bring the War Home", as was their motto. They began bombing centers that were symbolic of wealth and power in the US, so the average citizen couldn't be "an anonymous institutional employee who drove to work each morning in a long line of commuter cars and drove home each night and drank martinis. . . like several million middle-class, liberal, intellectual robots." (Leary, 1958, describing himself before LSD) The bombings were designed to make the "middle-class, liberal, intellectual robots" sit up and pay attention, and to stop tolerating the mass murder.
I see this period as an unfortunately necessary time in which many persons will feel the weight of the suffering of their family overseas, protest and plead for the ceasefire, and finally come to the conclusion that this government, this structure, these ideals of freedom and democracy by bombs and dead innocents, no longer define the people within this country. We can't stand any longer behind these people- our twisted government- and what they're doing. This time, when more and more people start feeling this way and they don't know what to do, hopefully they'll turn to movements for peace, and do what they can to change the situation sooner rather than later. Hopefully people will see the precedence of the Vietnam War, and see that we must do more than protest. Hopefully people will see where their power lies, as part of this "functional" society, in which their function is slave, patriot, and supporter of the capitalist economy. If you know where your power is, you know where the weaknesses of this sick nation are. Stop working, stop supporting our troops (they have their own choice to make about their power and how to use it), stop spending $500 a week at Wal-Mart, and see where we arrive. I assure you- that future, as scary as it may seem, is much more bright than any in which the United States of America stands as a power over this ridiculous, patriarchal colonialist world in which we exist.
There is a silent protest that is being done on our campus right now. On the front lawn there have been 5,000 red flags placed in the ground, to represent just over 5,000 dead US military in Iraq. There are 100,000 white flags, each representing approximately 6 Iraqi people (soldiers and civilians) that have died in Iraq since the beginning of US presence there. Remember when G. W. Bush said we had won the war in the middle east?
Well, we're still killing people.
One of my friends and I were walking past the flag protest yesterday, and she expressed to me the feeling of being so taken over by the sea of white flags, (from far away it looks like a strange, bright white snow) by the sheer enormity of the numbers, but not feeling like there was anything to do with that feeling of frustration and anger at the slaughter of innocent people. And really, what can we do to express how we feel to the government? How can we make them listen? March on Washington with several hundreds of thousands? We've done it, recently, with other protests like it all over the US, but the press isn't paying attention and thus, the average person in the US isn't going to pay attention, and thus the government doesn't care. They don't have to change anything until the -majority- makes a statement on this matter, but would a majority expressing a desire to end the war even change anything? In a free, democratic society, you'd think the answer to this question was more clear.
When the overwhelming feeling of mass suffering being inflicted in the world began to arise in persons in the US during the Vietnam War, several things happened. The arts were incredibly politically oriented, and had a lot to say about a country where nudity is censored, civil liberties are curtailed, yet war and other serious criminal acts (ie. politics, corporate gain) are tolerated, or even revered. (Here I'm thinking of soldiers who come home to banners of welcome and thanks, yellow ribbons to show support, and a proud family with "My son's a marine" on their car bumpers. This was a less common sentiment during Vietnam because the people had reached a greater frustration with, and no longer "patriotically" revered the soldier.) There were great movements of people, going somewhere, protesting in their own way, doing something to show their discomfort with the actions of their country. They didn't know what to do, so something and anything became the way to express dissastisfaction.
When years of peaceful protesting didn't have any effect on US policy in Vietnam, and the war was worsening, groups such as the Weatherman Underground Organization sprung up out of frustration, out of the necessity to be noticed. The Weatherman were a split from the college organization called Students for a Democratic Society (the group now organizing the peaceful flag protest on my campus). The Weatherman became a group of college age persons who went underground (ie. changed physical appearance, cut off all ties to family and friends, changed names, moved to safe houses) in order to be able the "Bring the War Home", as was their motto. They began bombing centers that were symbolic of wealth and power in the US, so the average citizen couldn't be "an anonymous institutional employee who drove to work each morning in a long line of commuter cars and drove home each night and drank martinis. . . like several million middle-class, liberal, intellectual robots." (Leary, 1958, describing himself before LSD) The bombings were designed to make the "middle-class, liberal, intellectual robots" sit up and pay attention, and to stop tolerating the mass murder.
I see this period as an unfortunately necessary time in which many persons will feel the weight of the suffering of their family overseas, protest and plead for the ceasefire, and finally come to the conclusion that this government, this structure, these ideals of freedom and democracy by bombs and dead innocents, no longer define the people within this country. We can't stand any longer behind these people- our twisted government- and what they're doing. This time, when more and more people start feeling this way and they don't know what to do, hopefully they'll turn to movements for peace, and do what they can to change the situation sooner rather than later. Hopefully people will see the precedence of the Vietnam War, and see that we must do more than protest. Hopefully people will see where their power lies, as part of this "functional" society, in which their function is slave, patriot, and supporter of the capitalist economy. If you know where your power is, you know where the weaknesses of this sick nation are. Stop working, stop supporting our troops (they have their own choice to make about their power and how to use it), stop spending $500 a week at Wal-Mart, and see where we arrive. I assure you- that future, as scary as it may seem, is much more bright than any in which the United States of America stands as a power over this ridiculous, patriarchal colonialist world in which we exist.