Recovered from the Wayback Machine.
One only has to look around at the news to see why we all seem so quiet. It’s difficult to chat about this and that when we’re surrounded by talk of war.
Coinciding with the President’s speech last night about the ‘imminent’ threat from Saddam Hussein, we’re faced this morning with the news of a a rise in the unemployment rate. This following the continuing drop in the stock market.
This week a man was arrested for wearing a T-Shirt saying “Give Peace a Chance”. He was arrested because he wouldn’t take it off, or leave the Mall where he was having dinner. Someone somewhere thought “Give Peace a Chance” was a dangerous term, and they were right – very dangerous, but not necessarily to the people of this country.
President Bush talks about “disarmament” one week, but “regime change” the next. His goal remains but the focus waivers about like a skidding phonograph needle during an earthquake. Yesterday’s talk was on Hussein’s ‘direct’ threat to the United States. No, it was about removing Hussein to help the people of Iraq. No, it was on regime change. No it was on the UN resolution for disarmament.
If the interest in removing Saddam Hussein had been focused entirely on his barbaric treatment of his people, his destruction of his own land, I may have actually supported our actions at some point. But this is a different war then one that will be fought solely to disarm Iraq, or put someone of our own choosing in command. A different war than one to support our own interests.
Bush answered the following when asked how his …faith was guiding you:
My faith sustains me, because I pray daily. I pray for guidance and wisdom and strength.
If we were to commit our troops – if we were to commit our troops I would pray for their safety, and I would pray for the safety of innocent Iraqi lives as well.
One thing that’s really great about our country is that there are thousands of people who pray for me who I’ll never see and be able to thank. But it’s a humbling experience to think that people I will never have met have lifted me and my family up in prayer. And for that I’m grateful. It’s been a comforting feeling to know that is true.
I pray for peace
I pray for peace, from the man who talks of nothing but war.
I said before that I don’t believe oil is the main reason Bush is pushing this invasion, and I stand by this statement. I believe that oil and power are on Cheney’s agenda, but not Bush. No, I’ve long felt that Bush’s agenda was more frightening: he is a man of meager talents and intelligence who became elected because of a lie, an error, and a name but who is desperate to prove himself great. And if you read the the history of Saddam Hussein, you’ll see that he’s exactly the same type of man.
We lost the ability to control President Bush with the last election, and we’ll get no such chance again until elections in two years. We are no different than the Iraqi people: we are powerless to control our leader.
But I am not entirely powerless. No matter how pushed down we are by a leadership that works to keep us in fear and in the dark, I am not powerless. For every act of darkness, there is light and for every act of fear, there is hope. For every act of war, there are equal acts of beauty and peace. Rather than a protest based on anger and hatred and fear, I would rather my protest be based on beauty.
To begin:
The Ziggerat of Ur. Based at Uruk, the site of the first known city. The birthplace of Abraham. The city of Gilgamesh:
The gods shook like beaten dogs, hiding in the far corners of heaven,
Ishtar screamed and wailed:
“The days of old have turned to stone:
We have decided evil things in our Assembly!
Why did we decide those evil things in our Assembly?
Why did we decide to destroy our people?
We have only just now created our beloved humans;
We now destroy them in the sea!”
All the gods wept and wailed along with her,
All the gods sat trembling, and wept.
From the tablet containing the Poem of Gilgamesh
Laumeier Project by Jackie Ferrara for Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, MO. Rather than representing a Mayan temple, as some believe, the artist states that this sculpture represents her interest in games, and puzzles.