It's spring. The moon is full and high in the sky on the vernal equinox. Tomorrow an orchestra of birds will greet the sun and the tulips will continue to unfurl out of the thawed soil.
And the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq slipped quietly by, pushed aside by coverage of the recession and the race for the democratic nomination.
About a 1,000 people (which is a police estimate, so who knows) attended a protest in DC. Some stopped traffic, threw paint, and got arrested. A thousand.
That's really pathetic. Really, really pathetic. Particularly considering the majority of Americans are now against the war. Maybe people are just waiting until November, and a democrat to save us.
But who am I to talk? I wasn't in DC either. I've been to enough big demonstrations to know that they can be incredible shows of mass sentiment and citizenship, and also huge exercises in resource-sucking self-congratulation. I want to find other nonviolent ways to resist the war, but am a little strapped for ideas.
I have been thinking, at the risk of being cliché and obvious, that the war in Iraq is my generation's Viet Nam. Only with one exception: no draft. People don't live in fear of being called up. Unless you yourself are enlisted, or you love someone who is enlisted, I think the experience of this war is very different. I am not advocating a draft, but I think it would be a huge motivator for mass resistance. Now the war is fought largely by people not privileged by our society: people of color, the working class, young people. Imagine if the middle class college graduates started receiving draft papers?
I also think media coverage is vastly different now than it was during Viet Nam (or during the Civil Rights Movement), and I would lift up the argument that experiences of the media then, of little kids on fire with napalm, dead American soldiers, or teenagers being water cannoned, taught the media all it needed to know about how to filter the news. We don't see nearly enough footage of bodies, of flag draped coffins, of civilian casualties. That sounds morose (and naive – some of those images are closely controlled), and I have respect for the dead. But war is somehow less real when you're not reminded that it involves people dying.
People I hang out with talk about it, sometimes with sadness or deep senses of frustration, but more often with an exasperated, dismissive snort in George Bush's direction. This is not really helpful.
I’m aware in all this of my own perspective, so I’ll take responsibility: It amazes me that I can live a full day and not think about how my country is at war, not think of myself as someone who lives in a country at war with pieces of another country. That is a tremendously priviledged and myopic place to stand. I am not alone in standing here, but I still feel a deep sense of shame about it.
How do you make a war personal to people who have the option to ignore it?
1 comments:
Nina,
As the United Sates is today, I don't think there is a way to make people feel this war.
The United States culture has turned into to such an individual one that without things like the war in peoples face everyday, either through the media or through having a loved one involved, Americans are able to forget.
Not only because we are way more self absorbed than we care to admit but, because it is happening thousands of miles away. And without that massive coverage and support from the media, most Americans don't think about what is going on in other countries no matter if we are fighting there or not.
It is a very sad thought, but very true about most in our country.
I do have to admit, I get a certain amount of comfort knowing that I am so far removed. But I also get a large sense of regret. Because I have had loved ones fighting for "our country" or the citizens of Iraq.
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