A while back, my good friend Luminiferous Ether, posted about the book "My Name is Rachel Corrie". I took her suggestion and finished it yesterday. I found it to be incredibly powerful in its simplicity. It's a pretty "short read" but it stays with you. Feel like I'm being followed by the ghost of Rachel. The ghost is respectful, yet challenging. She's not going away.
So I had this "leading", as we Quakers are wont to call it, that I'd like to help make it possible for this play to be performed in Madison. The fact that I was reading about Israeli "expansion" of their "settlements" into the occupied territories in the giant Fisk book (mentioned in previous posts) only made the Corrie book more powerful.
Yes, it is a "complicated" situation. However, the US government's blind support of Israel only makes this a bigger slauughter than it already is.......
We need to speak out, ask critical questions about this. The Corrie book brings out those questions in a very creative manner.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Monday, May 7, 2007
"Unique Veterinary Experience"
I was driving home from my work at the veterinary school here in Madison, today, wondering how I'd ever pay off my student loans. Statistics today indicate that the average veterinary student graduates with a loan debt of $80,000.
Imagine my surprise(and horror) when I pulled my mail from the box and there, right on top, was a glossy postcard from the US ARMY offering me "unique veterinary experience". On the front was a picture of an enormous quarterhorse being gently groomed by a smiling young woman in her Army Uniform. Ahhh, the winds of fate!
Eagerly, I read the fine print on the back! If I joined up, "the Health Professions Loan Repayment Program" would offer me "up to" $50,000 for student loans over three years. This amount could be combined with "Special Pay Incentives" (I shudder to think what those might be...) of up to $30,000. "Your student loan debt will quickly become a memory". Ahh, how seductive!
But wait, there's more!!! This part sounds COOL: "Whether treating military animals, rebuilding veterinary infrastructure (Iraqi Vet Clinics perhaps?), or eradicating disease V, your service as a veterinarian in the Army Reserve will broaden your skills amd distinguish you among your peers. In fact, it could be some of the most rewarding work you've ever performed" Wowie!
Well, maybe they'll come out with an Army Veterinarian GI Joe action figure. One can only hope......
Imagine my surprise(and horror) when I pulled my mail from the box and there, right on top, was a glossy postcard from the US ARMY offering me "unique veterinary experience". On the front was a picture of an enormous quarterhorse being gently groomed by a smiling young woman in her Army Uniform. Ahhh, the winds of fate!
Eagerly, I read the fine print on the back! If I joined up, "the Health Professions Loan Repayment Program" would offer me "up to" $50,000 for student loans over three years. This amount could be combined with "Special Pay Incentives" (I shudder to think what those might be...) of up to $30,000. "Your student loan debt will quickly become a memory". Ahh, how seductive!
But wait, there's more!!! This part sounds COOL: "Whether treating military animals, rebuilding veterinary infrastructure (Iraqi Vet Clinics perhaps?), or eradicating disease V, your service as a veterinarian in the Army Reserve will broaden your skills amd distinguish you among your peers. In fact, it could be some of the most rewarding work you've ever performed" Wowie!
Well, maybe they'll come out with an Army Veterinarian GI Joe action figure. One can only hope......
Saturday, May 5, 2007
"Honor the Warrior, but Not the War"
This slogan/bumper sticker has become popular among anti-war folk, including some Quakers. There's something appealing about it, but I've never been able to "rest easy" with the idea.
This came up for me today, when I was buying my Mom a Mother's Day card. The clerk said her kids were all older, and they sometimes forget Mother's Day. She looked sad. Then she mentioned her son was a soldier in Iraq, just went back for his second tour. I asked her if he was "out of harm's way" (as if that's really possible in Iraq). She said no, in his first tour he was a gunner on a Humvee, now he was on foot patrol. She didn't say what city. She said she was very worried. I said I hoped he came home safe. Then I took a risk and told her that although I was against the war, I still hoped he would be safe and that I would "hold him in my thoughts", which seemed very inadequate.
I've been wondering about this encounter. I didn't feel I could say that I would "hold her son in the Light", although I wanted to. The struggle for me, as a Quaker and human being is, how do I hold someone in the Light whose job it is to kill. Am I then part of the killing machine our "leaders" have unleashed in Iraq? Or should I say that I will hold him in the Light and all the Iraqis as well. That sounds good to me, but holding someone in the Light is not something to lightly toss around. I'm wrestling with this. I really do want her son home safe. I meant that. I don't want him to kill anyone. I don't want him to be there at all. I believe there is that of God in him and in all people. If I hold one person in the Light, is this a way of holding all human's in the Light. I'll have to let this simmer for a bit and see what comes up for me.
This is why I'm not comfortable with "Honor the Warrior, but Not the War"
Peace.
This came up for me today, when I was buying my Mom a Mother's Day card. The clerk said her kids were all older, and they sometimes forget Mother's Day. She looked sad. Then she mentioned her son was a soldier in Iraq, just went back for his second tour. I asked her if he was "out of harm's way" (as if that's really possible in Iraq). She said no, in his first tour he was a gunner on a Humvee, now he was on foot patrol. She didn't say what city. She said she was very worried. I said I hoped he came home safe. Then I took a risk and told her that although I was against the war, I still hoped he would be safe and that I would "hold him in my thoughts", which seemed very inadequate.
I've been wondering about this encounter. I didn't feel I could say that I would "hold her son in the Light", although I wanted to. The struggle for me, as a Quaker and human being is, how do I hold someone in the Light whose job it is to kill. Am I then part of the killing machine our "leaders" have unleashed in Iraq? Or should I say that I will hold him in the Light and all the Iraqis as well. That sounds good to me, but holding someone in the Light is not something to lightly toss around. I'm wrestling with this. I really do want her son home safe. I meant that. I don't want him to kill anyone. I don't want him to be there at all. I believe there is that of God in him and in all people. If I hold one person in the Light, is this a way of holding all human's in the Light. I'll have to let this simmer for a bit and see what comes up for me.
This is why I'm not comfortable with "Honor the Warrior, but Not the War"
Peace.
Is it OK for Quakers to Boo, Part 2?
So, I went to see a movie last night with my son, his best pal, and his best pal's dad.
During the pre-show "entertainment", which is mostly commercials, there was, as usual, an ad for our "fabulous" military. They are always so............seductive. Hghly polished production. Last night's "feature" was about the Marines. Showed them storming ashore at Iwo Jima, being sweet to little children (in Vietnam, Iraq...couldn't tell). The voice over was telling us all how the "Marines are always there, defending "our" freedom", and of course "helping" others. It would have made Goebbels (sp?) proud!
So..........instead of sitting in silence, I began to boo and hiss. I felt angry. I didn't throw things, shout obscenities or anything like that. People in front of me turned to look to see who this person was. My friend was obviously embarrassed. Then, I felt embarrassed. I started feeling like I needed to apologize to my friend. I think I mumbled something like that. But I am tired of "taking it". I heard the other day that military recruitment was up but that the "quality" of the recruits was down in terms of education, etc. So maybe these "commercials" are working? (I know it's more complex than that, but........)
I'm not trying to paint myself as some paragon of peace. I'm just pissed off at the silence of so many people to the lies that are being forced on us. I was imagining last night that I could go to a movie with a group of folks and all boo loudly together. Get people to think.
I like to go to sporting events. I am tired of the national anthem. It's a song that glorifies war. I've stopped standing for the National Anthem. It's weird yet strangely empowering to look around the stadium and see that I'm the only one I can see sitting among the 15,000. If the national anthem was the Woody Guthrie song "This Land is Your Land", I just might stand.
Again, I'm not saying that I'm somehow better than any of those people. I hear the voices of "patriotism" hollering inside my head, too. I was raised on lots of war movies. My family thought Vietnam was a good thing. But one of my earliest memories was attending my neighbor, Eddie Sieben's funeral, killed in Vietnam in 1965. Right out of high school. So this is really the end result of these "commercials". You come home in a box.
So is it OK for Quakers to boo? In this case, I believe it is.
During the pre-show "entertainment", which is mostly commercials, there was, as usual, an ad for our "fabulous" military. They are always so............seductive. Hghly polished production. Last night's "feature" was about the Marines. Showed them storming ashore at Iwo Jima, being sweet to little children (in Vietnam, Iraq...couldn't tell). The voice over was telling us all how the "Marines are always there, defending "our" freedom", and of course "helping" others. It would have made Goebbels (sp?) proud!
So..........instead of sitting in silence, I began to boo and hiss. I felt angry. I didn't throw things, shout obscenities or anything like that. People in front of me turned to look to see who this person was. My friend was obviously embarrassed. Then, I felt embarrassed. I started feeling like I needed to apologize to my friend. I think I mumbled something like that. But I am tired of "taking it". I heard the other day that military recruitment was up but that the "quality" of the recruits was down in terms of education, etc. So maybe these "commercials" are working? (I know it's more complex than that, but........)
I'm not trying to paint myself as some paragon of peace. I'm just pissed off at the silence of so many people to the lies that are being forced on us. I was imagining last night that I could go to a movie with a group of folks and all boo loudly together. Get people to think.
I like to go to sporting events. I am tired of the national anthem. It's a song that glorifies war. I've stopped standing for the National Anthem. It's weird yet strangely empowering to look around the stadium and see that I'm the only one I can see sitting among the 15,000. If the national anthem was the Woody Guthrie song "This Land is Your Land", I just might stand.
Again, I'm not saying that I'm somehow better than any of those people. I hear the voices of "patriotism" hollering inside my head, too. I was raised on lots of war movies. My family thought Vietnam was a good thing. But one of my earliest memories was attending my neighbor, Eddie Sieben's funeral, killed in Vietnam in 1965. Right out of high school. So this is really the end result of these "commercials". You come home in a box.
So is it OK for Quakers to boo? In this case, I believe it is.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
"Journalism Can Be Lethal'
This is a passage from the "Great War for Civilization" by Robert Fisk on a page I was reading today. He wrote it in the wake of the missile attack by the Vincennes, a US Navy warship on an civilian Iranian airliner in 1988 over the Persian Gulf, which killed 290 innocents. Even though he did painstaking research, his paper The Times, which had been recently "acquired" by Rupert Murdoch, censored his story. He responded in a way which seems perhaps more relevant to our present situation:
"When we journalists fail to get across the reality of events to our readers, we have not only failed in our job; we have also become a party to the bloody events that we are supposed to be reporting. If we cannot tell the truth about the shootng down of a civilian airliner-----because this will harm "our" side in a war or because it will cast one of our "hate" countries in the role of victim or because it might upset the owner of our newspaper------then we contribute to the very prejudices that provoke wars in the first place. If we cannot blow the whistle on a navy that shoots civilians out of the sky, then we make future killings of the same kind as "understandable" as Mrs. Thatcher found this one. Delete the Americans' panic and incompetence-----all of which would be revealed in the months to come----and pretend an innocent pilot is a suicidal maniac, and its only a matter of time before we blow another airliner out of the sky. Journalism can be lethal."
This book is honest. This book is graphic. Read this book. I'm only on page 272. The book is 1041 pages long. More later.
"When we journalists fail to get across the reality of events to our readers, we have not only failed in our job; we have also become a party to the bloody events that we are supposed to be reporting. If we cannot tell the truth about the shootng down of a civilian airliner-----because this will harm "our" side in a war or because it will cast one of our "hate" countries in the role of victim or because it might upset the owner of our newspaper------then we contribute to the very prejudices that provoke wars in the first place. If we cannot blow the whistle on a navy that shoots civilians out of the sky, then we make future killings of the same kind as "understandable" as Mrs. Thatcher found this one. Delete the Americans' panic and incompetence-----all of which would be revealed in the months to come----and pretend an innocent pilot is a suicidal maniac, and its only a matter of time before we blow another airliner out of the sky. Journalism can be lethal."
This book is honest. This book is graphic. Read this book. I'm only on page 272. The book is 1041 pages long. More later.
For Me, a Challenging Quote..........
"You can’t take the evil of slavery out of the world and abolish it without making the world more just. You will never prevent people living in bonded labor or from getting caught up in sex trafficking while they are so desperate that they have no other choice but to sell themselves. As long as we in the West crave ever more excess, we conspire in their desperation, exploiting it and make ourselves sick in the process."
- Clare Short, Member of British Parliament and former Secretary of State for International Development. She resigned from the latter post over the U.K.'s involvement in the Iraq War.
from Sojourners email
- Clare Short, Member of British Parliament and former Secretary of State for International Development. She resigned from the latter post over the U.K.'s involvement in the Iraq War.
from Sojourners email
Monday, April 30, 2007
Everyday a Baby
Itchy
restless
afternoon.
Alone
except for the poodle
and my heartbeat.
Warm house.
Safe house.
Womb of my dreams.
Birthing come
when twilight
come.
Everyday
a baby.
This infant army
gonna carry me
down the big road.
4-30-07
restless
afternoon.
Alone
except for the poodle
and my heartbeat.
Warm house.
Safe house.
Womb of my dreams.
Birthing come
when twilight
come.
Everyday
a baby.
This infant army
gonna carry me
down the big road.
4-30-07
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