Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 146 Editor's Choice: 12
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It isn't too late to stop them
[Read the article: Did the U.S. just provoke Iran?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The question has been raised of what can be done to stop the planned attack/invasion/regime change in Iraq. There is still time, and the fact that gang members Bush and Cheney feel the need to appear on "60 Minutes" and "Fox News" indicates that they indeed need approval.
Most likely the effective opposition to the Iran scheme will come from the military. Obedient and careerist the upper echelons may be, but they also have an institutional sense of survival.
I may be a tad pollyanish, but I don't believe the bombing of Iran is a "done deal." One great evil is more than enough. If our corporate news media would actually do their jobs and expose the criminality of the Bush gang, the momentum can still be turned around.
A factor that may trump the others is that evil takes energy. It takes a certain strength of lack of character that requires physical, mental, and emotional stamina that I don't think Bush, Cheney, and Rice have. Something is likely to happen as the pressure on them builds.
Which is where we come in. We can pressure our representatives, give Fox all kinds of grief, encourage the U.N. to take action, pressure the media, and make noise. Catholics should pressure their bishops to speak up. The hierarchy is already on the defensive about their sexual corruption, so entreating them to actually behave as moral leaders should easily bring results. Members of other faiths can do the same.
No doubt someone is planning a big march in New York City. There are many other things that can be done if we think creatively. And positively.
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Physics 101
[Read the article: Where's the outrage?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There's a bumper sticker I see once in a while that says "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." It's pretty symbolic of the insular "left" I have learned to avoid: arrogant, telling other people how they should think and feel, and an approach to human interaction of "follow me." My answer to the insular "left" is the same as my answer to the bumper sticker: I'm not outraged, and I'm paying attention, thank you. Outrage is a waste of energy, and it gets in the way of doing anything effective. It can kill you at my age.
As far as the lack of a potent peace movement, I wouldn't be too concerned. That's a heavey responsibility to lay on our youth, privileged or not. I happen to have been taking classes at the local community college for years, and there isn't much of a peace movement there either. It is the ruling elite, the corporations, the media, and our faux-masculine culture themthat got us into this war, and if the power structure of the country is completely corrupt, why should the kids bail it out?
I get frustrated over the crimes of the Bush regime, but there isn't much attention devoted to the raw criminality of this gang, even in the "alternative" media. If we can't call things what they are, we are at an extreme disadvantage in our attempts to correct the situation.
I co-founded an environmental group years ago, and started out very impatient, wanting to solve all the great ecological problems right away. A retired biology professor spoke at one of our early meetings, and he said the environment was going to be around a long time, and we would first need to become our own experts. His advice applies to many other spheres. It took a long time to get to the point where we have someone of the level of mediocrity and criminality of George W. Bush for president. He is merely the hologram. We will need some time to change the whole that he represents.
Finally, global warming, the limits to growth of economic output, depleting resources, the poisoning of our atmosphere and overpopulation are creating very concrete realities that we all will have to deal with in a competent manner. If we depend on college students for leadership and solutions, then we are sunk anyway. It is folly to believe that present and future movements for change have to be like the ones of the past. Neither the civil rights movement nor the anti-Vietnam war movement looked to the past for models of how to behave. They were spontaneous outbursts of energy and creativity, and serendipitous events and people came to the fore to create powerful synergystic forces for change. It will happen again. It's a law of Physics.