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Very good
point, as with this forum the peace rally can be an effective means of
communicating. I think the problem here is that we all have a tendency to picture
certain things when we are confronted with some phrases. Peace Rally conjures
up the days of Vietnam War and the opposition to it. It must be very clear what
the purpose is. After all… why are we bombing the Taliban strongholds? We are
trying to get rid of the thugs who are abusing the Afghani people. The fact
that Bin laden is there and is responsible for terrorizing us is just icing on
the cake!
Personally
I am not worried about what is going on now… I am worried about what we are
going to do once the Taliban has been broken. Are we going to leave the whole
thing and let the people get screwed again or are we going to build a strong
democracy that will have a chance to prosper?
“Your
brother in arms”
Shahab…
-----Original
Message-----
From: Earth Life
[mailto:onewildearth@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2001
3:37 PM
To: Vision2020@moscow.com
Subject: Friendship Square Peace
Art Rally
There seems to be a
misinterpretation of the intent of the Peace Art Rally, as displayed by Duncan
Palmatier in his email to this list.
First off, the rally is
intended to be an open forum to discuss the current situation. People are
encouraged to attend and express their views.
Requesting people not
attend is in a sense stifiling dialogue. We as Americans have an
obligation to look at all sides of the situation before hopping on the war
wagon. Dissenting from the war wagon does not make us less freedom
loving. We just ask that careful consideration prelude the war cry.
Duncan states,
"They killed our peace; so, must they also see us put aside our peace and
reticence and tranquility, and they must see us go to war against them."
I ask back, "Who
is them?" It is not Afghanastan. It is not even the
Taliban. I don't defend their regime, but bombing them out of existence
is not going to solve our terrorist problems.
Duncan says we sought no
war. As individuals, I agree. Most people are kind and
generous. But as a nation, our policies are interpreted differently by
those adversely affected by them. The people in Iraq, for instance, would
look at America as very war like.
What if our president
was indicted for war crimes by another country for, say, continuing the brutal
sanctions against Iraq. Would we oblige and have him extradicted? I
doubt it. Would that justify them bombing us? No. We would be
pissed if they did. And the war would continue...
We all are hurt by any
terrorist activity. It is truly sad to have thousands of people die in
these events. It is also sad that millions of people in Afghanastan are
now fleeing there homes. It would be terrorfying to know that planes are
destined to fly over and drop bombs. We have disrupted the lives of
millions of people in our attempts to erradicate the suspects from 9/11.
We have sidestepped the democractic process in the meantime by deciding the
verdict and fate of Afghanastan. This is a slap in the face to the principles
we supposedly hold dear. Hypocrisy at its best.
This is not the first
time our foreign policies have disrupted the lives of scores of people,
though. It is no wonder that people in these countries look at America as
being aggresive. Their reaction to us is no different than our reaction
to them. They bomb us, we bomb them back in a continual display of
violence. This is not justice. It will never end
until everybody decides that Peace is the only answer to our problems.
To me, it looks like another
excuse to destablize the middle east, the area with the richest oil reserves in
the world. We would be ignorant to assume that we are not concerned about
who controls that oil supply. Our president, a man who fought against the
democratic process of voting by suing to have the Florida recount stopped, an
oil man as well, knows that whoever controls that oil controls the global
economy. It is no coincidence that we have a vested interested in sending
our military into the region.
There is more to this
situation than we know. Everybody would serve well by attending any event
which may shine light on the situation. Granted, the organizers may have
a different interpretation of the situation than Duncan does, but it in know
way implies that we are not rallying for equality, justice and peace. In
fact, that is the premise of the rally. Only we strive to grant these
virtues to all Earthlings, not just Americans.
I encourage everybody
to attend the Peace Art Rally this saturday at 1pm at Friendship Square in
Moscow, Idaho. Come share your thoughts and hear the views of
others. May our community become enlightened as a result.
Garrett Clevenger
Moscow, Idaho
"What are we doing to our Home?!:("
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