Sharing something here that I wrote back in April elsewhere. I had no idea how much my life was about to change. How enriched my life was to be and how many new friends I was about to meet. This rehash is dedicated to all those who are supporting Cindy in Crawford. To all those mothers and fathers who will not forget and will not simply go to sleep.
Apathy supporters declare that there is no murder or crimes during war. Hmmm. Oh really? How soon some forget. “They’re just following orders!” and “They’re just doing their job!” and the all too familiar… “If you’re not with us…”
The below is from my trip to Boston. My brother flew us out to see him and my husband’s family after some nasty retaliation events regarding my fights with the school for my son’s special education these past few months (will make a diary of that nightmare at some point). I went there to relax, but to also do some soul searching and priortize. Searching in a city rich with history, rebels, revolution… and Patriots.
A dear friend pointed me to these cyber halls. I think she felt I could “relax here, do some soul searching and prioritize”… I found that I’m not alone. That people do remember. That people do care. That caring about your world, your health, your children isn’t considered “mean and bitter”. That activism is indeed our way of paying rent for living on this planet, that apathy is not patriotic and it sure as hell isn’t “goodness and kindness”.
I found that I’m not the only one who is outraged. If you’re not outraged, you simply are not paying attention. I’m outraged! Not because I’m smarter, dumber, religous or non-religous. I’m not outraged because I have an obsession with boring things such as politicians… I’m outraged because I care. Because I’m awake.
Here’s some of my thoughts while I walked through the NEMH. Yes, I offended a Bush Supporter behind me. Fuck her and her willfull ignorance, her blindness, her “Fuck an A! USA!” She may feel that I am a mean person, but the elderly man ahead of me seemed to understand.
New England Holocaust Memorial
Illuminated, glass-like towers, to me they look like smokestacks, engraved with death camp numbers of the 6M lost representative of the Nazi death camps: Majdanek, Chelmno, Sobibor, Treblinka, Belzec, and Auschwitz-Birkenau.
As I walked through this site which has inscriptions from some survivors and the chronology of how this all happened, I couldn’t help but think of the attrocities in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, hell all over the world and the political realm we are living in. At the entrance is “Remember”. Not “Let it go”. Or “A Great Moment in the History of Liberty”
The towers… I saw smokestacks. The chilly New England air was stinging my eyes causing me to tear up, but it could have been the smoke gushing from the smokestacks – the towers. These towers? Twin Towers? The smoke. The tears. The screams. The loss. The forgotten. The Outrage.
“Look at these towers, passerby, and try to imagine what they really mean – what they symbolize – what they evoke. They evoke an era of incommensurate darkness, an era in history when civilization lost its humanity and humanity its soul . . .”
“We must look at these towers of memory and say to ourselves, No one should ever deprive a human being of his or her right to dignity. No one should ever deprive anyone of his or her right to be a sovereign human being. No one should ever speak again about racial superiority… We cannot give evil another chance.” , – Elie Wiesel
And then ask yourself and those around you how the hell anyone can support Bush and what we are doing and not doing at the prisons, Gitmo, Camp X-ray or Darfur, Africa.. spin the globe and point anywhere. No citizen of a free, educated world – no HUMAN BEING can justify or look away from damage we have caused by repeating brutalities and events from the not so distant past.
Again, “No one should ever deprive a human being of his or her right to dignity. No one should ever deprive anyone of his or her right to be a sovereign human being. No one should ever speak again about racial superiority”
Dignity. Are you awake?
First they did away with the gay community, controlled the media, they closed down schools, they started a euthanesia “project” for the physically and mentally disabled. Then they started in with the dissenters, political activists.
I’m not comparing Bush with Hitler. I do, however, believe our nation and it’s citizens are asleep and apathetic. “As long as it’s not affecting me at this very moment…” “Fuck an A USA!”, “We’re Number One!” and Yellow Magnets that are basically band aids for our ignorance. Bumperstickers that are our permission slips to go to sleep till it’s all over.
We are a nation and government justifying the very things that we say we are fighting against.
As I walked through, I made comments but I wanted to scream out. I wanted to push the book “1984” and the pictures of Abu Gharib into the face of every “W04” Supporter. Wake Up!
Is it too late?
Who will they come for next?
What else will we as a nation allow to continue?
While you were sleeping…
Breaking news: Brittany Spears is pregnant. EDIT: Runaway Bride mowed a lawn.
Will anyone be awake?
I remember reading this way back then. Glad you reposted it Janet. We will get our country back. It may take some time but we will. people are waking up, not fast enough for my timeframe but they are starting to question this disaster of a President. We MUST remeber always these dark days. History will show all the crimes that have been committed and that this facsist in waiting will be revealed for what he and Cheney, Rummy and Rice, Rove and Scotty are really like…evil liars of the worst magnitude! Thank you again for reposting this here!!!
Thank you. The day you offered to share a ride with me because you thought I was going to Crawford….was THE day I realized that I hadn’t given up any friendships from the pre-election days… but that instead I had opened myself up to enduring, creative, life-changing friendships.
I had a door slammed in my face… but the real fact is – a gate opened up, a wall fell down and I’m taking some steps forward. 🙂
Again I’ve lost a few more family members and family friends during this journey of mine… but now I don’t feel so angry. YES I’M OUTRAGED and one pissed off woman… but when you can instead focus on solutions, share ideas and empathize with others – there’s a calming effect. Instead of fighting to explain, I am here LEARNING.
We are angry but there is so much love here. It’s given me even more determination and strength to try and change things. Better still.. it’s helped me change how I live.
What a beautiful comment to post. I too have had the heated, angry exchanges with family members and friends since the election(and before come to think about it). The funny part is when they go into their talking points now, I find a picture, an article, something to prove to them my point not just my own words. They always tell me not to send them these things anymore and I stop but several times it got them either to start thinking about it or at least shut them the F up. I am so glad you are here and look forward to your diaries and comments. I feel closer to most people here than I do to some family members and friends. It is so fortunate that blogs were born and we have a place to feel at home, listened to and a palce to vent and learn how to become more active and compassionate. I too have learned so much from so many here. Even how to embed a link finally…lol!
I may not be on the Christmas card list of several anymore… but who cares! 🙂
I’m about to meet Military Tracy, SuperSoling, and CabinGirl soon 🙂
That is so great. I emailed supersoling yesterday and he wanted to know if I was coming out to DC. I have a sister there too. I just cannot swing both Crawford and DC but plan to drive up to LA for the sister protest on the same day. Any Tribbers going to that? We could meet up there.
A few months ago I went through a two or three week period where I was almost obcessed with the Holocaust. I have read so much about it in the past and thought that I had a pretty good grasp of it. I can’t explain where this new obcession came from, perhaps it had something to do with my deep feelings of unease after the last stolen election and I began to grasp the awful possibilities that lay ahead for our country. For whatever reason though, I couldn’t get enough information and scoured the internet for more personal stories, photographs, and more about what happened particularly at Aushwitz and Bergen Belsen. I searched and read until I couldn’t handle anymore images and stories of lives snuffed out in the gas chambers. I wondered what might have been going through the minds of the mothers, children, and especially since I am one….the fathers who having been used to providing for and protecting their families as husbands and
fathers do, must have felt so utterly helpless to do anything when the instant arrived when they realized what was happening and that their lives, their families were ending.
I think we realize that there is something wrong, I mean really wrong and dark about what we are witnessing. I have had until recently (Thanks Cindy!) a forboding sense of very bad things to come. I’m not trying to connect Bush to Hitler but there are certain similarities between Germany of the 30’s and 40’s and what’s happening here at the dawn of the 21’st century.
I don’t mean to get all gloomy on everyone’s ass because I’m usually an optimistic person and am now feeling optimistic. Perhaps I’m just hoping that the rest of us (Americans) will wake up and help reverse the course we are on before the similarities become undeniable.
I’m grateful for all of you folks, all you fighters, and thinkers. All you passionate people. We have our work cut out for us don’t we?
The Nationalism between Germany back then and what is going on today in America are, to me, the same.
If we don’t stop this war and this regime… I fear there won’t be any hope for anyone.
Once a right, a liberty is taken away – it never gets returned. I think of that when I read the Patriot Acts and the “justification” of the RightWingers for it. Bush has been quoted as saying that he thinks we have too many rights…
This, sadly, wasn’t heard by those were sleeping.
However, I think more are awake then the media is letting on. They are part of the Regime Propaganda.
Your last sentence is more true than most know. The anti war opinions of so many of the veterans who were in Salt Lake City for Bush’s propaganda tour say it all. He’s losing the military and that spells doom for him, though we aren’t out of the woods yet by a long shot. You know, there are forces at work here that haven’t been seen in this country for decades and decades. It would be amazing if it got to the point where the military began openly defying the government. Those are the kinds of things seen usually in former Soviet satelite countries, but Bush is lying to them and they’re beginning to see it.