This is my first Booman post, and I realize it may not be popular. I think it is something that really needs to be discussed, though. I also posted this on Kos…
You know, I was pretty appalled when President Bush went to California to talk about the war when a portion of the country was undergoing a significant catastrophic natural disaster. Rita is predicted to make landfall on Saturday. I don’t believe that the anti-war rallies should go on as scheduled.
On a personal level I think it is disrespectful to our fellow citizens who will be having their lives torn to shreds and makes the protestors seem disconnected from the rest of the country. On a political level, I think it is bad form and has the potential to alienate many people who are finally coming around to the fact that the war was a really bad idea.
I think protests can be productive, but they can also be damning. I hope the nation-wide anti-war rallies are rescheduled to show respect for the lives of our Gulf Coast brethren.
I think I understand how you feel. It feels unseemly to go and demonstrate, when millions of people are at risk, and, indeed, may be facing loss of home, livelihood, and life indeed.
And that’s precisely the difficulty, Peace Monger. The citizens of Iraq have and are facing loss of home, and their way of life, and many have lost their life, as well.
And our own citizens, more than 1900 now, have lost their lives as well. The difference here, is that we can see the trouble coming here with Rita, because we have just seen it in Katrina. Iraq, even with television, is on the other side of the earth. Only those families who have one of their loved ones over there, in Iraq or Afghanistan, are seeing it over there as we can over here. And only those who have lost a loved one, or seen him or her come back maimed, damaged in body or mind or both, are going to be living with the aftermath for decades to come.
But we can see Rita coming here, again, right after Katrina.We have choices and can do things to reduce our risk. In Iraq, we don’t get a warning. We don’t have leaders who will pay attention or ignore as they choose. Our soldiers have to go. Our leaders have chosen for us in Iraq; we have no choices left but to object.
So, I hope you see that waiting out of respect for what’s happening in the Gulf of Mexico, is saying, in effect, we have special respect if bad things happen here, but not so much if it happens over there. If we wait, our show of respect will not sound like respect to the people of Iraq. Neither will it be showing respect to our family members who have already sacrificed so much for that distant and unworthy war.
That’s my opinion as to why I believe this protest should go on, in spite of the likely disaster of Rita, and because of the disaster of Iraq. I respect your opinion, but I believe it is the greater respect to honor those being harmed by a war they did not chose. This is not to deny the danger, risk, and likely harm here. But it is to say that our present danger here does not keep us from seeing what is happening to them, there.
March for the poor of the US Gulf Coast cleansed and being cleansed and slated for cleansing. March for the people who cannot afford to purchase automobiles, or medical treatment, or housing.
March for the Iraqi people, the Afghan people, the Pakistanis, the Turks, the Kurds, march for the Syrians, the Iranians, for all who falter and die and brace for a different kind of storm.
March for Palestine.
And take someone with you.
Great, great point.
Let’s hope lots of people have signs about helping the poor in New Orleans, throughout Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas … they will. People are fantastic that way.
Here we are with two major hurricanes this season. Hurricanes that are totally bigger than any we have seen before. Hurricanes that essentially wiped homes, towns and businesses off the map. Now there is a connection between the war and the hurricanes – oil. Our use of oil has caused the warmer currents that feed the hurricanes. We are fighting the war, not because of terrorists because Iraq, despite Saddam being a bastar@ was not a terrorist state, but to maintain our dependence on oil. Iraq is one of Bush’s many paybacks to his “have more” constituency. What will it benefit the victims of Katrina and the possible victims of Rita to stay our hand at protesting? FEMA will not let anybody into the afflicted areas for rescues until whatever inept soul they have there now decides to wake up and get moving. (Yes I know, they now have a Coast Guard honcho working things, but FEMA is still subordinate to Homeland Security who is run by another inept crony of Bush.) The landfall is not supposed to happen until Saturday. True, we won’t get much air time on the media, but that wasn’t going to happen anyway.
Not sure where you are, PeaceMonger, but I am sitting here in Austin, Texas and if those rallies were postponed, I would be right pissed off.
There is too much of a “big picture” to our current weather and government fucked-up-ed-ness nightmares, and, as far as I’m concerned, the more people marching in Washington today the better.
It is the ONLY respectful thing to do for all of us. Those in Washington this weekend are our warriors and they take ALL of us with them, even as we in the affected areas reach out to our fellow citizens, I take a great abount of strength from knowing they will be there and screaming in the face of this horrendous goverment.