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3/21/2003 03:48:00 AM | Jared Alessandroni Hell Yeah In Bellingham, Wash., at least 15 law firms shut down for the day, posting signs in their windows: "Closed in honor of those now being killed in Iraq." This from the recent NYTimes Article about those who were stopping business as usual. A few recent posts have exposed - a verb I usually reserve for our friends at Fox News - the idiocy and impracticality of the silly and futile protestors. Well, screw you. Obviously protesting the war after the bombs are dropping is futile. At least it's not as stupid as the assumption that those protesting it are only trying to stop the war. Maybe they have some outrage, some frustration, and some hope to express And, it's not as futile as pretending that we can convince our own dictator that we should be nice to these people whose babies we're burning. That would be like pleading with someone not to set a child on fire, watching them do it, and then hoping to recoup the losses by making sure they help pitch in for the funeral. The Iraqi people are paying for their own funeral - quite literally. Every building that turns to rubble - metal, cement, flesh, blood, and hope - is going to be rebuilt quite nicely by major US companies [who are already in the process of submitting bids] who'll be bank-rolled by Iraq's oil and Federal Treasuries. But you can't rebuild life, even if you do justify its loss by the unrelated loss of a few [a mere few] thousand of your own. You can't rebuild the trust, the mutual respect of other nations that we've build for half a century to watch crumble in a few months. Shame on you. The blood of innocent Iraqis and US service people is on your hands. We are all stained, and we will all be stained for longer than next term's election and longer than some pathetic rebuilding project. It's one thing to stay at home, to choose the apathy and the disconnectedness that's helped weaken the Progressive Voice [helped cripple it] as the Right and business and everyone else have grown stronger. That's your choice, and that's your safety. And it's not productive to rant, to cry out at the prick of injustice. But how dare you question those whose passions are incited. Who are you that you can watch the blood flow into thick black pools of oil which becomes money and power for a few and not care? Who are you that you can't empathize with some of the rage that those with blood and hearts to move it possess? Stay at home and plan your little elections and your meaningless political games. The Democratic Party has obviously done a bloody good job of that very strategy. The people in the streets, though, they're your last hope. They deserve respect if not admiration, and by no means do you have the right to judge them. They are your last link to the passion and the rage and the single binding thread of hope -the only thing that makes [some] of us progressive liberal bleeding heart pinko socialist or even just willing to try to make the world a better place - caring about other people. perma link |
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