anti-war garage door
2217 n. monticello ave., chicago 60647
created: 3-21-2003
War. It's a concept not unlike the concept of the death penalty, that
concept being "killing is wrong and so now we are going to kill you."
In the case of the state's penalty of death, the killing is meted out in a
methodical, calculated, sterilized way -- perhaps in an attempt to appear
completely the opposite of the killing that inspired it; masquerading as
humane where ultimately it is as brutal, horrific, and barbaric as the
killing to which it is a response. I find it hard to wrap my mind around
this rationalized irrationality and I wonder a lot about this need to
overpower, obliterate, and kill.
Strangely, we are being asked -- required really -- to understand war as a
path to peace, rather than as an act of terrorism. In a speech given on the
one-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack on America, President Bush
stated,
"Our deepest national conviction is that every life is precious, because
every life is the gift of a Creator who intended us to live in liberty and
equality. More than anything else, this separates us from the enemy we
fight. We value every life; our enemies value none -- not even the innocent,
not even their own. And we seek the freedom and opportunity that give
meaning and value to life."
And so now, with the war on Iraq having begun, we have to puzzle out this
logic: "life is precious and so now we will destroy life." President Bush
has managed to launch a military initiative against millions of human beings
that will certainly kill, maim, and injure innocent people -- we will never
know the actual body count -- and all because, according to the President,
"Our deepest national conviction is that every life is precious" - ???
Later in this same anniversary speech, the President said, "Ours is the
cause of human dignity; freedom guided by conscience and guarded by peace."
What to make of this President's notion that peace means war means peace
means war means....
Backward is forward is backward is forward is backward is.....
Related Links:
President George W. Bush's Remarks to the Nation
September 11, 2002
Ellis Island, New York, New York
the anti-war garage door on mapquest
