I attended Starkville’s anti-war rally on Saturday afternoon knowing these few things:
1. I don’t think that I like war.
2. The fighting between Bush and Hussein is scarily reticent of an Austin Powers movie (Dr. Evil being, of course, Sadaam Hussein. Well, maybe.)
3. I don’t think that I like war.
I am about as non-political as they get. I am pretty sure that I am not a Republican. But then I also don’t think that I am a Democrat. Or a libertarian. Or anything, really. Politics frustrate me. It all seems like a bunch of lies and bloodshed, and I don’t really want anything to do with those things, because I am the mother of all that is good and peaceful. (That last part was a joke).
However, the past few days have spawned many discussions about the peace rally. I feel like I’m supposed to have some kind of answer for why I “dislike” war and for why I would attend an anti-war rally, and for my feelings regarding Bush and Dr. Evil (are these names interchangeable? Only time will tell).
As one of my friends said, the No. 1 reason we shouldn’t go to war is because war is wrong. Bloodshed is wrong. Killing innocent people is wrong. But as another one of my friends said, war is inevitable. What should I make of this?
Yes. War is evil and dark and unpleasant and any number of painful adjectives. But is it certainly inevitable? Considering the agenda of our current executive leader, it sure is.
This brings up another painfully obvious concern-what right does our leader have to throw us into a war that many of us don’t want?
My answer to this is that I don’t know. I don’t know why I went to the peace rally, except for the fact that I don’t want my friends to be shipped off to a foreign land where they can, in turn, ship innocent people to their graves. I do not want some scary lord of the underworld to wreak havoc on my country, either.
It’s a disgusting cycle and the only way it ends is with some type of obliteration on somebody’s soil. Peace is supposed to be way too idealistic for the real world, so, essentially, we’re all up a creek with no paddle. Go ahead-put on a helmet and watch for bombs to fall out of the sky.
Yet, at the same time, this prospect may not be as dooming as we think it is. Thomas Friedman’s column in Wednesday’s New York Times shed some very interesting light on the consequences we may face if we don’t go to war.
Iraq is hardly a bastion of democracy. It is part of a world that offers little freedom to women and little autonomy, if any at all, to its citizens.
The economies in these countries are horrible. Friedman says this: “If we don’t help transform these Arab states create better governance, build more open and productive economies, empower their women and to develop responsible media that won’t blame all their ills on others, we will never begin to see the political, educational and religious reformations they need to shrink their output of undeterrables [angry, humiliated and often unemployed Muslim youth].”
In short, Friedman suggests that our nation’s intervening may begin to clear a path for the future prosperity and freedom of these countries. If we do not aid them, we may be helping to produce more terrorism.
I think a lot of the problem that I have with these murmurs of war is in the vocabulary being used to address the fighting. Bush speaks with so much hostility and defense. I would never have known the upside of war with Iraq if I had only listened to his words. The phrase “War on Terrorism” sounds ridiculous in anticipation of an unprovoked attack. The idea that these people need democracy and freedom, and possibly want it, sounds much more positive and proactive.
Yet, these things get out of hand, I’m sure. If we do go in there and push our weight around, we may do nothing but hurt people and stir up more anger against ourselves. If we make concrete plans to help these people find lives that they feel safe living, then maybe we’ll have done some good. The conundrum, of course, lies in the actual keeping of those plans.
What can I do in the meantime? Pray for the best? Twiddle my thumbs? Until I come up with an antidote to war, I should do good things for my community. Help feed underprivileged people. Stop being so self-centered and self-focused. Read a newspaper now and then. Shoot, I bet I could even read some books on this thing.
What I’m saying is that we don’t have to be politically active to hate war and to want to make our homes safe and good. We don’t have to fight wars of despair-we can promote hope. Maybe fighting the destruction of war starts here, on a small scale, bridging communities and learning to love people that don’t look like me.
Maybe if I take a different attitude toward people, I can change my environment and make a building block to the positive changing of environments everywhere. I should fight little wars against hatred and intolerance all of the time.
At least then I may feel better when I get on my high horse and demand that someone else make changes, too.
Joy Murphy is a senior English major.