Alone together in New York Cities April 9th Anti-Whatever demonstration against...War/Nukes/Budget Cuts for Education/Invasion of [Libya, Palestine, Zimbabwe, Iraq, Afghanistan] /Zionism/Terrorism/Attacks on Unions/...
The signs said it all. In fact they said just about everything a moral, upstanding person could stand up for...if they bothered to stand up at all.
THEY HELD A PEACE DEMONSTRATION
AND NOBODY BOTHERED TO COME.
After hanging around with the few hundred or so demonstrators who didn't even fill Union Square on a beautiful sunny day in Manhattan [We think there were more people gobbling goodies from the farmers market!] I headed home feeling quite alone. How could it be that so few wanted to stand up next to me and protest the odious foreign policy of the United States of America? to stand up against intollerance? How could it be that so few held compassion strong enough to do something about it?
And then, in a quiet evening speaking with Iraqis, both here and in Baghdad, I got another, less self-centered, perspective. For some Iraqis this day marks a critical disruption of thought and feeling. There were those who rejoiced when Baghdad fell. They knew the end of tyranny was at hand. There were those who felt nothing but the loss of their loved ones and friends as US troops finished the slaughter of soldiers and civilians. There were those whose anger against the invaders grew into a fireball of hatred. But all were ignorant.
Few could foresee the horror of the coming years. And now, these many years later, they can all share the same feelings about the day Baghdad fell. They can all feel the deep sadness...the lives lost, the freedoms gone, the society ruptured...
"Lives lost"? It's like saying "collateral damage". The words carry little weight. The reality is overwhelming.
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