I quite got a kick out of old Donald Rumsfeld trying to tell the American people while giving a speech to a Nevada Veterans of Foreign Wars that if we don’t think the way the Administration thinks regarding Iraq, we are not only wrong-minded, he equated us to those who appeased Adolf Hitler 70 years ago.
I use this definition of civil disobedience from infoplease.com: Civil disobedience, refusal to obey a law or follow a policy believed to be unjust. Practitioners of civil disobedience basing their action on moral right and usually employ the nonviolent technique of passive resistance in order to bring wider attention to the injustice. Risking punishment, such as violent retaliatory acts or imprisonment, they attempt to bring about changes in the law.
People like Cindy Sheehan, who took up the anti-war cause after the death of her son in Iraq is a prime example. She’s been vilified, dragged out of a session of Congress where she had a legal right to be, and has been the subject of innumerable right-wing lunatics with a radio program as a lunatic herself are today’s example of a practitioner of civil disobedience.
What kills me is that it wasn’t that long ago that civil disobedience of both the violent and non-violent kind effected the end of the Vietnam Conflict (it was never declared a war, after all). Students took over administration buildings, rioted, and basically made their voice heard because they were the ones forced to fight the war based on the hypothesis that it would stop the spread of Communism, which we all know now to have been such a great method of governance (where art thou USSR?) I’m only in my 40s and I remember it distinctly—we lost that war and Communism, it’s still around, but pretty powerless.
Today, we have two generations of people who haven’t experienced forced conscription into the service (and didn’t even have to find a way to evade the draft through Reserve service, fleeing to Canada, or getting daddy to write a big check), and they just don’t get it. The military is full of the disadvantaged, the poor, the minorities, and those seeking a way to improve their lot in life. It is not necessarily full of those charged with patriotic fervor, though I think to a man/woman, they are all patriotic and serve willingly and honestly. But would they rather share the burden with the rest of our service age population? Where are the children of privilege? Where are the children of the middle class? Have they rallied to serve the cause that they so proudly stick an American Flag on their Hummer bumper for? Do they even rally to end this craziness?
I could go on for years about all the things we’ve done wrong with the military over the last 20 years when Reagan decided we would need to draw down the force. Our forces are stretched so thin being a Reservist means being called up every other year, disrupting their lives and livelihoods. Being a veteran means substandard health care because the Veteran’s Administration’s budget is cut year after year. Having a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder means being lumped in a group considered malingerers. Being on active duty means that you serve in the field, visit your family briefly, then serve in the field again. And for what?
Those loud proponents of the war, where are their children and grandchildren? Why aren’t they serving? I think they should be. Maybe that would end this more quickly. I’d love for everyone to write their Congressional representative and find out whose family is walking the walk. I'm just thinking a whole lot of we fine citizens are willing to enjoy the benefits of this freedom we enjoy without being willing to step up and pay some of those costs associated with that freedom.
The Notorious B.E.N. pointed out today, as we were looking at the chalk on the sidewalk, eating our munchies, enjoying the sunny day, that there was great irony in the photo above---the two causes (authority/civil disobedience) are running parallel and right now have no chance to meet head on—he sees it—why can’t we?
This rant brought to you by a proud queer veteran who doesn’t want her kids to serve in a stupid war.
Published on: Sep 6, 2006
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