IT’S TIME THE PEACE MOVEMENT GOT SOME CREDIT

IT’S TIME THE PEACE MOVEMENT GOT SOME CREDIT

For years now many people in Springfield and other towns like it all across this country have been making their stand against BushCo’s war on the Middle-East, and through all those years, we have had to endure heckling, name-calling and slurs against our courage and our patriotism.

It has been rewarding to see the majority of the country’s citizens finally coming into line with us in their opposition to the war in Iraq, but I fear that their reasons for doing so are different from our reasons for initial opposition, and there can be no doubt that they would still rather not be associated with us “peaceniks”.

I never have and never will, and I expect you never have and never will, expect to be thanked for opposing this war from the start, nor for standing our ground until the rest of country caught on, but I sure would appreciate it if someone would at least acknowledge that we were right.

I remember the first big protest march the PNO (Peace Network of the Ozarks) staged. The occasion was W’s visit to speak on behalf of Jim Talent in his race for the Senate. I think PNO could take some credit for the helping the community to see that Talent’s unquestioning support for Bush war policies fed strongly into the reasons why McCaskill should take his place.

We tried mightily that day to get the message across that Bush was pushing an unnecessary and illegal war. For our efforts, we were loudly called unpatriotic, communist cowards. As a veteran of the Vietnam era, I was deeply offended by that characterization and would love an opportunity to speak to those same folks today and see how they feel about this war now.

As the build-up to the war escalated, PNO was invited to participate in a televised debate over whether or not we should invade Iraq. I was privileged to sit on that panel along with professors from Dury and MSU, a retired military officer, and the head of the Missouri Department of Homeland Security. The points PNO members schooled me to make were:

(1) Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9-11. BushCo and my opposition said he did. THEY WERE WRONG and WE WERE RIGHT.

(2) Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction. BushCo and my opposition said that we couldn’t know that and that they would find those weapons after toppling Hussein. We contended that the UN Weapons Inspectors and the IAEA had clearly established the absence of WMDs. THEY WERE WRONG and WE WERE RIGHT.

(3) Iraqis would not respond with open arms to our bombing their country. BushCo and my opposition said that we would be welcomed as liberators. My response was that it was a bit tenuous to think that we could bomb a nation to ashes and expect them to love us for it. THEY WERE WRONG and WE WERE RIGHT.

(4) The economic cost of the war would be too high. Those in favor of the war said that Iraq’s oil would pay for it. THEY WERE WRONG and WE WERE RIGHT.

(5) The loss of both American and Iraqi lives would be too high a price to pay. We have lost over 4,000 patriotic Americans. It is still impossible to tell how many Iraqis died, but it is in the hundreds of thousands, not to mention the millions who have lost their homes and are now refugees. THEY WERE WRONG and WE WERE RIGHT.

We staged many street corner protests over the years, and took more abuse including a beer bottle thrown from a moving vehicle. I remember one day when an elderly man pulled over to the curb and said to me, “Freedom isn’t free. It comes at a price.” He immediately rolled up his window, unwilling to hear my response, so he missed my telling him that as a veteran, I knew that. He missed my saying that freedom is forfeited when citizens blindly follow negative leadership.

We both missed a chance to discuss our grievances, and that is the crux of my complaint this morning. It has been years since it was possible to have a good deep political discussion on opposing viewpoints.

I will go tomorrow to visit a dear and valued old friend. We’ve known each other so long that I had a small hand in helping to raise his sons and helped hold his spirits up after his wife of 27 years left him. His youngest son and I had a special bond and yet we have not spoken for four years because he, as a military man and a Republican, cannot talk with me about politics without getting extremely angry. My marching for peace offends him as does my advocacy for domestic spending over militaristic spending in the nation’s budget.

I understand his distaste for my positions, but I love that young man and respect his reasons for believing as he does. It pains me deeply to know that he can’t respect mine. He will be there tomorrow. I hope that time has ameliorated our differences so that we can once again feel the love and respect for one another that was for so long the basis of our relationship.

My wishes for the future relations between PNO members and community members are the same. I wish that the community could recognize and acknowledge at least that we have always had a sound basis for our arguments. I wish that we could all sit down – on opposite sides of the table if need be – but at least in the same room and speak our minds civilly and in an air of mutual respect so that we could come to realize that our similarities are greater than our differences; that we all have the same basic goal in mind – to live well and in peace with one another.

Is that asking so much?


“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry


Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi

Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR

The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle