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CounterPunch
September
16, 2002
Voices for Peace
by Kurt J. Leege
As I stood at the anti-war rally in New York this
morning besieged by the rabid reborn cult of Lyndon LaRouche,
a terrible thought occurred to me: Throughout all of the articles
written and arguments condemning the upcoming war, regardless
of political affiliation, I have yet to find a single voice of
peace. It's quite remarkable really. No one has bothered to oppose
this war, or any other in the last thirty years, based solely
on the principle that violence and war are antithetical to a
rational society.
Surely violence and war are understandable
and inevitable given the realities of economic scarcity, religious
zealotry, nationalistic fervor and the host of divisive ideologies
that separate us as homo sapiens. But this is precisely the problem:
We all are 'homo sapiens'. We all face and share the aforementioned
realities - and many others. Some face certain ones more than
others. Some have it better than others. Most tend to blame their
struggles on every one else. Sometimes that is right and sometimes
that is wrong. However, above [or below] the morass of struggle
that is the life of homo sapiens, there is something common -
we cannot live alone.
Sure one can believe that they can either
drop out or dominate at some point: Individually or collectively;
by cleverness or by force [in either instance]. But we still
must live with each other. We still share friends, enemies, a
planet... So what is the world we want to live in? Not the we
of religion, not the we of the state, not the we of institutions
that divide us, but we, 'homo sapiens'.
A couple of years ago I watched a program
on PBS about the conscientious objectors in World War II. These
were not people who deferred service because of politics or ideology
- these were people knew that violence is wrong. Needless to
say, I broke down in tears at the end of the program. My father
once told me that even though he did not feel that he could carry
a gun, he would have volunteered to serve in some non-military
capacity in World War II. That is certainly admirable, but it
doesn't come close to the conviction of the objectors. We didn't
know what to do with them. We've never known what to do with
them, but they are right. They stand for us as homo sapiens.
They understand the we are common - what we share is our lives,
our struggles, our planet. And in being common, an act of violence
against others is an act of violence against the self.
I sometimes wonder what happened to the
spirit of Kant, Marx, Gandhi, King--the spirit of universalism,
of humanity. But I still see it in some ways. I still see it
in the occasional comfort offered by strangers. I still see it
in the process of collective artistic endeavors. I still see
it in the spirit of those who grow gardens in the middle of cities.
Unfortunately, I don't see it in the anti-war movement. And I
certainly don't see it in the governments that supposedly represent
us--'homo sapiens'.
I think it is time that we speak out
for us.
Kurt Leege
lives in New York. He can be reached at: noxes@nyc.rr.com
Today's Features
September 14 / 15, 2002
Ben Tripp
Notes for
Future Historians:
The Bush Administration Explained
Tom Crumpacker
Democracy & US Policy on Cuba
David Vest
Neither-Handed
Behzad Yaghmaian
A Letter
from Istanbul
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Fire Next Time:
Nuclear Plants & Terrorism
Anis Shivani
The Warped
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Bernard Lewis
Uri Avnery
A Witness from the Past
Robert Fisk
Bush Across
the Rubicon
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Lacking Tenacity
Christini, Alam, & Krieger
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September
14 / 15, 2002
Ben Tripp
Notes for
Future Historians:
The Bush Administration Explained
Tom Crumpacker
Democracy & US Policy on Cuba
David Vest
Neither-Handed
Behzad Yaghmaian
A Letter
from Istanbul
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Fire Next Time:
Nuclear Plants & Terrorism
Anis Shivani
The Warped
World of
Bernard Lewis
Uri Avnery
A Witness from the Past
Robert Fisk
Bush Across
the Rubicon
Josh Frank
Lacking Tenacity
Christini, Alam, & Krieger
Poems
September
12, 2002
Paul de Rooij
A Glossary
of Occupation
James C.
Faris
Riefenstahl
at 100:
The Fascist Aesthetic
Gary Leupp
Presidential
Honesty on Iraq
Tarif Abboushi
A Conversation
with My Arab-American Self
Ron Jacobs
Shelter
from the Storm
Rick Giombetti
Paxil
and Addiction
Krystal Kyer
From NAFTA
to CAFTA
Another Rotten Trade Deal
John Jonik
Overcome
in Philly
September
11, 2002
Anis Shivani
How to
Survive in Ashcroft's America
Pierre Tristam
Abusing
the Sorrows of 9/11
David Krieger
Resisting
Bush's
"Relentless War"
Jerre Skog
9/11 One
Year Later:
Remember the Others, Too
Dave Marsh
Illegal
Music?
A Sampler's Delight
Norm Dixon
How the
Warmongers Have Exploited 9/11
September
7 / 8, 2002
Bill Christison
A
Year Later: It's Happening Here
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Tenth Crusade
Susan Davis
Mr. Ashcroft's
Neighborhood
Bruce Jackson
When
War Came Home
David Krieger
Looking
Back on September 11
Mike Leon
Bush and War
Peter Linebaugh
Levellers
and 9/11
William McDougal
September 11 One Year On:
That's Entertainment!
Riad Z. Abdelkarim
and Jason Erb
How American Muslims Really Responded
to 9/11
Jeffrey St.
Clair
The Trouble
with Normal
Tom Stephens
Rise Up...Dump Bush
September
6, 2002
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Stolen
Trust
Gale Norton, Indians and the Case of the Missing $10 Billion
September
5, 2002
Ben Tripp
Jesus vs.
George the Second
William Hughes
McKinney's
Defeat:
Undue Meddling
Gavin Keeney
Beaux
Reves, Citoyens!
Wayne Saunders
War
Begins; Nobody Notices
Irit Katriel
Drunk
with Power:
Israeli Chief of Staff Calls Palestinians a "Cancerous Demographic
Threat"
Gary Leupp
Who's Afraid
of Iraq?
Resources:
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About 9/11
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Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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