All we are saying is give peace a chance
Aug. 17th, 2005 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wook77I had THE most mindblowing experience tonight. Actually, it was an
all-around wonderful day. I made my early morning meeting with time to
spare. I went out for lunch with a girlfriend of mine and got caught up
on her happenings. I read some unbelievably good stories in the HP
fandom by; ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
silentauror, emmagrant01, , coffeejunkii, and finished reading Shadow Bandit's A Moment in Time on fanfiction.net. This just ended my workday on a high note.
I had to work late, like I have been for the past three weeks. I left around 7:15 pm to go to my mindblowing experience. I went to a candlelight vigil in support of Cindy Sheehan. For those of you unfamiliar with her, she is the mother of Casey Sheehan. Her son died in Iraq and she has set up "Camp Casey" outside of George W. Bush's vacation home in Texas. As part of Camp Casey, there were numerous crosses put out by family members and friends of fallen soldiers in Iraq. Camp Casey has been threatened by shotgun fire nearby, spit on, had liquids thrown at them from passing vehicles, and the final straw, a man driving a pickup truck tore through the roadside memorial to the fallen troops. The driver of the truck actually strapped chains to the back of his pickup and dragged them through the crosses to do the maximum amount of damage he could.
The mendacity of this guy just absolutely outraged me. I would NEVER in a million years think of doing something so outrageous. How dare he tear up a memorial to fallen soldiers?! I couldn't believe the gall.
This rage carried me into wanting to do something. I heard about the candlelight vigils throughout the US. It was sponsored by http://www.moveon.org. I decided to go to one of the rally's and see how it was.
Simply put, it was mindblowing. It was awe-inspiring. It was stunning in its simplicity and beautiful in its complexity. It was one of the greatest things I've ever done in my life. The silence wasn't deafening. Instead, it was calming. There were no histrionics, no weeping or gnashing of teeth. Instead, it was so moving that I cried on my way home.
I have never felt that level of peace in my mind, body or soul. Normally, my mind doesn't shut up for more than a second. My mouth doesn't stop running for more than 2. My body never stops moving, even in sleep. However, I spent about an hour in a contemplative silence that radiated throughout every part of my existence.
The best part of tonight was the peace. The second best part was realizing, after we all started disbanding that almost every one of us has someone serving over in Iraq. Right now, two of my cousins are over there. My brother is facing a possible deployment and my sister could be called up at any time.
Do I support the troops? Heck yeah.
Do I support this war? If I was ever given a concrete reason for us to be over there, if I hadn't been lied to over and over and over, if all diplomatic recourses were exhausted, if the world supported us, if Iraq really had something to do with September the 11th, if...
Tonight only made me realize that peace is really the answer. Diplomacy can fail but should never be ignored. War should only ever be a final answer, a response to an act of aggression.
There is no bringing the dead soldiers back. To honor their memory, we should know why they died in the first place. They deserve to know, their families deserve to know. An honest answer to an honest question. That question is why?
In conclusion, I recently read a quotation by John F.Kennedy. It stated... "Mankind needs to put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind."
silentauror, emmagrant01, coffeejunkii, and finished reading Shadow Bandit's A Moment in Time on fanfiction.net. This just ended my workday on a high note.I had to work late, like I have been for the past three weeks. I left around 7:15 pm to go to my mindblowing experience. I went to a candlelight vigil in support of Cindy Sheehan. For those of you unfamiliar with her, she is the mother of Casey Sheehan. Her son died in Iraq and she has set up "Camp Casey" outside of George W. Bush's vacation home in Texas. As part of Camp Casey, there were numerous crosses put out by family members and friends of fallen soldiers in Iraq. Camp Casey has been threatened by shotgun fire nearby, spit on, had liquids thrown at them from passing vehicles, and the final straw, a man driving a pickup truck tore through the roadside memorial to the fallen troops. The driver of the truck actually strapped chains to the back of his pickup and dragged them through the crosses to do the maximum amount of damage he could.
The mendacity of this guy just absolutely outraged me. I would NEVER in a million years think of doing something so outrageous. How dare he tear up a memorial to fallen soldiers?! I couldn't believe the gall.
This rage carried me into wanting to do something. I heard about the candlelight vigils throughout the US. It was sponsored by http://www.moveon.org. I decided to go to one of the rally's and see how it was.
Simply put, it was mindblowing. It was awe-inspiring. It was stunning in its simplicity and beautiful in its complexity. It was one of the greatest things I've ever done in my life. The silence wasn't deafening. Instead, it was calming. There were no histrionics, no weeping or gnashing of teeth. Instead, it was so moving that I cried on my way home.
I have never felt that level of peace in my mind, body or soul. Normally, my mind doesn't shut up for more than a second. My mouth doesn't stop running for more than 2. My body never stops moving, even in sleep. However, I spent about an hour in a contemplative silence that radiated throughout every part of my existence.
The best part of tonight was the peace. The second best part was realizing, after we all started disbanding that almost every one of us has someone serving over in Iraq. Right now, two of my cousins are over there. My brother is facing a possible deployment and my sister could be called up at any time.
Do I support the troops? Heck yeah.
Do I support this war? If I was ever given a concrete reason for us to be over there, if I hadn't been lied to over and over and over, if all diplomatic recourses were exhausted, if the world supported us, if Iraq really had something to do with September the 11th, if...
Tonight only made me realize that peace is really the answer. Diplomacy can fail but should never be ignored. War should only ever be a final answer, a response to an act of aggression.
There is no bringing the dead soldiers back. To honor their memory, we should know why they died in the first place. They deserve to know, their families deserve to know. An honest answer to an honest question. That question is why?
In conclusion, I recently read a quotation by John F.Kennedy. It stated... "Mankind needs to put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind."
