Of course, it needs to be said that not only am I personally repulsed by all this, not only do I not support this I know no one who does, nor would such an act be even entertained as a notion in the minds of those I work with, love and respect for their principled opposition to Imperialism and the blood drenched, viciousness of our current society. Nothing of this act resonates with what I love about humanity, what it is I find so irreplaceable in surrounding myself with the warmth and the laughter of human beings. That, in the final analysis is what motivates the good people- and I hope to count myself among these- to resist the butchers who run the world today. However, another thing happens to the mind.
When I look at the images of the tortured burnt out villages of the Vietnamese people, the victims of the Al-Amiriya Shelter in Iraq or the cluster bombs dropped on Belgrade, I feel a strong, deep and passionate hate. An utter contempt for the very evil our own leaders do- across both sides of the 49th parallel- and do it in our names. This is not politics as such, this is humanity. My total love for people is why such a vicious burning guttural hate swells up in me. I know all of you who love the people of the whole planet know that desperate hate feeling. So, it is that part of me that hates as a reaction to what happens to the entire world that pauses for a brief section- less than 2% perhaps- of what I am and thought- no one ever need go through this, but by God we have been begging for this for centuries. On some level, it is only something like this which can wake North Americans to a permanent crisis, built up by our "leaders". Imperialism is the mother and the midwife simultaneously on this. We are also to blame- for as our governments rain death on the heads of our friends we have not stopped them.
I want to try to bring this into some sense by way of personal observation. Last night, I had the chace to go to the Colleges' "welcome back" barbecue- cheap beer and free veggie burgers provided by the student union. I had tried to avoid people for three days. The whole thing had me angry at the edge of my toes- because of the rankest racism I was hearing. I, like everyone else there, was talking about nothing else. The thing was, my fears and my hopes were coming to light. I watched a young woman, a pacifist- be followed around by an angry lunatic who wanted everyone in his earshot to hear him denounce her as trying to justify what happened. What she had done was explain the IMF/WB and their role in the 3rd world. The fanaticism has begun. Also, there were a large number of people who said they thought America deserved it- and that this was something that should have happened sooner. So the lessons have been learned as well.
Many people admire the dedication and military brilliance pulled off here. A startling comment which makes me wonder if it because these images look like a movie or if they genuinely thought it was done well.
Something strange happened. When I got there- anything I said on the matter was preceded by a long disclaimer- distancing myself from such tactics. The more beer I had, the more I pointed to the obvious: why should we stop because it happens to the US? What about the people they kill every damn day? Then I would suggest that at least this will bring the racist scum bags in our neighbourhoods out, so we know who they are. I really tested it by saying that perhaps a people who leech of the rest of the world - settle for imperialist structures with something as simple as a Nike shoe as the payoff- perhaps these people (including us) don't deserve to live in peace, or at least that they have had a totally free ride for far too long.
The more blunt the statement, the more respect it got. Friends, these 10 000 people appear to have been the price I could never call- a price paid to wake up North America to just how vicious reality is. This is reality. This is what our fair leaders produce the way they run the world. I am not prepared to die for Chase Manhattan- I am prepared to die fighting it.
A simple reality: what this is- let there be no shirking from it- will not decrease at all until we do our God-damned historic mission and over throw the bastards in the Pentagon and not just fly planes of civilians into them.
Lay the blame at three levels: One, callous and misdirected human disregard for fellow humans. What motivated them was the largest culprit: Death to Imperialism. The final push, the third reason? The callousness with which we have ignored the rest of the worlds' pleas for centuries.
Dear North America:
I, like you, have been crying. I am typing while the tears dry on my cheeks. I am typing so as to make sure the lesson of all this horror, this carnage- that it is not lost.
For years we have been the few who sat on top of the rest of the world. We have allowed- by our inactions in learning the true terror that our rulers perpetuate on the rest of the world. Those terrors are not false, they are not superfluous- and they are not to be looked at lightly. They are to be understood as similar- except they aren't even shocking for the victims any longer. The world order imposed by the Bastards in Washington- and the people they truly serve- are the real architects of this tragedy. Do not look to the man who speaks with an accent in your local corner store. Do not look, as David Letterman says, to the Cab driver. Do not look to any of these people. They are the victims of these atrocities.
This whole god-damned mess is spawned by the fact we put up with "leaders" who kill 50 000 a day in hunger. A people who have done this crime a dozen times this very year in Iraq.
Listen, and listen carefully: Now you know. Now you know the pain of Imperialism. Now you get it. Malcolm X was right. This is the Imperialist Chicken coming right home to roost.
------------------------------------------- Macdonald Stainsby Rad-Green List: Radical anti-capitalist environmental discussion. http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green ---- Leninist-International: Building bridges in the tradition of V.I. Lenin. http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international ---- In the contradiction lies the hope.
--Bertholt Brecht