"If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read 'Vietnam.'"
--Martin Luther King, Jr.
"What is human warfare but just this; an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party."
-- Henry David Thoreau
"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?"
--Mahatma Gandhi
We have our first black president, but when it comes to war he doesn't look much different than the 43 white men who preceded him. Oh, Mr. President, I had so hoped your promise of change was sincere. That it wouldn't be like so many other promises before it: stale political jargon, that lethal mix of insincerity and hidden agenda that is choking off hope in America.
For you told us, Mr. President, to believe in change and then turned around and told us to believe in the war on terror. Oh, Mr. President, please don't pour out on us those same tired lies. We expected so much more than the fear--mongering of your predecessors.
Is truly non-violent commitment to global human rights too much to ask for in the America of 2009? Or is a simply redefined war on terror your definition of change? Perhaps we the American people have not demanded more than this ping-pong electorate exercise masquerading as a democracy.Where is the plurality of voices? Where is the outrage from the religious community? Christians, is not war anathema to your Christ? And humanitarians of every bent, what trust have any of you in this mad, convoluted logic that says to have peace at home we must kill abroad? America, are you not outraged by the horrific status quo that your latest and hippest president refuses to challenge honestly? Or have we forgotten what a truly high price our liberty, safety and comfort demand of us here in the West.
Mr. President, you promised to end our war in Iraq, it turns out only to substitute it for another in Afghanistan. Nevermind that Palestine, Sri Lanka and Sudan are crushed daily under the weight of genocide, rape and famine. You call for more troops in Afghanistan. You promise dialogue and openness to the world and then prattle on about missile defense systems and killing terrorists like so many other great American heroes. In place of change you feed the American public evermore cliches, perhaps knowing we're too sleepy and distracted to demand more.
Save us, Mr. President, your elegant war speak. Any literate American is well indoctrinated with the virtues of killing. From our death penalty to our atomic bombs, this one nation under God has always seemed to prefer the Old to the New Testament. What we don't ever learn much about in school is how 1/3 of our nation's homeless citizens are veterans. Please tell me, Mr. President, that these Americans are a part of your change, or will you have them hidden away under bridges and shelters as they've come to be. Are you ready to discuss openly, Mr. President, the real price of war for our nation?
Oh, Mr. President, how so many believed you when on a cool November night in Chicago you told the American public that change had "come to America." But it seems you have poured sweet lies into our ear. You have chosen to follow the model of Truman, Nixon and Reagan, while turning your back on that of Thoreau, Gandhi and Dr. King. You claim to be a student of history and yet you tell us there is no other way. You tell us how you admire Dr. King, yet forget it was by non-violent means he overcame hatred, murder and injustice.Mr. President, you have relegated change to the safe and comfortable realm of political speak. You have chosen rhetorical deceit over honest accounting with the American public, social decay over investment in our most fragile communities and civilian bloodshed over true humanitarian action abroad. This is no real change to me, Mr. President. This is a tragedy.
Mati
