[wordup] the war.

[Adam Shand]

And then, just to make it better it appears that this really is 
official.  That this is the new world paradigm, that co-existing with 
diversity has prooved too difficult and that the only route to safety is 
through globalization and homogenization.

For some perverse reason I am reminded of Pooh Bear, "In which a very 
brave bear loses his heart".  Only I'm afraid that there is no moral or 
happy ending to the story.

   http://www.nwc.navy.mil/newrulesets/ThePentagonsNewMap.htm

Fuck.
Adam.

From: http://www.ourpla.net/cgi/pikie?AbbeNormal

I remember a night in 1991 when a friend called and let me know that the 
war had begun. I rushed to CNN to watch. Now, for me, there is no CNN. 
There is no Internet. I am in a house without a phone line or cable, or 
satellite TV.

I'm sure that even if i had these things, still i would have only my 
imagination to tell me what it's really like to be a person on the 
ground in Iraq, in Baghdad right now. As my imagination gets going i am 
shocked (and not awed), and i feel sick. That's my tax money being used. 
To kill people. I do not want this. I care. I want my resources to be 
used to support people. To build possibilities.

I ache for a simple, clear, heroic thing to do. I imagine getting the 
first flight possible back to the UnitedStates and...and...what? 
Marching up to the White House and demanding they stop? Demands will not 
help. They are old-paradigm.

But there is a voice inside of me saying i must stop this.

The must is my first enemy. It is a demand of myself. To the extent i am 
compelled, lacking equanimity, i am less powerful. How to dispel the must?

I can befriend it, without thought of dispelling it. This must is a 
measure of how disturbed i am by what is happening, how overwhelmed i am 
by the noise, the death, the blood, the broken buildings and families, 
how disheartened i am by the reverberations and resurfacings that 
today's warring will have through the years and generations to come, in 
Iraq, in America, around the world.

I see in my mind's eye the sad hopeless faces that come one at a time to 
us 'lucky' survivors (in Iraq, in America, around the world) as we hear 
the news that a loved one is dead, or maimed, or missing, as we realize 
that some one, some untold thousands we never knew are dying, or 
injured, or lost. I hurt, because i too care, about each of us, all of us.

I want, for all of us, i still want, a world of trust and transparency 
and mutuality, a world in which every voice (even terrorists and other 
warriors, even Saddam Hussein's, even George Bush's) is heard and 
engaged with, taken seriously long before it has the opportunity to 
delude itself into fear and despair and resentment, and unleash terror 
upon the world. A world in which we each speak out our deepest truths, 
make them available to others, contribute them toward a world together 
for us all.

Now, there is more clarity. I can do something. I can listen more, trust 
more, be more honest and forthright, speak out, engage.

I can reach out to understand the leaders responsible for the current 
terror. I can reach out to move, thoughtfully not mobfully, the masses. 
I can continue my work as i did yesterday. Join me!

Let us heal the current and future leaders by walking NonViolence in our 
daily lives.

Let us continue our protests for peace, for our freedoms, in powerful 
words and direct actions, without getting lost in the confusion our 
leaders are in -- that coercion and control, demand or must, can bring 
us what we want.

Let us continue our work, our BuildingActivities. It's not too late, 
because time does not end here.

Fri Mar 21 06:23:41 2003