by Don Hynes
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| Vantage Point | Culture and Politics by Don Hynes |
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"No man is prejudiced in favor of a thing, knowing it to be wrong.
He is attached to it on the belief of its being right; and when he sees it is not so,
the prejudice will be gone." - Tom Paine
September 01, 2003 A Light Shines in the Darkness Forty years ago Rev. Martin Luther King blazed a light of inspiration from the memorial to the Great Emancipator, a light that shone before the nation of the United States and before the world. It was a light of real freedom, not the hollow repetition of today’s militarists; a light of real tolerance, not the shallow religious cant of today’s bigots demanding their prejudice remain cast in stone on the doorstep of the Alabama statehouse; a light of real accountability, declaring we are our brothers keepers beyond empty phrases and political rhetoric, that while any are bound none are free. Like the few visionaries we’ve been gifted with in our time, Dr. King expanded our sense of self and community, took us to a mountaintop where we could see beyond the prejudice and intolerance that characterized our past and look forward into a future that would be forged by truth and a transparent virtue that would touch the hearts of every person of good will no matter their color, nationality or creed. It has been said that Dr. King may have intended to end his speech at the point when he intoned “I have a dream, a dream deeply rooted in the American dream,” but standing behind him gospel great Mahalia Jackson called out to him “Tell them about the dream, Martin.” From that point, whether extemporaneous or written, Dr. King’s vision lit the darkness of ignorance with the brilliance of his faith, the eloquence of so much suffering redeemed in his vibrant passion for truth: “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.” Forty years later his dream has yet to be fully realized, appears to be in retrograde with the advances of intolerance and fundamentalism of every sort, the violence that pretends to be in freedom’s cause yet dishonors its very nature. Yet even the crass and brutal ignorance that snuffed out Dr. King’s life, a life of hard won virtue and vision, cannot diminish nor deflect the path he illuminated: “One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. But today our very survival depends upon our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant, and face the challenge of change.” I’ve wondered if any such light would appear in the gross darkness of the conflict in Palestine and Israel. With each additional day of military occupation, of unthinkable terrorism by the Israeli military and Palestinian extremists, of the growing retrenchment of the Israeli population behind an apartheid wall of understandable fear while their Palestinian neighbors are ground to dust by a brutal oppression that can bear nothing but bitter fruit, this week a voice of reason emerged in the world press. Avraham Burg wrote a brilliant essay in Forward entitled A Failed Israeli Society Collapses While It’s Leaders Remain Silent: “We live in a thunderously failed reality. Yes, we have revived the Hebrew language, created a marvelous theater and a strong national currency. Our Jewish minds are as sharp as ever. We are traded on the Nasdaq. But is this why we created a state? The Jewish people did not survive for two millennia in order to pioneer new weaponry, computer security programs or anti-missile missiles. We were supposed to be a light unto the nations. In this we have failed… What's needed is not a political replacement for the Sharon government but a vision of hope, an alternative to the destruction of Zionism and its values by the deaf, dumb and callous.” The American dream Dr. King espoused was as incongruent with the consumer society of America today as the military state of modern Israel is with the promise of Jewish heritage and culture. A future can only be forged when there is a vision that transcends the barriers of bigotry, and when that vision appears it must be allowed to resonate in our hearts, for the promise of the generations to come. And the Darkness Comprehends it Not Paul Bremer, head of U.S. occupation in Iraq was quoted prior to leaving for his summer vacation “the recent attacks in Iraq do not indicate chaos” referring to the demolition of the UN headquarters and death of one of our most promising international statesmen, prior to the bombing outside a sacred Iraqi holy site that killed over a hundred civilians and silenced a moderate and respected leader of the Shia community. While Iraq outside the razor wire surrounded air conditioned bunker of U.S. headquarters suffers the chaos that Bremer can’t find from his office, a number of Iraqis are writing eloquently on the web from first hand experience. Baghdad Burning describes a day in the life for an Iraqi woman, and the possibility of Iraq reconstructed by Iraqi engineers and builders at a fraction of the cost that Halliburton, Brown & Root and Bechtel are presently looting from reconstruction finances, while Salam Pax writes of Bremer: “Where is this guy living? Is he even in the same time zone??? I’m incredulous… maybe he's from some alternate universe where shooting, looting, tanks, rape, abductions, and assassinations aren’t considered chaos, but it’s chaos in my world.” More U.S. soldiers are killed everyday, and even Oxfam is pulling out while Mojo writes about the GI grunt experience: “there was some kind of screaming...i'm in bed...and i'm being waken up by something other then my alarm clock and my girlfriend once more...something bad...not mortars...or explosions...or even small arms fire...but screaming...horrible pain filled sobbing...in a flash i'm up...out the door into the dark...bare foot and shirtless...there's already a crowd forming...others are walking out into the night...the moon is a sliver and barely noticeable... in the street...i can hear the soldier...he's running...back and forth...other soldiers are starting to circle him...trying to keep him from running off into the woods...he's yelling vicious things...about being shot at...about shooting at other people...about killing his commanders family...and in between every exasperated scream there is a sob...a gut wrenching moan...tear filled...and uncontrolled...” The White House is more concerned with revising it’s web page history and participating in docudramas about trumped up 9-11 presidential heroism than developing a strategy to help the people who inhabit the chaos we’ve created beyond re-recruiting the dreaded Iraqi Intelligence Service we were supposed to have saved them from. Stateside there are few reports about the reality of the war like this Truthout report on Charlie Company, while the returning wounded and dead face the same ignoble silence that greeted the veterans of the Vietnam War. Where are the Presidential photo-ops with the amputees in Walter Reed or the multiplying graves at Fort Carson? The Jessica Lynch, Saving Private Somebody heroic stories aren’t available and the reality of young men and women having their bodies blown apart in a military occupation is far distant from the patriotic treacle that surrounded the invasion and doesn’t suit the corporate sponsors or couch fed American viewing public. Speaking Out Former Egyptian Defense Minister Amin Hwaidi writes an open letter to the President calling for a return to sanity in U.S. mid-east foreign policy. Robert Byrd eloquently cautions the President to “review his options. It is time to ask the world community not only for assistance in restoring peace and security in Iraq but also for participation in moving Iraq toward self-government.” Yanar Muhamad, leads a women’s organization in Baghdad and writes “since the entry of the coalition forces to Iraq, this country is facing an unprecedented wave of violence against women and that some 400 of them were kidnapped, raped or sometimes sold." The incomparable Jimmy Breslin writes Another Lie, One Among Many about the EPA cover-up of the toxic danger to New Yorkers and particularly those involved in the clean-up following the destruction of the World Trade Center, and that it did so, according to Paul Krugman of the NYT, because of pressure from the White House. The General Accounting Office took the President to task for obstructing the investigation into the corporate forging of Administration energy policy through Vice President Cheney by energy insiders like Ken Lay of Enron, while Mother Jones writes about the un-greening of America by an Administration composed of industry insiders governmental agencies are responsible to monitor. And for a Labor Day closer, here’s Greg Palast on the Grinch Who Stole Labor Day, Secretary of Put the Hurt on Labor Chou’s sterling decision to eliminate overtime pay for “management” (read senior burger flipper) which “would re-classify as "exempt professionals" anyone who learned their skill in the military. In other words, thousands of veterans will now lose overtime pay.” Ways to Help Assist the King Center. Join Common Cause against Halliburton and unaccountable defense spending. Sign a petition against furthering nuclear weapons research. Stay informed about the true depth of presidential compassion when it comes to aids. Or Imagine along with poet and fallen warrior, John Lennon. Imagine there's no heaven, It's easy if you try, No hell below us, Above us only sky, Imagine all the people living for today... Imagine there's no countries, It isn’t hard to do, Nothing to kill or die for, No religion too, Imagine all the people living life in peace... Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can, No need for greed or hunger, A brotherhood of man, Imagine all the people Sharing all the world... You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one, I hope some day you'll join us, And the world will live as one. Peace. *** |
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