---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2001 13:02:47 -0700
From: radtimes <resist@best.com>
Subject: Baby boomers must confront peace vs. war
Baby boomers must confront peace vs. war
<http://www.freep.com:80/sports/albom/mitch7_20011007.htm>
by MITCH ALBOM
October 7, 2001
I knew all the slogans. I knew all the songs. Like a lot of kids in the
'60s, I was drawing peace signs long before I was eligible for Vietnam.
I could sing John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance."
I saw "Make Love Not War" spray painted on Volkswagen vans.
You cannot help the era in which you grow up. It infuses you. It shades
you. So as someone weaned on doubting war, I was surprised to find myself
interviewing a member of the "peace movement" last week and getting angry.
"We do not support killing innocent women and children," she said.
"We topple one government, and the next one is even worse," she said.
"You keep escalating the fighting, and you know where that leads?" she
said. "World War III."
No one wants World War III. And yet the notion of peace, of not fighting
back in this sudden war on terrorism, is so disturbing to most Americans
that the same antiwar protesters who once spoke for much of the nation have
now become the targets of tomato tosses.
Had I become one of the tossers?
Arguing a position
In the days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Congress voted almost
unanimously to support the president in military action. Only one member,
Barbara Lee of California, cast a no vote. Although she only wanted "to
make sure Constitutional laws were not suspended," she nonetheless received
tens of thousands of hate-filled e-mails, as well as death threats.
There is something odd about that. Death threats for someone calling for
peace? Death threats from Americans who are angry about, well, death
threats to Americans?
It only points out the baby boomer's uncomfortable posture. We have seen
the folly of certain foreign wars. We hate senseless violence. Yet we have
been struck. And a bleeding nation is different than one on the sidelines.
So I tried to explain to my peace movement activist that this was not
Gandhi against the British. This was not North versus South Vietnam. This
was not the United States against a certain country where negotiations
between leaders might save us from bloodshed.
My arguments failed to persuade. Instead she reeled back and said, "Maybe
we should examine our foreign policies and see why the rest of the world
hates us so much."
And that was where she lost me.
Signs of maturity
I am not so naive that I think the United States has not supported some bad
guys over the years, some foolish dictatorships, some military coups. I
know we swing our weight on trade and the environment, often to the dismay
of other nations.
But I also know we provide more aid than anyone to the rest the world. We
feed other nations. We protect them. We certainly finance them.
We support Israel, sure, but every president from Jimmy Carter on has tried
to get the parties in the Middle East to sit down and resolve their
problems. And even when we have conflicts with other nations, we don't
encourage American zealots to dive bomb their office buildings and kill
their innocent people.
In this new war, we are dealing with an enemy that speaks only the language
of death. And although no one wants World War III, you can't sit around
passively while a handful of lunatics, who, by the way, would happily blow
up a peace rally if the participants didn't believe in their religion, take
over the world.
So what have I become? A hawk? A warmonger? I hope not. I still see the
horror of it all. I still advocate only action directed at terrorists, not
hurling bombs so we can kick some butt. And I never want peace advocates to
be silenced.
But I am no longer a kid with a Magic Marker who draws symbols with no
understanding of what they mean. Bloodshed is not neat and tidy. And
protecting one's country is not the same as trying to take one over. You
draw a line, and you say no more. If that's called growing up, so be it.
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Contact MITCH ALBOM at 313-223-4581 or albom@freepress.com. Catch "Albom in
the Afternoon" 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WJR-AM (760) and simulcast on MSNBC 3-5
p.m.
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