- We are told that in this time of crisis, all good
Americans
should rally around the president and the flag.
-
- I will rally, but not around a leader calling for war
or a symbol of nationalism.
-
- It is easy to understand the emotion behind the chanting
of "USA, USA." But I will not chant.
-
- In this time of crisis, I will rally around policies
that seek peace and security, for all people everywhere. And instead of
chanting, I will speak quietly about the grief we all feel, and loudly
about the need to resist our leaders' plans for global war.
-
- Decent people agree that in this time of crisis, we
cannot
let the lines of color and culture, of language and religion, divide us.
But we need to go another step, to understand that the lines dividing
people
based on nations are just as dangerous. We must also agree not to give
in to the urge to value the lives of innocent Americans over the lives
of innocent people in other countries.
-
- For the past few days -- in person and on the phone,
through email and on the radio -- I have been called
"unpatriotic,"
condemned as a "traitor" and labeled "anti-American"
because my writing has opposed the drive to war, the call for blood to
avenge those who died in the terror attacks.
-
- But I also have heard from many others who also are
concerned
that U.S. officials will take us into a war that will bring only more
death,
pain and grief, leaving us less secure. They want to speak out but fear
being attacked for not being "good Americans."
-
- This is a moment when we need the courage to say that
being a good American does not mean supporting a war so violent and so
indiscriminate that more innocent people will die.
-
- That does not mean we renounce the ideals of freedom
and justice so often associated with the United States; we should hold
onto those ideals more fiercely than ever and put them into practice by
resisting the rush to war.
-
- We should honor the ideals of this country by saying,
in as clear a voice as we can manage: Not in our name will the United
States
seek vengeance or go forward to kill.
-
- It is important to read closely the joint resolution
passed by Congress, which authorizes the president "to use all
necessary
and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons
he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist
attacks
that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons,
in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against
the United States by such nations, organizations or persons."
-
- That is not a resolution based on a quest for justice.
It is an open-ended invitation to attack anyone U.S. leaders decide to
target. And those leaders -- Dick Cheney and Colin Powell among them --
are some of the same people who during the Gulf War unleashed attacks not
only on military targets but on civilians and the entire civilian
infrastructure
of Iraq, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people during and after
the war. This resolution, and the statements from the Bush administration
about an ongoing global war, suggest that what is coming will be even more
frightening.
-
- When we speak out against war in public, we will find
support, but we also should expect hostility. We should expect the question
posed by one of the people who wrote to condemn me: "Whose side are
you on?"
-
- The answers to that are simple:
-
- I am on the side of the people -- no matter where they
live -- who will suffer the violence, not the leaders -- no matter where
they live -- who will plan it.
-
- I am on the side of peace, not war.
-
- I am on the side of justice, not vengeance.
-
- And most important, I am on the side of hope, not
despair.
-
- We do not have the luxury of despair right now. There
is too much at stake for too many people.
-
- ___
-
-
- Robert Jensen is a professor of journalism at the
University
of Texas at Austin. He can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu.
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