- On Saturday, Jan 18-03, hundreds upon hundreds of thousands
throughout the world took to the streets and parks with the Song of Peace.
It's estimated that some 500,000 filled Washington, D.C.
-
- Mr. Michael Kelly, of the Washington Post, wrote on Jan
22-03, unabashedly, and without even a hint of insight, that all, all,
all, of these people were from the Left; and furthermore they all chose
to "March with Stalinists, and oppressors of humanity!" Furthermore,
Mike ranted on, all of these hundreds upon hundreds of thousands supported
the butchers of Beijing, after the slaughter of Tiananmen Square, Saddam
Hussein, the mullahs of Iran, the narco-gangsters of Colombia, the bus-bombers
of Hamas, and the mass starvation of North Korean citizens! The only thing
Mike seems to have left out was the murder of Bambi, and the crucifixion
of Jesus!
-
- I am all for freedom of speech and the right of people
to be heard no matter how incoherent and absurd. Mr. Kelly needs help.
In his venomous, disjointed, frothing, diatribe he appears to be in the
throes of a mid-life crisis or mad cow disease. Maybe in Foggy Bottom (Washington,
D.C.) they're one and the same? We can be thankful that most of America
doesn't read the Washington Post, and goes elsewhere for rational, informed
reporting. According to Michael Kelly of the Washington Post, we can kiss
tolerance, diversity, conflict resolution, and we are the world goodbye!
-
- Michael, like his cohorts down in Washington, D.C.,
need to come into the real world. Mr. Kelly, duh, the people out at these
marches, are for the most part, the most informed people of America! If
you'd watched any of the man on the street interviews during the election
you'd know that most were befuddled and bewildered as to whom the Secretary
of State was! One person actually replied that the Civil War was the L.A.
riots!! Stalin!! Hello Mr.Kelly, it is now the 21st century! We may not
all be the sharpest tools in the shed but couldn't you think up someone
a bit more in step with the times? How about "Marching With Charlie
Manson--Freddy Kruger-(Nightmare on Elm Street) or The Terminator?"
With history no longer being taught, people may well think "Stalinists"
is a new rock group! Been there, done that, Mr. Kelly;the McCarthy era
of a Commie in every sewer or back lot in Hollywood is over! Those who
were too young to have been privy to this insanity in the 50s, have at
least been able to see reruns on the History channel.
-
- How dare you, Mr. Kelly, in your bias, prejudice and
pathology of hatred, make a sweeping generalization of citizens throughout
our land and around the world, "supporting fascists, tyrants, starvation
and the slaughter of students in Tiananmen Square!" It is not 'we
the people' who time and time again voted most favored nation status for
China! It is not 'we the people' who supplied both Iran and Iraq with weapons
of mass destruction during the Iraq-Iran War! It is not 'we the people'
who supported and armed the Taliban during the Afghanistan/Russian War!
It is not 'we the people' who used depleted uranium for the first time
during Gulf War I, and later on Yugoslavia; poisoning soldiers, civilians
and the environment! It is not 'we the people' denying our veterans of
the needed medical care they need for Gulf War Disease. It is not 'we the
people' championing the expenditure of billions upon billions on missiles,
vaporizing bombs, cluster bombs and micro-waving weaponry; while millions
go hungry in the world, or are unable to afford medical care or affordable
medicines! It's not you Mr.Kelly picking up the remains of a loved one
sent back in a body bag! It's not you being told by President George Bush
Sr. to "shut-up and sit down" when you ask about those left behind
in Vietnam! It's not you, as a returning Reservist having to go on welfare
to get needed medical care. It's not you being issued the cheapest of prosthetics
from Walter Reed (to save tax-dollars!). It's not you going out to homeless
veterans living under bridges or in abandoned cars; their feet rotted and
filled with maggots! It's not you living under a plastic sheet in a refugee
camp with your hungry babies! It's not you digging frantically in the collapsed
walls of your mud hut searching for your child! How dare you ridicule and
mock those who march for peace for the lives of Americans and those in
foreign lands! How dare you!
-
- How dare you label mothers, grandmothers, fathers, grandfathers,
maimed veterans, students, ministers, politicians, blacks, whites, Asians,
, Muslims, Catholics, Jews, Protestants, Native Americans, Agnostics, Atheists,
doctors, nurses, professors, mechanics, steelworkers, carpenters, longshoremen,
auto-workers, craftsmen, farmers, loggers, clerks, attorneys, musicians,
artists, poets, writers, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Green Party,
Libertarians, etc., as unpatriotic, and un-American! It is WE who built
this nation, who farm this nation, who pay the astronomical billions for
war! It is WE who have been to war and now worry over the lives of our
children and grandchildren being called to what is a war without end. A
war that could last for years!
-
- You charge ANSWER (the organizer of this gathering) with
every crime and evil under the sun, pointing to the signs people carried;
of accusations and less than kind descriptions of the administration. We
may disagree or choose to carry signs with a more noble or peaceful message,
but in a crowd of hundreds of thousands one has little control. Like your
vicious column we must accommodate for freedom's sake all voices. Besides,
Mr.Kelly, with the tens of thousands of signs carried I find it remarkable
that you managed to choose those most fitting for your vindictive verbiage!
One would think you'd arranged it? If the truth be known Mr.Kelly, people
did not travel hundreds of miles on a bitter cold day to support ANSWER,
whom probably 90% had little to no knowledge of! Here is where, as a writer,
you show your utter ignorance of the times.
-
-
- People gathered for many reasons. Some, it's true are
groupies, and turn out for any and all mass protests, living vicariously
through the passion of others. Others come out of curiosity, and some may
indeed have intentions of stirring up dissension with vulgar signs or violence!
But mostly people came together out of love for their country and fellow
man. They came because ANSWER was there for their concerns, fears and grief.
The politicians had left them in the lurch, as most of the Churches had!
I may have chosen a different roster of speakers and an environment more
conducive for debate and discussion, but then I wasn't the organizer. The
people came because they are weary of war, decades and decades of bombings,
napalm, minefields, defoliants, depleted uranium, vaporizing daisy cutters,
and multitudes dead! They are sickened of the Stalins' of the world with
their 'Purges' killing millions and millions through famine and wholesale
slaughter. All violence is injustice!
-
- The majority of those you so abusively labeled know that
war upon war is not the answer! With modern day nuclear weapons we are
now capable of destroying the earth, can you grasp that Michael? There
is a way beyond hate, rage, vengeance, an eye for an eye, and it behooves
those left with compassion to convince those who only see mindless-forever
destruction. Demonizing one's adversaries, Mr. Kelly leads to polarization.
People respond to arrogance with their own arrogance. If we attend to battles,
we become embattled. If we give love, we become loving. What we choose
shapes and defines us. The lofty, smug, superior, intellect that we see
exhibited daily; leads to the fragmentation of the world, while the heart
operates at greater depth. U.S. Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich tells us,
"All people are essentially one. The world is interconnected not only
on the material level of economics, trade, communication, and transportation,
but interconnected through human consciousness, through the human HEART,
through the HEART of the world, through the simply expressed impulse and
yearning to be and to breathe free!" Feb. 17, 2002
-
- In closing, Mr.Kelly, here is wisdom on what you missed
in the gathering of the people of many lands; "The spiritual understanding
and awareness that every human being is a sacred, divine being with a higher
spiritual purpose, is fundamental to understanding and manifesting the
deepest meaning and infinite love of our soul. Not only do we need to honor
and respect our own sacred, divine self, but we must also, learn to see
and experience this same spiritual reality in every other human being.
The longest road you will ever have to walk is the sacred journey from
your head to your heart. Both the mind and the heart are sacred. Both are
inseparably connected. The Creator has put lessons in every part of creation.
Look at the trees; the alder does not tell the pine to move over; the pine
does not tell the fir tree to move over; each tree stands in unity, their
mouth pressed to the same Mother Earth, warmed by the same sun, with their
arms raised in prayer and thanksgiving, protecting one another. If we are
to have PEACE in the world, we too must learn to live like those trees.
The stream travels through deserts, mountains, and many places, but it
never turns its back on anyone or anything. Even though it gives life to
all living things, it is very humble, for it always seeks the lowest spot.
The hurt of one, is the hurt of all and the honor of one , is the honor
of all." Phil Lane-Hereditary Chief of the Yankton Dakota and Chickasaw
tribes, Professor of Education.
-
- You looked for signs of hatred and vindictiveness Mr.
Kelly and so you found them. I saw a veteran in a wheelchair, paralyzed
in Vietnam, softly pleading for Peace. I heard the songs of women for their
children and a Congressman praying for us all. And finally, I listened
to Grandma Sarah from the Oneida nation telling us that long ago it was
spoken by the ancient ones that the Sacred Fire would all but be extinguished
except for the smoldering embers. Those with listening hearts were charged
with carrying the embers to all nations and re- igniting the Sacred Fires
of all lands. That Mr.Kelly was what the people were about. That's what
you missed!
- jm
-
|
