Starting Sunday, I've declared a week-long moratorium on discussing geopolitics. I've already broken it twice today, but
I'm not too hard on myself. It's what everyone else is talking about, after all.
I generally consider my world view to be pretty unique. I've been a little disappointed (and somewhat heartened,
really), to find that, generally, what I would want to say, geopolitically, is being said on various fronts. So I don't
feel too bad about preventing myself from sharing my wisdom with the world. It never really mattered anyway.
I think everybody probably figures their world view is pretty unique.
The Royal Medieval Faire was on Saturday. I ended up spending 4 hours standing in
uncomfortable new shoes trying to put wristbands on hundreds and hundreds of people. The Faire did really well this
year—6000 visitors compared to last year's 3500. Everybody seemed to be having a good time. That's good. I certainly
needed it. Even if I was a bit unresponsive at the "wrap party" (which isn't unusual at all). I did win a pair of movie
passes, though. Yay!
I find no comfort watching CNN. The first victim in war is truth, it has been said. Not just truth, but tolerance,
understanding, and perspective, also. I do not deny that some response is necessary; that justice must, in some way, be
done. On the other hand, no good can come from levelling Afghanistan, for example—a country that already lies in rubble.
I am somewhat heartened that our leaders have not leapt to stupid action, as they have been prone to do in the past
when "retaliation" has meant a futile flailing about that only really hurts the innocent. This is an unjust world. Far
more than justice, what I want is understanding, tolerance and peace.
I've been reading recentessays by British
journalist Robert Fisk. The evil we face is an evil born of desperation, not
one born of the greed or lust for power that we are used to. Anger and destruction may not be the most effective
response. How can you punish someone who has nothing? What can you take away? What satisfaction can you get from killing
people who are happy to die?
I don't have the answer. Violence begets violence, as tink reminded me. And that reminded me
of Rene Girard. And that reminded me of this:
"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, Do not resist an
evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also." (Mat. 5:38-39)
But "experts" argue that this only emboldens the terrorists. Or something.
Perhaps, in seeking justice in the present, it is time to right the injustices of the past:
"Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French...What
is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct...If they [the Jews] must look to the
Palestine of geography as their national home, it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British gun. A religious
act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb. They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of
the Arabs... As it is, they are co-sharers with the British in despoiling a people who have done no wrong to them. I am
not defending the Arab excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightly regard as
an unacceptable encroachment upon their country. But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be
said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds."
Mahatma Gandhi, 1938,
quoted in "A Land of Two Peoples" ed. Mendes-Flohr,
and requoted here (thanks QYV).
I don't want revenge. I don't want recompense. I'm not even sure I want "justice". I want whomever they are to take
responsibility for the actions taken today.
I want them to come and clean up the messes they've made. To breath the greasy smoke of jet fuel. To fill their lungs
with the concrete dust that covers an entire island. To pull from the tons of scorched metal and cement the remains of
the people whose only fault was to go in to work on time today.
I want them to go and work in the hospitals and tend to those who bodies have been burned all over, or who are dying
from lack of blood, or who have been hit by shrapnel, falling debris, or have been wounded in the evacuations. I want
them to go out and explain to those injured who have had to be turned away from overflowing facilities why they cannot
be treated.
I want them to go to the families and children of those on the planes and apologize for the deaths that shouldn't have
happened and explain to those children just why they are going to be growing up without a mother or father. To apologize
to the relatives of those who, possibly for the first time, went to the Trade Center as tourists to see the marvels of
feeling on top of the world.