Saturday, August 06, 2005

FRONT COVER AND CENTERFOLD MAP This handbook was published in September 1951, a little over 6 years after a B-29 bomber called the Enola Gay dropped a new kind of weapon over a city in Japan. Sixty years ago today, we dropped the A-Bomb on Hiroshima.  More eloquent than I on this subject: Dick Jones at Patteran Pages, and Kate Ingold at Broken Windows. 9:27:54 PM    comment []

THE SPARTACUS EFFECT Kate of Broken Windows posted the following comment on my posting last Wednesday on further American deaths in Iraq: I wish they could show pictures of these men and women with their families, and tell us what they did outside of the military. 50% of the soldiers serving in Iraq are reserves/guard. They all have "lives" outside of the military. Even active duty soldiers are more than just a flak jacket. Somehow when we see them in their dress uniforms, looking serious and stoic in front of a flag backdrop, they are reduced to the abstract "soldier", which to many makes them expendable. I don't know anymore. How do we stop them? They are fascists. Too many have already died. I have a glitch in my firewall or my isp or who knows where, that is still preventing me from posting comments to any Salon blog. So I emailed Kate my answer directly: Hang in there, kid.   How do we stop them? One of the reasons I started this project and documented it on my blog is that I wanted to demonstrate to all the true blues out there that one person, working with limited resources but using their imagination, and willing to step out of the line, can draw attention to our issues in a way that is meaningful and has some impact. I have had some impact, mostly locally. I have gotten under the skins of some people, and given encouragement to others. From what the reporter I talked to said, there may now be other people around Tulsa who have taken up a piece of chalk and are writing the number in places I never got to. Elspeth calls it the "Spartacus Effect." You have to be willing to step out of line and say "I am Spartacus."   The Peacemaker Teams spoken of in the article I have posted below have taken that step forward and said, "I am Spartucus!" with strong voices, speaking truth to power. You will note that they are not afraid to state their names and hometowns. They prefer not to remain anonymous. When I spoke to the reporter at the Tulsa World, I gave him my real name, and even spelled it for him. I don't know what the consequences, if any, of that article will be for me, and my family, but though I can't say I am completely unafraid of consequences,  I was willing to take the risk when I started this project, and I am willing to see it through. Thousands of people have seen the white crosses, the black ribbons, and chalked numbers. The police know who I am. I'm not hiding my tracks, I'm putting signs up and giving directions.  I have chosen my ground and taken my stand. That is what Omed means, in Hebrew: to stand.  As in "Da lifnei mi atah omed," from Deuteronomy: Know before whom you stand.   If my actions have stirred even one more person to stand up and say, "I am Spartacus," I count the whole endeavor and all the work put into it a success. 1:42:07 PM    comment []

An item forwarded to Dr. Omed by Jonah of Love During Wartime: CPTnet 5 August 2005 CHICAGO: Chalking up the cost of war Crosses, coffins and chalked human outlines brought the war in Iraq home to Chicagoans who passed through the downtown Federal Plaza over the lunch hour on 22 July 2005. CPT training participants and supporters, processing to the steady beat of a drum, drew an enormous chalk map of Iraq in the center of the plaza. As a  slow recitation of the numbers of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq from each of the fifty states echoed off nearby skyscrapers, mourners entered the map one by one, knelt in prayer and placed a small cross on the ground. After each state was called out, mourners cried in unison, "Iraq - One Hundred  Thousand." Participants representing Iraqi civilians then fell to the ground inside the map and others traced their bodies in chalk. By one o'clock, the giant map of Iraq was filled with the tangled image of crosses bearing state names and chalked outlines representing the 100,000+ Iraqis killed in the war since March 2003. More than 1,770  (now at least 1829) U.S. servicemen and women have lost their lives in Iraq since that date. "Our government is trying to make the cost of this war invisible," said training participant Cassandra Dixon (Wisconsin Dells, WI.) "The dead bodies of soldiers are brought home in the middle of the night and photographers are barred from taking pictures. Through this public witness, we want to make the costs visible." John Jones, a 67-year-old trainee from Elmwood, NE, continued, "My grandson was sent to Iraq and was almost killed two days before he was scheduled to come home. It's my duty as a grandfather and an American to do all I can to end this war and get our troops home now." Following the noontime vigil, CPTers and other Chicago peace groups took their message to seven different expressway overpasses during the Friday afternoon rush hour. Huge banners reading, "U.S. Out of Iraq Now," and "Love your enemies means don't kill them," elicited a steady stream of honks, waves and other supportive gestures from the bumper-to-bumper traffic below. Training participant Michele Naar-Obed from Duluth, MN, who has traveled on three peace delegations to Iraq, was moved to tears by the response. "I was overwhelmed to see how many people are in need of a way to express outrage and opposition to this crisis," she said. Although police officers challenged both actions - chalking in the plaza and bannering over expressways - they made no arrests. Training participants who planned the witness included Angela Davis (Natchez, MI), Cassandra Dixon (Wisconsin Dells, WI), Jenny Elliott (St. Louis, MO), John Jones (Elmwood, NE), Sarah MacDonald (Iowa City, IA), Denis Murphy (Chicago, IL), Michele Naar Obed (Duluth, MN), Beth Pyles (Fairmont, WV), Paul Rehm (Greenville, NY), Mike Smith (Westerly, RI), Carol Tyx (Iowa City, IA). Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) seeks to enlist the whole church in organized, nonviolent alternatives to war and places teams of trained,  peacemakers in regions of lethal conflict.  Originally a violence-reduction initiative of the historic peace churches (Mennonite, Church of the Brethren and Quaker), CPT now enjoys support and membership from a wide range of Christian denominations. Note: These folks are walking the walk by chalking the chalk. Some of you will excuse me for saying that chalking up the cost is a meme that has legs. The sentences in bold I highlighted. 12:24:46 PM    comment []

test test 12:08:48 AM    comment []