right...because that would be wrong, to be angry about the position of the
original e-mail. 

If the world was a massive field of daisies that we could all romp in as
one, and jump around and love each other, then I would agree with everything
that was said. But unfortunately we dont.

Lets just close our eyes, and wait for Saddam to capitulate. He's got to see
how crazy he is, right? I mean John Wayne Gacy was gonna stop killing all
those men, right? 

-----Original Message-----
From: Will Swain [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 8:04 AM
To: CF-Community
Subject: RE: The Choice Before Us


wow....such anger.

chill

w

-----Original Message-----
From: John Stanley [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: 17 February 2003 13:03
To: CF-Community
Subject: RE: The Choice Before Us


Maureen, the choice before us was made by the sadistic, gun toting madman
who continues to threaten world peace and stability. I have served in the
military and would gladly give my legs so that MY children don't have to
grow up in a world with this pestilence inhabiting it. I can't believe I
need to spell it out for you but he has invaded his neighbors unprovoked. He
has gassed his own citizens. He has tortured, raped and assasinated those
who he felt threatened by. He has violated the terms he agreed to to end the
war. That violation is enough to warrant military action by the victors.

None of that matters to people like you.

Heres a quote from you "Somewhere tonight in Iraq, a small girl lies
sleeping who in a few weeks
may be a lump of scorched flesh buried under concrete."

Allow me to elaborate "Somewhere tonight in Iraq, a small girl lies sleeping
who in a few years will be viciously raped infront of her family because her
father said something that Saddam or his sons didnt like"
or what about this ? "A young boy who is healthy and vibrant today will be
tortured by dripping acid on his forehead while his mother painfully wails
as she is branded next to him by laughing madmen"

Perhaps you would deign it appropriate to wait until Los Angeles is turned
into a glowing crater, or your city was overcome by some biological agent or
chemical attack?

I wonder if you were transported back in time to 1939 and you had the choice
to protest against war with the Nazi's, you would probably march up and down
the street saying "all we are saying, is give peace a chance" as the Nazi
armor rolled over you.





-----Original Message-----
From: Maureen [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, February 14, 2003 11:15 PM
To: CF-Community
Subject: The Choice Before Us


The Choice Before Us
Starhawk

Somewhere tonight in Iraq, a small girl lies sleeping who in a few weeks
may be a lump of scorched flesh buried under concrete.

On a basketball court somewhere in the United States a young man lands a
jump shot, who in a few weeks may have no legs, or eyes, or have tumors
already brooding in his brain from exposure to the depleted uranium of our
own weapons.

A young boy who is healthy and vibrant today will be racked with cancer. A
mother will hear her children crying for food and have nothing to give them
but tainted water to quench their thirst. Land that is today rich and
fertile will, a short time from now, be contaminated with radioactivity
that lasts longer than all the years between ancient Sumer and Babylon and
now.

And young men and women who in the innocence of their hearts volunteered to
serve their country will be led to perpetrate unspeakable crimes that will
haunt their nights and blight the rest of their lives. When they complain
of strange ailments, the Veteran�s Administration will admit no connection.
And for years afterwards, as has happened since the first Gulf War, they
will take their own lives in a steady stream of suicides. They will not be
the sons and daughters of the men and women who sit in Congress or the
White House. A disparate number of them will come from communities in our
own land who suffer poverty, dispossession, discrimination.

And all of this will be done at the command of men who have never
themselves faced combat or fought a war, who rob our schools and hospitals
to pay for their own weapons of mass destruction, who promote an
empire-building agenda of their own that will not provide the security they
claim. For the sheer injustice of our attack on a country that has not
attacked us will provoke such fear and hatred against us that all our bombs
and missiles and cops and spies will not be able to keep us safe.

The media and the politicians tell us this war is inevitable, that we can�t

stop it, that our protests and petitions and pleas make no difference. They
murmur a constant incantation of our powerlessness, lulling us into a
nightmare sleep.

But we can still wake up. We can choose to walk out of the nightmare, and
dream a different dream.
All it takes is for each one of us who cherishes the lives of children to
refuse to be silent, to say no to war, to say yes to peace.

And to ask ourselves, how have we abandoned our country, our fate, into the
hands of callous men who have no compunction about wasting lives? What
spell has been cast that fogs our eyes and binds our hands? What lies have
we believed? What power have we let slip away?

Replace the nightmare with this dream: that in the moment when one world
power has amassed the unchallenged military might to make its bid for
global empire, its own people rise up and say, "No. That is not what we
want to be. We don�t want to rule the world over the broken bodies of
children. We don�t want blood on our hands. We want children who are sick
to have the best possible care, in Iraq and in our own country. We want
schools and jobs and parks and hospitals and food for the hungry. We want
to join hands with the people of the world, and strengthen the institutions
that are slowly and painfully learning to solve conflicts without
bloodshed, and teaching us to respect our differences. We know that peace
must be built on justice, and we want peace."

Dream that we wake up, stand up, speak out, not in the thousands but the
millions, joining with millions around the world. Dream that soldiers
refuse their orders, dock-workers refuse to load ships, secretaries shut
off their computers, workers close their factories, and even politicians
find the courage to stand for what is right.
And make the dream real. If you have spoken out before, now is the time to
speak again, to make another phone call, write another letter, stand in
another vigil. If you have marched before, march again and this time bring
more of your friends and neighbors. If you haven�t marched, if you have
been immersed in the demands of your own life, if you feel that your small
voice makes no difference, now is the time to speak anyway, to interrupt
your ordinary pursuits, to become the one small drop that just might turn
the tide.
If you can get to New York or San Francisco on the weekend of February
15-16 for the big marches and rallies, come<because the numbers are vitally
important.

If you can�t, there will be marches and rallies and vigils to join all
across the country. Find one, or call one of your own.

Be public. Be visible. Be the loud, uncomfortable conscience that has
disappeared from the halls of power.
And believe that truth is stronger than lies, love trumps fear, and no
cabal of power can contain the multitudes when we awaken and choose life.

Starhawk

The New York March and Rally is on February 15, in solidarity with marches
in capitols all over the world, and is sponsored by United for Peace and
Justice.

The San Francisco March and Rally is on February 16, and begins at Justin
Hermann Plaza, at 11 AM, and marches to the Federal Building. To join with
the Code Pink women�s cluster and the Pagan Cluster, meet us at 10 AM at
Montgomery and Market St.

For details and a list of planned actions around the country, check
www.unitedforpeace.org.

Starhawk is the author of Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising and
eight other books on activism and earth-based and feminist spirituality.
Her website is www.starhawk.org.

Please feel free to forward and reprint this as widely as possible.





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