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Gathering
the Fragments:
An
Open Letter on War, Peace and Health Care
Scott
Tucker Tuesday, September 18, 2001 Since
September 11 I have been in quiet mourning -- had I lost someone near =
and dear
in those attacks, my grief =
might
well be keener and maybe more public.
Using civilian airplanes as guided missiles against the Pentagon =
and the
World Trade Center certainly sent a message which knocked other news off =
the
front pages and TV screens for a week.
Whoever was directly and indirectly involved in these attacks, =
and
whatever message they intended to send, now we know better that all =
empires are
vulnerable -- without exception. We
will remain vulnerable even if we rebuild all the monuments of wealth =
and power
in underground bunkers. =
Not only in
public and in political meetings, but in silence and solitude, we might =
ask if
we really wish to be members in good standing of this empire -- whose =
economic
and military borders are marked on no official map of the world. Raising this question may be =
judged out
of order at this time, or may even be construed as disrespect for =
thousands of
people who just wanted to get through another day of work and go =
home. But if this question is not =
raised now,
then when? The
nation (as one headline informs me) is binding up its wounds with red, =
white and
blue. Ann Coulter, =
volunteering for
service in the pages of The National Review (September 13), has =
no doubt
about the proper course of action now:
"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert =
them to
Christianity. We weren't
punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top =
officers. We carpet-bombed German =
cities; we
killed civilians. That's =
war. And this is war." Leaders of the religious right =
have
pointed a finger of blame at sodomites, feminists and civil =
libertarians, but
believe that anyone who shelters such people is also near to =
danger. By a similar though seemingly =
secular
logic, whole nations may become proper targets in the search for
terrorists. To
quote Reverend Falwell (in a recently televised meeting of minds with =
Reverend
Robertson), God lifted his "veil of protection" and allowed the ungodly =
(in
general) to strike the ungodly (in general) -- the Almighty not being a
sharpshooter, but simply a cosmic cowboy, a dispenser of rough =
justice. We may be tempted to dismiss =
religious
extremists. This =
sophistication,
however, has been self-serving for a generation of liberals, faithful or =
faithless as the case may be, who have loyally taken their marching =
orders from
the Democratic Leadership Council.
Now what moral and political ground do they think they stand on, =
having
practiced the gospel they preach?
And they call that gospel "pragmatism," no matter how much =
evidence has
mounted that it does not work. The
point now -- though "centrist" pundits are paid to deny it -- is that
apocalyptic extremism is by no means limited to the podiums of right =
wing think
tanks and the pulpits of hellfire churches. It is by no means the =
specialty of
youngsters wearing black bandannas and smashing a few corporate =
windows. It is now, on the contrary, =
the moral
consensus among influential sectors of the religious and political
establishment. Thomas =
Friedman lost
no time announcing World War III in the op-ed pages of The New York
Times. In the same =
paper, Clyde
Haberman invited the United States to follow the moral and political =
example of
Israel, since terrorist actions (so he argued) end all argument. And then there is that voice =
from the
deep, Lance Morrow, whose exhortation to the nation was appended to a =
special
photographic supplement of Time Magazine: "What's needed is a =
unified,
unifying, Pearl Harbor sort of purple American fury -- a ruthless =
indignation
that doesn't leak away in a week or two."
In these preachings and pronouncements there is no fear of God, =
since all
the given premises lead to only one conclusion: Actions we make with limited =
human and
historical judgment are quite simply the Last Judgment. The moral to this story as to =
every
other is likewise familiar: =
America
has done and can do no wrong. Count
me out. Not because I do =
know the
will of God and they don't. =
Now is
a time when many of us can say simply, "I don't know -- but that doesn't =
mean
the people in power know better."
Now is a time when we have a right to say "I will not," when =
journalists
are issuing military commands, and military commanders are sounding like =
journalists. Count
me out. Not because I'm a =
pacifist
-- on the contrary, limited military actions are one reason we maintain =
at least
the democratic ideal that the power of the military should also be =
limited. Yet many of those now shouting =
from
podiums and op-ed pages know no limits, and can be trusted only to =
advance their
own careers. They issue
commandments not like prophets come down from the mountain, but like =
gods in
their own right. They =
will go the
way of all flesh, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. In the meantime, they do their =
best to
speed others to their doom. =
They
reason that there will be many funerals and there should be many flags; =
and
since there are many flags there must be all the more funerals. For the sake of world peace, =
and for the
sake of punishment within human limits, many of us would prefer that those responsible =
for crimes
against humanity should stand before an international tribunal. We might also hope that =
Kissinger will
yet have his day in court -- he and others whose sleep and digestion =
haven't
been much troubled when great numbers of civilians were driven under the =
wheels
of empire. Count
me out because a strong dissent from this temporary "national consensus" =
is
necessary. Count me out =
because I
mourn all those many moments of decision in which individuals take =
orders to
treat civilians as collateral damage -- and then go on to carry out =
those
orders. Count me out =
because no
good cause is served by forgetting human history before September 11, as =
if
those hijacked jets had truly appeared (as we say) out of the clear blue =
sky. Count me out because =
one act
of barbarism does not justify another.
Indeed, as Ann Coulter reminded us, "we carpet-bombed German =
cities; we
killed civilians." =
Whenever such
people come to the defense of civilization, they use that powerful and =
dangerous
word "we" in just the way that ought to make we, the people, think
twice. Count
me out because a choice was also made to drop atomic bombs on Japanese =
cities,
once the choice had already been made to round up Japanese American =
citizens in
tar-paper shacks after Pearl Harbor.
And in this chain of events many other choices have been made --
"inevitably," so we are often told -- to hold the entire populations of =
other
nations hostage to our own foreign policy.
Count me out because I do not support the devastation the United =
States
has inflicted on Iraqi civilians -- not only by means of conventional =
weapons,
but by means of a brutal and sweeping economic blockade. Count me out because the =
delegations of
the United States and Israel walked out of the recent International =
Conference
on Racism and Xenophobia. =
And they
dared to argue that the political agenda was too contradictory? What else could it have =
been? By walking out, those =
officials were
taking no principled stand whatsoever; they were only making the point =
that
their own power must be above debate. And
count me out because this one queer with AIDS refuses to vote for the =
"viable
candidates" who create and enforce such policies. The parties of big business =
would rather
put all of sub-Saharan Africa on a morphine drip rather than provide =
serious
medical aid across borders.
When skyscrapers collapse and bury thousands, then we watch, we =
remember,
we mourn. Does it follow =
that now
is not the time to remember so many other tragedies, so many other acts =
of
brutality? I have a duty =
to
remember the bipartisan politicians who wouldn't set foot near the AIDS =
Quilt
even when it was on their doorsteps, and I mourn the thousands who die =
daily of
AIDS in places without camera crews.
I must keep in mind that this nation's leaders speak now of deep =
wounds
in the body politic, but were complacent during the early decades of =
AIDS. What's more, there were people =
in power
who never considered counting most of those dead of AIDS among "innocent =
victims," and there were men in pulpits telling us we weren't dying fast =
enough. As the death toll =
mounted
during all those years, =
the
rhetoric of many in public office did not suggest that we, the people, =
had been
deeply wounded, but only that a nation was being purged of the usual =
suspects.
The
people killed on September 11 did not deserve to die, and those who =
killed them
deserve to be punished. =
But the
fiction of unstained American innocence serves no good cause. On the contrary, it only =
further
enflames a global conflict that began long before September 11 and will =
continue
long after -- even if we leave no stone unturned in Afghanistan. If we don't find the very =
folks we're
looking for in desert bunkers, then what next? Do we rain punishment on =
workers and
peasants already struggling under a reckless regime? Do we grind the faces of the =
poor in the
rubble? Undeniably, this =
nation has
the power to do so. Or =
maybe we
will think twice about the real global price of imperial power. The guilt for the terrorist =
attacks on
September 11 belongs only with the terrorists. But the responsibility for the =
causes of
war and violence has to be shouldered within and beyond
borders. Only
those with the most fanatical faith can see office buildings explode and =
find
apocalyptic satisfaction in the spectacle.
Yes, we are under judgment, but not as the fundamentalists here =
and
elsewhere judge. As an =
outward
drama, everything that passed on our TV screens seemed like a movie -- =
many have
said so by now, which is very telling in itself. Arnold Schwarzenegger's new =
film,
Collateral Damage, is now in suspended animation. Rather than savor this irony =
(since
irony always comes too late) we might wonder why we did not always find =
disaster
movies disgusting, rather than merely tasteless at this point in =
time. We exercise restraint in =
releasing a
movie, and then we may unleash the military with a clearer =
conscience. What might we learn from all =
such
spectacular evidence? =
Perhaps that
everything outward, taken inwardly and in the right proportion, is a =
kind of
medicine for what ails us, though of course no patient lives =
forever. But Reverend Falwell (and =
others like
him, all on the public record now) have simply proclaimed, "Oh ye of =
little
faith, the bad news is never bad news.
It's all Good News!" No
one gets through this life pure, no one gets out of this world =
alive. That knowledge must be endured =
even in
times of relative peace, and is truly no cause for optimism. But once this knowledge =
becomes as
enduring as the next breath we take, then it also becomes ground for =
hope. Evangelical Christians =
sometimes speak
of finding a verse of scripture that became an open door into a new =
life. In that spirit, here are =
several words
from the gospel of John: =
"Gather up
all the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." Nothing once known can ever be =
entirely
lost as long as we have life and reason.
That is real cause for hope, even if we can't silence the steady
drumbeats for war. I
attended a meeting of health activists last night -- one of the =
congregations in
which I find my own faith. =
There
are, of course, legitimate worries that a nation on high alert may treat =
civil
liberties as dispensable luxuries.
These concerns could only be raised, not thoroughly addressed, in =
a
meeting which ran a full three hours.
There we were, a roomful of energetic and intelligent people, and =
it's
fair to say that we long ago reached the consensus that a war economy is =
not
good for health care. =
But
that consensus remained idealistic, and had not been thoroughly tested =
by the
harshness of history -- even the Gulf War, and the armed conflicts in =
other
regions since, have not yet had quite the transforming effect throughout =
all
social movements that the Vietnam War had for a previous generation of
activists. That is a =
historical
observation, not a moralistic scolding for the young -- who are teaching =
older
folks like myself many other lessons from their own experience. In the wake of September 11, =
however, we
did not reach consensus in one meeting of roughly thirty people that =
this
movement for health care must also become a movement for peace. Yet the discussion was =
principled, and
will continue. Presently,
thousands of interfaith and ecumenical events are planned or happening =
all over
the nation. If we =
participate as
radical health care activists, then we should not let priests and =
ministers
define the agenda. Our =
message has
to be much more pointed and specific than universal good will -- which =
makes
good religion, but bad politics. =
(At least some priests and ministers would agree.) If a global epidemic helped to =
teach us
that sex, race and class are health care issues, as surely as are =
medical
research and drug marketing, then now is the time to forge practical =
links of
solidarity between health and peace activists alike. We have, in truth, a common =
cause. You have no patience with =
three hour
meetings, but can write checks? =
Do
so. You can't make big =
donations of
money, but can make a donation of labor?
Do so. You are =
reluctant to
speak your mind right now? =
Then
don't be surprised if demagogues claim to speak for you. After September 11, all of us =
who hope
and work for social change must also change our own worldview and =
practice. The consequences of terrorism =
and of
imperial power are not theoretical, but altogether a clear and present
danger. In sorrow and
solidarity, Scott
Tucker (No
copyright on this open letter, copy and distribute freely. Other news and views soon to =
be
published in Open Letter, an online journal of culture and politics, at
www.openletteronline.com
-- This Open Letter is posted under Politics & =
Activism). * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Thomas Scott Tucker [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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