With Cindy Sheehan’s departure from so national a public stage, her critiques of the Democratic Party, the two-party electoral system and the peace movement are certain to bruise many an ego and provoke numerous defenses and rationalizations. But the fact is, she’s right, in every particular that the mainstream press has reported.
Her son, Casey, lost his life in vain. He benefited nobody by dying in a war fought for the imperialistic pursuits of a small cabal of powerful people, almost exclusively privileged and exceedingly dishonest men. It’s easy to dismiss her pointed commentary directed at movement allies as the words of one tasting bitterness, but I continue to find her words exceedingly well thought out. Her emotions may be on full display but it doesn’t diminish her logic at all.
There are thousands of mothers who know this. Fathers, too, as well as millions of other family members. Across all borders and conflicts. Most soldiers, however heroic and memorialized, ultimately die for reasons that do not add up to anything more than serving the interests of a few. There is no ‘good’ war but there have been wars made necessary by more overt and dangerous aggressors. Most wars the US has fought in the past half century do not meet that standard. Our rulers ultimately impose the choice upon us: will we risk any possibility of being attacked by a brutal bastard, or isn’t it better to accept the rule of our own brutal bastards?
It’s not an acceptable choice. I encourage Americans to refuse it, I urge military volunteers to avoid re-upping and applaud those troops who, guided by conscience, peacefully withdraw from the process at risk to themselves alone.
And what does Sheehan’s departure mean to war opponents and the electoral process? Most likely, it means her own efforts and sacrifices have also been in vain.
I’m sure online activists will reject that as cynicism, defeatism and an ineffective surrender. None like to hear that the problem lacks any solution. But that’s not what I’m saying.
The most likely solution will parallel the solutions history projects. Imperialist nations play out their hands and eventually fail, becoming less powerful in the process. Such failure is no longer abject with power completely diminished. The British Empire, for example, is far smaller than it once was, though the Brits still retain significant power. But they can deliver no guarantees of safety to their citizens from terrorists and other aggrieved parties. In short, the solution is not much in the way of a civil social advance.
Other solutions? I can continue to hope for real innovators to come up with any. After all, like I feel at the end of an inconclusive movie, it’s terribly frustrating when no closure comes.
Working to build a populist and humane third party makes sense, though it’s likely a lifetime project. Ending legal ‘personhood’ for corporations and clean campaigns publicly financed are also two great advances that could help curtail political corruption. Both are overdue, yet long struggles remain to achieve them, too.
In the meantime, the only personal solution is to refuse to play the prevailing game, to act as if lives matter, American or Iraqi or whatever its brand. That, ultimately, is the one thing each of us fully controls. The battle can be won when enough take that step. But that takes eternal patience and enormous confidence that the desired outcome will eventually be gained.
I can’t predict that, nor can you. I can express my condolences to Cindy and millions who suffer from such grievous losses. I can welcome them to my heart and promise them my friendship as they heal. I hope most will be wise enough to do at least that.
It’s important to understand that Osama Bin Laden is a threat to us. It’s equally important to recognize that threats as great and greater exist in the actions of powerful people who claim to lead us and claim they act lawfully, when it’s abundantly clear they are ethical midgets, capable of enormous atrocities, too. How we deal with that recognition is a personal decision. You may choose to vote, to pay taxes, to remain a willfull participant out of the notion that there’s enough that’s worth the ethical trade-off to you. Or you can choose an alternate course, likely at some personal risk.
Remaining willfully blind to it all is another alternative that many will choose. They also will make Casey Sheehan’s efforts, and his mother’s, worthless. It sucks, but it is what it is.
Update: The Freewayblogger’s response is must reading on this.
