Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.

I Don't Care Why. Reprise

by poemless Sat Aug 9th, 2008 at 12:46:29 PM EST

N.B.  I originally wrote this dairy over two years ago, during the war between Israel and Lebanon.  As was the case then, it is true that I have my sympathies, that I have my views and opinions about who holds responsibility for what.  I've expressed them elsewhere.  This diary is not about that.  This diary is not about who is right and who is wrong.  It is not about who is to blame.  It is about the visceral disgust I have in response to all war.  It's about the innocent victims of other people's decisions.  A civilian is not more or less dead depending upon the nationality of the bomb that hits them, depending upon the "rightness" or "wrongness" of the army that takes their life.

Also, because this diary was inspired by the I/P conflict, not everything in it is applicable to the current situation in South Ossetia, my inspiration for re-posting it.  However, enough of it is.  Especially Devon Street and West Rogers Park, which was where most of the Russian, Ukrainian and other immigrants from the Soviet Union I tutored during the 90's lived.  Together.  In peace.

I. Don't. Care.

It's true.  Maybe it is outrage fatigue.  But I don't think so.  I read a nice diary on kos with all the historical maps.  I didn't care.  Maybe war just drains me.  But I don't think so.  I still have the energy to go to protests and vigils and write my reps.  It might be that it's so far away from my reality.  But I don't think so.  I mean, I'm just a little obsessed with what goes on in Russia.  

I don't care who is right and who is wrong because there is nothing in the world to justify what has happened this week.

There is a neighborhood in Chicago called Rogers Park.  Walk down streets like Devon Avenue and you won't hear any English spoken.  You will hear Russian, Urdu, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic...  You'll see mosques and temples and churches.  It is the most vibrant neighborhood in the city, and Jews live next door to Palestinians who live across the street from Pakistanis whose children play with Hindus.  These are not well-off, highly educated, totally assimilated people.  They are mostly just off the proverbial boat.  But they seem to realize they are all in it together.  People from all over come to study this neighborhood because it defies all the laws of the universe.  People.  Getting along.  

Look,

We've all been wronged.

We've all had loved ones ripped from our lives.  

We'd all like to live wherever we want to.

We all want to live without worrying about being bombed.  

We all have a loved one who has endured genocide, racism or oppression.

We all believe we are right.

Those of us who believe that our being right gives us permission to sacrifice another person's child are evil.  

End of story.  Don't care where you live, where you worship, what happened to your people a 100 years ago.  Don't care.  I don't have any interest in your grievances.  

We all have choices in life.  We can educate, or promote ignorance.  Reach out, or build walls.  Live together or annihilate.  Accept humility or prove our might.  Be decent or be ugly.  

~Anyone who tells you they have no choice but to drop a bomb is lying to you.  

~Anyone who tells you god wants them to have your home is lying to you.  

~Anyone who tells you they are incapable of living with someone of a certain race or religion is lying to you.

~Anyone who tells you that the only path to peace is war is lying to you.  

I'm rather sick of watching people die because of these lies.  Darfur, Chechnya, Iraq, Palestine, etc, etc...  I don't know what to do about it.  But the first thing I am going to do is stop being afraid to call out the liars.  Label me an anti-Semite, anti-Muslim, anti-Russian, anti-American.  I Don't Care.  Then I'm going to raise my standards.  If the Jews, Muslims, Christians and Hindus down the freaking street can live in peace, the rest of the world has no fucking excuse.  None.  

That's why I don't care who did what first or who was where why.  Because these have become discussions that serve only one purpose, to undermine peace and strip us of our shared humanity.  The world is on fire because it is easier to live in the past than build a future.  Because it is easier to find our differences than our commonalities.  Because it is easier to appear civilized by forcing other people to live like animals than by cultivating our own minds and souls.  Because it is easier to kill someone than negotiate.

Tell me what you are doing to build a better future, to celebrate our shared humanity, to cultivate your higher sensitivities, to challenge your current way of seeing the world, and I will happily listen.  But why is there war?  I Don't Care.  There is no reason valid enough for me to waste my time listening to it.  

Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and feel differently.  But that's not the point.

The point is that there are children who won't wake up tomorrow, or ever again.

2006, 2008


Display:
What?  No one likes my peacenik diary!

You're all just a bunch of warmongering, Putin loving, lefty European, Soviet apologists, aren't you? ;)

But seriously.  I'm madly depressed about all of this.  

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.

by poemless on Sat Aug 9th, 2008 at 01:32:34 PM EST
While we ponder who's the blame or what to do, people are being killed. It is profoundly saddening and indeed depressing.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Sat Aug 9th, 2008 at 01:47:26 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, you're a definite DFH, so you can't be Very SeriousTM.

But I loved it.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Sat Aug 9th, 2008 at 03:44:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]
"DFH"?

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
by poemless on Mon Aug 11th, 2008 at 10:41:03 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Dirty Friggin' Hippie.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Mon Aug 11th, 2008 at 10:57:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Why does everyone think I am a hippie?  I'm not a hippie!  

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
by poemless on Mon Aug 11th, 2008 at 11:54:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]
You're in favour of peace. That's practically the definition of DFH.

keep to the Fen Causeway
by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Mon Aug 11th, 2008 at 12:39:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Whatever.  

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
by poemless on Mon Aug 11th, 2008 at 01:50:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]
In this era of far right ideological domination, anyone who thinks war is the not the solution to any given problem is a hippie.

you are the media you consume.

by MillMan (millguy at gmail) on Mon Aug 11th, 2008 at 01:57:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Like you, I get madly depressed over this, and then I sink further down when I realize that even if the pitiful "reasons" and justifications for war that people invent all went away, there would still be an overriding one that assures that wars will continue, and that's that there are some really powerful and greedy people who make enormous profits from it.

I'm always reminded of Hearst saying "you furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."  Just a game to them, a business decision; just ignore all those body parts strewn across the landscape, all those shattered lives, all that bottomless despair.  

These powerful people who obviously feel that some lives are simply worth more than other lives are the people I fear the most, the ones who believe that most of the lives in the world are nearly worthless and certainly expendable.  

Okay, I'm tapped. Must go learn the words and steps to the Carmagnole.  Thanks for another great diary, poemless.

Karen in Austin

'tis strange I should be old and neither wise nor valiant. From "The Maid's Tragedy" by Beaumont & Fletcher

by Wife of Bath (kareninaustin at g mail dot com) on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 01:55:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]
It's not that no likes your diary. It is untouchable. I might quibble, I might in places disagree and I might want to say but...

But the simple force of your diary towers above such thought. And rail against the knowledge that all of the lies you expose will still have force today, tomorrow and as long as humankind continues.

But here, today, I can say nothing more

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sat Aug 9th, 2008 at 02:54:47 PM EST
Excellent, outside the box, fresh thinking.  Will try to spread it because you are right, there is no good reason.

All of the above.

Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.

by metavision on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 06:55:06 PM EST
Seriously?  If saying that it is wrong to kill a child because the adults refuse to agree is "outside the box," we're screwed.

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
by poemless on Mon Aug 11th, 2008 at 02:32:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
At some point in my life I thought I was in no fear even to die for what I believed is right (fighting against Milosevic for democracy, freedom and better life for my children).I was naive. Yes there is NOTHING that one should die for let alone kill for...now I know better. Unfortunately people are easily manipulated and used for different political and personal reasons of leading gang.
I love Serbia, I think there was no justice for Serbs in decomposition of ex - YU but I never agreed with war as solution for our problems.


Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind...Albert Einstein
by vbo on Sun Aug 10th, 2008 at 11:58:19 PM EST
I think war is a failure by its very nature, regardless what it accomplishes.  

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
by poemless on Mon Aug 11th, 2008 at 02:31:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Thanks for reposting this.

A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Aug 11th, 2008 at 02:23:03 PM EST
howdy stranger

keep to the Fen Causeway
by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Mon Aug 11th, 2008 at 02:27:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Thanks.  I was hesitant to.  There is SO much demonizing of Russia in the news right now, and it was even worse when I posted this Sat. morning.  I really did not want to add to the noise of those pretending to be for peace and condemning Russia's violence (often by the same people who continue to support the war in Iraq!)

But I was just really deeply sad.  

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.

by poemless on Mon Aug 11th, 2008 at 02:30:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I for one completely missed your 2006 posting - I missed that entire war episode because of my traipsing in Sweden and was too lazy to catch up with old diaries when I got back to the intertubes.

You speak for many with this post. Except that I do care, too much, and feel inclined to rip out the wiring of the televisions to prevent the news feed from upsetting me.

by Nomad (Bjinse) on Mon Aug 11th, 2008 at 04:05:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
and feel inclined to rip out the wiring of the televisions to prevent the news feed from upsetting me.

I share your pain.

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.

by poemless on Mon Aug 11th, 2008 at 04:14:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]
In Northern Ireland we refer to these blame games as the "politics of competing grievances".  i.e you guys have killed/tortured/discriminated against our guys more than we have etc.  But at some point someone has to shout stop. Otherwise you become trapped by the logic of your oppressors.  Europe has a big contribution to make - we got to that point 60 years ago.

"It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."
by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Tue Aug 12th, 2008 at 06:14:42 AM EST


Display:
Go to: [ European Tribune Homepage : Top of page : Top of comments ]