With Palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning I will ride with my combat veterans brothers and sisters to a funeral for a fallen combat brother who died in Afghanistan. I am sick of the killing resulting from war. Do we even know what this man died for? I doubt it. If we ask any random American citizen what we are fighting for in that part of the world they either wouldn’t know, wouldn’t care, or would offer some lame reason such as “to fight terrorism.” I am unconvinced that this is an adequate answer for the cost in lives and dollars at a time when we in the United States are in desperate need of financial recovery and when we have so many facing homelessness, poverty, and lack of health care.
What I really don’t understand is why we, the people, haven’t coalesced to demand of our president and our congress to end this nightmare. Yet, frankly, when I look more deeply at the issue, I see that this war doesn’t really touch those in a position to put real pressure on the government to call a halt to it. The soldiers fighting are volunteers. They, like me, often come from poverty stricken families where young men and women see military service as a means of getting out from under a life on the streets. They come from families that cannot afford to educate their children and see service as a means to fund college. These are not people with a political leg to stand on. These are invisible people from invisible classes. We are fortunate enough to have a choice and are relieved that other’s sons and daughters join the service so we don’t have to.
The conservative side of our nation is often the first to rattle sabers and send us off to war to defend our nation and they are also the first to want to withdraw funding from support services once the soldiers return. War is a costly endeavor. We want a strong defense; support our war chest, but not a hope chest. We fail our service men and women. One result is a flood of homeless veterans and families.
On the street and on college campuses, I see little desire to challenge our government demanding an end to this nonsense. It is sad that in our city a lonely group of three or four souls stand in protest of these wars at the federal building once a week. I believe that if we had a draft the story would be very different. When the middle and upper classes are asked to give up their children to fight a war I think they just might resist. I see no real effort to re-institute the draft however, so we are left with trying our best to inspire people to say no for other reasons, perhaps better reasons. These wars were started on false information, benefited only the military-industrial complex, are now economically unhealthy, are morally wrong, and a waste of lives.
Please consider practicing Engaged Zen by bearing witness for peace in your city or neighborhood. It takes little time and effort and calls attention to our moral conscience. Here in Las Cruces we practice on Monday afternoons at 4:30 PM at the park in front of City Hall on Main Street, at 5:00 PM at the Federal Building on Wednesdays, and at 9:00 AM at Veteran’s Park on Roadrunner of Fridays. We welcome you to join us.
Be well
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning I will ride with my combat veterans brothers and sisters to a funeral for a fallen combat brother who died in Afghanistan. I am sick of the killing resulting from war. Do we even know what this man died for? I doubt it. If we ask any random American citizen what we are fighting for in that part of the world they either wouldn’t know, wouldn’t care, or would offer some lame reason such as “to fight terrorism.” I am unconvinced that this is an adequate answer for the cost in lives and dollars at a time when we in the United States are in desperate need of financial recovery and when we have so many facing homelessness, poverty, and lack of health care.
What I really don’t understand is why we, the people, haven’t coalesced to demand of our president and our congress to end this nightmare. Yet, frankly, when I look more deeply at the issue, I see that this war doesn’t really touch those in a position to put real pressure on the government to call a halt to it. The soldiers fighting are volunteers. They, like me, often come from poverty stricken families where young men and women see military service as a means of getting out from under a life on the streets. They come from families that cannot afford to educate their children and see service as a means to fund college. These are not people with a political leg to stand on. These are invisible people from invisible classes. We are fortunate enough to have a choice and are relieved that other’s sons and daughters join the service so we don’t have to.
The conservative side of our nation is often the first to rattle sabers and send us off to war to defend our nation and they are also the first to want to withdraw funding from support services once the soldiers return. War is a costly endeavor. We want a strong defense; support our war chest, but not a hope chest. We fail our service men and women. One result is a flood of homeless veterans and families.
On the street and on college campuses, I see little desire to challenge our government demanding an end to this nonsense. It is sad that in our city a lonely group of three or four souls stand in protest of these wars at the federal building once a week. I believe that if we had a draft the story would be very different. When the middle and upper classes are asked to give up their children to fight a war I think they just might resist. I see no real effort to re-institute the draft however, so we are left with trying our best to inspire people to say no for other reasons, perhaps better reasons. These wars were started on false information, benefited only the military-industrial complex, are now economically unhealthy, are morally wrong, and a waste of lives.
Please consider practicing Engaged Zen by bearing witness for peace in your city or neighborhood. It takes little time and effort and calls attention to our moral conscience. Here in Las Cruces we practice on Monday afternoons at 4:30 PM at the park in front of City Hall on Main Street, at 5:00 PM at the Federal Building on Wednesdays, and at 9:00 AM at Veteran’s Park on Roadrunner of Fridays. We welcome you to join us.
Be well
1 comment:
My guess is he did not die for any lofty ideals.
He did not die for any insidious plots.
He died for the brother to his left and right.
Our country was made by war. It is in the long painful process of being unmade by war. We are Rome, and we are burning.
Semper Fi
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