11/10/01
Gee, we're almost getting to feel back to "normal" around here. Business is
picking up again. The effort to bring tourism back to New York is coming
from all directions. Restaurants are beginning to have customers come back.
The theatre is being attended. Disaster relief is still being collected, but
it seems that little of it is going out to the families as yet. I guess the
need isn't great enough. The recovery effort is succumbing to bottom line
thinking. There are more souvenirs being sold at Ground Zero than there are
photo-taking tourists. Greedy people trying to take advantage of the 911
Fund are staking illegitimate claims. Yes, life is returning to its old
self.
More and more conspiratorial theories are slipping through the cracks of
American Journalism. Things too horrible to contemplate are being widely
ignored. Osama now claims to have weapons of mass destruction, including
nuclear capacity. But he states he won't use them first. We've successfully
interfered with the elections in Nicaragua, again. 75% of the new tax breaks
for the war efforts are being funneled in mostly to the wealthiest 10%,
including defense contractors. Yes, life is returning to its old self.
Europeans are reporting the war in quite different ways. But what do they
know? Greenpeace members are being held as terrorist suspects. We're
dropping Cluster bombs and Daisy Cutter bombs. The same color as the food
drops; children have picked up these unexploded cluster bomblets much to
their own peril. And still, Osama blathers on his hate-filled rhetoric.
Target bin Laden has not been struck. Yes, life is returning.
We're finding out that we were warned before the attacks. We're finding out
that the Boston FBI arrested suspected terrorists complete with the
technical and flight manuals for Boeing commercial airlines back in August.
We're finding out that German Intelligence warned the CIA of plans to use
commercial airlines to attack America back in June. We're learning that an
Iranian warned US law enforcement of the coming attacks the week of
September 9. In the summer, the Russians reported that 25 terrorist pilots
were prepared for suicide missions. We're finding out that the US, British
and NATO were warned and preparing for imminent action in the region. Yes,
life is . . . not what we're being told it is.
The things we believe and the things that we dread are vying for supremacy.
The longer we go on with the war in its most patriotic form, the easier it
becomes for us to accept it as normal. So long as we don't have to see the
horror of the war, we can abide by its necessity. So long as we keep our
minds to the singular popular motivation for the war, we can endure the
cost. When we look at what is not quite right about the picture, when we
question the underlying motivations of those in power whose interests may be
self-serving, when we look at what lies beneath the surface, we can see that
life is indeed returning to its old self.
We have to fight against the terrorists; I certainly agree with that. But I
don't believe that the story being told in the main reflects accurately or
completely what is going on in this war. Of course, it's war and there are
always conflicting points of view. It's war and we have to accept the
consequences that come. Of course we do, don't we? With so much ability, so
much wealth, so much opportunity to change the fundamental ways we conduct
ourselves in the world, we could make some significant inroads into healing
the destructive patterns of our belief in entitlement and exploitation. But
that would mean looking in the mirror. And right now we have an enemy to
keep us focused on the outer. We don't have to look at ourselves so long as
Osama lives. Ah yes, life is just the same old life it used to be.
By lumping the grievances of forlorn people around the world with the
murderous extremists, we ignore the cries of injustice with impunity. All
this fuels our ability to continue business as usual. We've just changed the
tactics of business as usual. Now we're using our military might to enforce
our drive to remain the world's one superpower. Yes, life is its old self.
Have you thought of this? Bush needs Osama. His popularity counts on him.
Would such overwhelming approval ratings be possible without the attacks?
Yes, I know this is a disturbing way of looking at what's going on. But its
truth should be made apparent. From a contested and court ordered election,
Bush has become the most popular of presidents. We're standing behind him.
We're united in our cause. As president, it's a slam-dunk to be popular in
the call to war against an attack on our soil. The rhetoric from our leader
is simplistic and uniform. The words flow easily. The ideas require little
thinking. They make sense, if only to our indignation and outrage. So long
as we don't question the motivations that lurk beneath the rational,
justifiable ones, we easily give our blessings to the war on terrorism. Yes,
life is returning post haste to its old self.
The business/government is behaving as it always has. The powerful don't
want to be diminished. They need ever more power to assuage their hunger.
Nothing is new in this life that is returning. More and more the word is
coming out that what we see on the surface is not what is really going on.
We're not facing life as it once was. The future is not scripted. The
possibilities are myriad. It is we, the people, who must fight for our
lives. We must stand up and create the resistance that only the people can
create. We must invent the future we want. We have to ask do we want life to
return to its old self?
)))))) ) ) ) () () () (((((()))))) () () () ( ( ( ((((((
Marc Sabin
marcsabin.com