Soapbox

Things are getting just too insane. It looks like Iran is about to become "Iraq: the Sequel" as Bush and Rice point fingers and foam at the mouth about nuclear weapons… the time to put your head in the sand and hope it all goes away is long gone.

They say we fight for freedom and our precious children die
For the truths we hold self-evident and a president who lies.
But if I wear the wrong T-shirt or dare to disagree:
They’ll lock me up without a charge in the name of liberty
While you just stand there.

It’s somehow un-American to have a different view
And if you believe in human rights, you’re a traitor too.
They don’t believe in science; reality is jeered.
They govern by division, their only policy is fear
And still, you stand there.

How can you just stand there? Don’t you feel ashamed?
How can you be silent when they do it in your name?
They torture and they terrorize, yet honesty is banned.
The security they promise you is only shifting sand.
How can you stand there?

We fought a revolution to have the right to speak.
No enemy’s as dangerous as the silence that you keep.
You sit and watch your TV set while they take your rights away
And drop their bombs on children and you have not a word to say-
No, you just stand there.

How can your just stand there when half the world’s in flames?
The lies have murdered millions and they do it in your name!
The Bill of Rights is burning! The zero hour’s at hand
And those who remain silent are equally as damned.

Now two failed wars are not enough- they want another try.
No need to negotiate, just bomb them from the sky.
And if we do not stop them then you may be sent to die
For an enemy who stood silently while own leaders lied.

But this is still America, you still have a voice.
Will you stand up for justice? It’s time to make your choice.

How can you just stand there when they beat the drums of war?
Have we all forgotten what America stands for?
Dissent is patriotic, only truth will keep us free
You are the Decider: hey- go out and dump some tea!
But don’t just stand there–
How can you stand there-

It’s a good thing I have this blog to post letters on, because it seem like the Dispatch has me blocked. Ouch. Maybe I hit a nerve? Or maybe I’m just getting boring.
Here is my latest letter that they didn’t want to even read.

Thank goodness the United States senate is doing important things for America! No, they can’t manage to provide decent leave time for war-weary American soldiers (Republicans said this would be damaging to the troops!) and they can’t even stand up to restore to all citizens the most fundamental of human rights, habeas corpus (something the Dispatch didn’t even think was important enough to mention!). Nor did they make headway yet on providing health care for more uninsured children,  stopping graft and fraud in Iraq war spending,  do anything to repair our hemorrhaging economy, or even consider reasonable ways to end this war.

But don’t be fooled into thinking this congress does nothing! Yesterday the senate voted to condemn MoveOn.org… for an ad they didn’t like!!  Yes, these zealous defenders of the American dream put all other tasks aside and cast that all-important vote in condemnation of a political opinion they didn’t share.
Because isn’t that what American democracy stands for: trying to silence people you don’t agree with? Apparently free speech, like habeas corpus, scientific accuracy and transparency in government before it, is being tossed under the bus of 21st century political stupidity.

Way to go, senate! Who needs terrorists when you guys are out there taking away our rights for us?

I didn’t see it that day, or I’d have been all dandered up a few days ago. But this damn cartoon in the Columbus Dispatch made national media, it was so bad. It was a map of the middle east with a big drain like a shower floor labeled "Iran" with hundreds of cockroaches scurrying into it.

OK, I wax a little melodramatic here, but I thought the subject called for it.
Welcome to America, the home of the brave.

Editor

When the Rwandan genocide reared its ugly head and the waters of that nation ran red for months, the voices of evil that whispered and shouted from the radio urged their fellow Hutus to "kill the Cockroaches!" And so encouraged, relieved of guilt because what they exterminated was, after all, less than human- they slaughtered their own friends and neighbors by the thousands. They dragged them out of their beds, out of their schools and churches, and they hacked them to bits, because they were cockroaches.

Here in civilized America we shuddered at the news, called it "barbaric" and wondered how people could be like that? How backward that Rwanda must be!

And this week the Columbus Dispatch printed a cartoon which whispered that Americans should think of Iran not as a nation whose government we have serious differences with, not as a people who might also be suffering under a war-mongering leader who does not listen to their wishes- but as cockroaches. Vermin, scurrying into the darkness.

And when the rivers of the middle east run red, will you have a cartoon about that too?

At a recent funeral service it  crossed my mind to wonder what people might say about me one day at my funeral. Sometimes I feel like I haven’t accomplished much. But I realized that when my time comes, if they say "She loved people and she told them so", I will have done alright.
I mean, really- what else counts?

When I woke up this morning there was a mourning dove
Right outside my window, singing about love.
Oh fly away, you mourning dove for now at last I see
How each and every love I’ve known makes up a part of me.

All we are in this short life is all the love we feel;
The giving and the taking is the only thing that’s real.
And that’s the simple reason why I’ve got to let you know
Something that I should have said a hundred years ago:

All we are in this world is love
All we are, when we come to the end of our days
Is the people who love us, and the ones that we’ve loved:
All that matters is that we love~ all we are in this world is love.

We can’t all climb great mountains or sail across the sea,
I will never change the world or write a symphony.
But it is love that built the mountains and it’s love that filled the sea
And its love that makes me who I am: mine for you, and yours for me.

So hush-a-bye you mourning dove, please fly away and find
All the special people that I’ve got on my mind
Don’t care if I said it yesterday or half a lifetime has gone by
I’ve got to say it one more time and here’s the reason why:

All I am in this world is love.
I’m a patchwork of people who fill up my heart
I’m the people who love me and those that I love:
All I’ll leave when I go is love~ all we are in this world is love.

With a look or a touch I can let you know
Whether we’ve shared a lifetime, or just an hour or so.
For love is the part of me, it’s the part of you that never lets go!

All we are in this world is love
All we are, when we come to the end of our days
Is the people who love us, and the ones that we’ve loved:
All that matters is that we ;ove.
All we take from this world, allwe bring to this world,
All we are in this world… is love.