ParticleGirl's Journal: Anti-war movements and why I won't become an ex-pat

I go to protests, write letters, and try to make sure the people I know are informed.

I have a student who emailed me that he had to go "to the base" yesterday at 5am, and would try to make it back in time for recitation. He did make it for the last 20 minutes of class, and after class he said he would be sent over shortly. He won't be able to finish out the semester. A shame. "So you think the war's a bad idea?" he said. Yes, I do. "You must hate me then..." No-- of course I don't hate him. I support and admire our troops. It's the administration that I have a problem with, that I think is jumping prematurely into conflict, is risking the lives of people like my student when other avenues have not, in my opinion and the opinion of much of the world, been fully explored.

I have a friend who was making offhand jokes about how Iceland or Switzerland is looking awfully nice right now. Low unemployment, good social services, no desire to police the world. I love my country; I think that the U.S. was founded on, and manages to adhere to much of the time, some incredible principles. I think that I would rather stay here and try to change the things that I feel are wrong, try to understand why so much of this country feels that it's our place to violate international agreements and invade a soverign nation (however volatile) against world opinion and without fully exploring other options. I would rather try to promote change from within than abandon a place that I love and think has so much potential.

I think it's a terrible thing that the media has twisted so many protests and statements to imply that you either support the troops OR feel that war is not yet appropriate. As I type this, we've bombed Baghdad and a long, drawn-out conflict which will certainly involve a bloody land war has begun. I have a student who will be there, and I hope he and all the other soldiers manage to make it back. And I hope people write letters ot their representatives, assist in movements like War Resisters, moveon.org, the Community Action Network, the Thomas Merton Center, Cities for Peace, Take Back the Media and Women of Vision and Action. A friend laments that he feels so hopeless. No one of us can change everything, but if everyone does a little, together we can do a lot.

I'm so sad right now.

[Elwood P Dowd]

I don't have that kind of faith. I don't think that the anti-war movement can do much at all. All we can do is make the end of American diplomacy an issue in the next election, but... I don't even know if that would work.

Iceland looks really fantastic, but Vancouver looks good too. And doable.

Re:I'm so sad right now.

[ParticleGirl]

The problem with waiting for the next election is that awareness is lacking; if people are made aware of the issues now, perhaps they will act on them when the next election comes around. Candidates are not good at all when it comes to informing the population. Our system relies on an informed, responsible population. Unfortunately, much of the populace is neither informed nor socially responsible. It's that that we can change, and that we have to change, and that we can make progress with in small ways

Meanwhile...

[Some Woman]

Not only are people who think that this is not the right time for war considered to be unsupportive of our troops, but Minnesota's local anti-war student group has been declared a terrorist organization. [mndaily.com]

Re:Meanwhile...

[ParticleGirl]

Yeah, a lot of things our government has been doing worry me greatly-- like, for instance, the fact that in a country where we refuse to register our guns [mynra.org] we are requiring people (including many of our citizens) to register themselves [lawgustafsson.com] so that they may be tracked by the government, the rest of us are covertly watched [epic.org] by several organizations that do not need to answer to anyone. And speaking of infringing on constitutional rights, we are holding hundreds of individuals without rights in Guantanamo. While i