Tiger by the tail

Well, it's been 4 years since the war in Iraq started. And it's lasted oh, about 4 years longer than it should have.

Last night when I picked up Liz and Julian from the airport at about 1 in the morning, Liz was complaining (about a lot of things actually) that she wanted to go to the peace rally and march down at Boston Common. I was already planning on going provided I wasn't up until the sun came up playing poker, so I offered to call her in the morning to meet up with her if I went. Well, she bailed on me. Not a big deal. I had been planning on going by myself in the first place. Then again, I expected to see a lot more people I know there.

This is my first problem. I'm constantly surrounded by throngs of people with their bravado and their posturing. There were at least 50 people I know who should have been at the rally. Did I see a single one of them? No. Yeah, there were a fair number of people there (a lot less than I would have expected, but still), so I might have missed a few of them there, but for me to not even run into one of them? That pisses me off. How dare you get up on your damn soapbox from morning 'til night every damn day, forward me emails, bully me into thinking I'm not doing enough, and then not be there? Hypocrites.

Here's my second problem. War brings out the propaganda and the sheep in all of us. Propaganda, propaganda, sheep, sheep, spin, spin, spin. Makes me crazy. I'm not saying that this is just a peace activist phenomenon. Same is true of the neocons and the save the ozoners. I happen to agree with more of the lefty propaganda than the righty, but it's still propaganda, and it's still riddled with half truths, misinformation, and great glaring holes. But folks just gobble it up because it's easier than finding the facts. How can a person say on one hand that you can't ever trust a word the government says and then on the other just blindly follow every word uttered by these activist groups? Trust or don't trust. Pick one. Get informed. Figure out what's true and what's not true. Don't just agree with everything that the guy with your favorite banner says. Come on!

And here's my other problem as long as I'm bitching about hypocrites. I'm going to pick on Pat Scanlon here because he illustrates so well what I mean. He's up there singing this song about taking all the heads of state, tossing them into Abu Ghraib, throwing away the key, connecting nodes to their genitals, etc, etc, etc. "Lock 'em up!" "Throw away the key!!" The crowd loved it, shouting out the whole call-response. Dancing their precious little hearts out. All the while waving signs and banners and flags calling for PEACE!! How can you possibly chant about ripping out someone's eyeballs while carrying a huge peace flag? That's absurd! No wonder Bush and co. don't listen to you. If it's OK for you to seek revenge, why can't he?

Now, after a while of me standing there thinking all of the above, Cindy Sheehan comes up on stage. I didn't honestly know what to think of her as I've only ever seen/heard/read post-spinzone snippets from both camps. But damn I love her now. She doesn't throw out arbitrary facts to make the audience gasp. She doesn't make herself out to be anybody but who she is. She doesn't pretend that her son was anything but who he was. She is just a mom who lost her son, trying to talk sense into people. And what made me love her the most was that she commented on the buttons that were showing up all over the place during Camp Casey that said "Cindy Speaks For Me" or "Cindy Doesn't Speak For Me". Her response? Speak for yourself, damn it! Good for you, Cindy.

And, I will state for the record, that there were many many people there who were thinking and speaking for themselves. There were many people who know that letting go of a tiger once you've got it by the tail is dangerous business - but who also know that we'd best figure out a way to do it safely right now. There were many people there who have been going to protests and rallies since long before I was born, and know a hell of a lot more about how to be effective at it than I do. And there were a lot of people there who, although they may or may not have been misguided, really do mean very well.

All in all, it was a good day. For all of my frustrations about both the war and the anti-war, I needed to be there. I needed to be a part of this. And I'm glad I went. But I'm even more glad right this second to have made it back home where it's warm and I have a toilet. =)