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Give Peace a Chance

DATELINE: 1 October, 2001

Transmitted by Radio Raheem, USA

OAKTOWN, CALI - There's these folks who go way back in American history, English history, too, who call themselves "Friends." Some of us, here in America called them "Quakers" -- like in Quaker Oats and that Pennsylvania looking guy on they products? That made them appear benign in the last century, I guess, because they are the greatest Peace Warriors our country has seen, consistently.

Their faith is mostly a mystery to most of us, used to Catholics, Methodists, Baptists and the intolerant Evangelicals as we are.

The people we call Quakers should most properly be known as The Religious Society of Friends. A review of their history (at the link) shows that they began as dissidents in the 17th century and that tradition of dissidence has never been abandoned. So, in this time of rumors of war, the Friends are concerned and worried.

Why? Because they are the type of people who have always argued that we human beings should give peace a chance. They were prominent among the protestors of the Vietnam War and should we begin attacking Afghanistan -- as now seems almost inevitable -- I'm certain we'll see Friends on the frontlines of protest while also giving aid to the suffering and injured. That's the kind of people they are.

Though it was predictable, I had some problems last month when the G21 editorial line (as represented by Rod's pontifications from Mount Olympus) came out fervently against the war effort that our country, the United States, seems determined to raise. After all, you can't walk down a street these days without seein' flags or representations of the American flag, just about everywhere. Everywhere you go, the talk is about how we are gonnah get Osama bin Laden and anybody near that dude. It's not just patriotism on the street anymore, it's hyper-patriotism, with folks fallin' all over themselves to be more "Proud to Be an American" and Patrioticker-Than-Thou.

And that set me personally to thinkin', Homes. I had to ask myself if I was comfortable with the idea of "making them pay." Under the veneer of love of country and being tough with terrorism, it seemed to me like the simple solution, "Shoot it!" was allowing a lot of folks to take out they hatreds. Not justice, in other words, but venting our own frustrations on people far away because we can. We surely got enough bombs to hurt a lot folks, so the reasoning seems to go what good are they if we don't use 'em.

But when you look below the surface of thangs, in the way that say a Malcolm X might do, you gottah see that what our government is proposing is a continuation of the imperialistic, xenophobic foreign policies that led up to the September 11th disaster. It's like we're telling the world that we have learned nothing from our brutal mistakes. And that's a scarey prospect, because it means we're showing the "Ugly American" face to the world again, the face that produced all that hate to begin with...

We say the Taliban are evil and backwards in a loud shout -- then we whisper that it was us, America, that armed and practically created the Taliban.

Radio Raheem

From what I been readin' in the newspapers and seeing on TV about Afghanistan, when we attack that already-shattered little country, it's gonnah be damned hard NOT to come off as the neighborhood bully. What little army they got is insignificant, they people are starving and oppressed, and we are planning to rain more misery on a place just this side of Hell.

Pride.

We already got gluttony, sloth, lust and anger on, why not throw another log on the pyre?

Thinking about all this, after reading a lot of the stuff that has been published here over the last few weeks, after listening to smart and foolish people talk about the action our government seems hell-bent on taking, I decided that you could sign me up for what the Friends and this magazine are about: let's Give Peace a Chance.

The alternative just seems wrong-headed and horrific and will just heap more bodies on top of those already lost. If anything, going to war seems like a way to amp up the cycle of violence, much as it has been in places like Northern Ireland, the Balkans, and the Middle East. We already know how easy it's been to stop those atrocities. Why add more bloodied streets to the misery of the world, more widows and orphans, more hate?

Pride.

I'll be proud to be an American, particulary considering the history of my country, when America is proud of me, a black man. I'll be proud to be an American when America stands for mercy and justice. But it won't be a boastful "We're Number One" pride, even then. It will be the humble pride of a citizen of a country the world can look up to, instead of fear or revile.

So now I must mean it more than ever: Peace out.

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WEB SITE PICK OF THE WEEK: Here's a tribute site to the families affected by the WTC disaster that you'll probably enjoy. We Can't Cry Hard Enough.

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