The meek will inherit the earth–but only after the fierce and powerful are through with it
Dan Brawner
March 20, 2007
The trouble with peace activists is that they are so nice. After enduring four years of an unnecessary war, corruption, profiteering and civil rights abuses, peace activists all across America have decided to take action...and hold candlelight vigils. The shockwaves will rock the White House any day now.
Such a vigil was held recently in Mount Vernon, Iowa, pop. 3,490, on the Cornell College campus, organized by Moveon.org and the Mount Vernon/Lisbon Citizens for Peace. About 50 people showed up for the event, 20 percent or so of whom were members of the media, no doubt hoping for something like a riot that would get them on the nine o’clock news. But a cluster of sad-looking folks, shivering in the March wind, staring at the ground didn’t exactly fit the definition of headline news.
Even the candles, flickering inside Dixie cups were robbed of their dramatic effect by the glaring sun, kept in the sky by the congressionally-decreed early start of daylight saving time. Oh, well.
Like so many peace vigils, this one was solemn, respectful-- at times, even tender. Attendees recounted memories of loves ones who died while serving in Iraq, marking the death toll that has topped 3,200, including 46 from Iowa.
About half those at the vigil were college students, the right age to serve in Iraq or to be drafted if it comes to that. Some clenched their jaws against the wintery chill and the poignant stories of sons and daughters who lost their lives so far from home. Others stared blankly at the dead grass beneath their feet.
At one point, we were invited to speak if the spirit moved us. Following a short silence, retired Cornell art professor Hugh Lifson broke the non-confrontational tone of the vigil, saying, of the White House, “Now we see what happens when arrogance and ignorance combine.”
After the vigil, I asked one of the organizers, Shannon Reed of Mount Vernon if her group was planning a peace event that might be less passive. True to her Quaker roots, Reed replied, “I want this war to end. But I don’t want to hurt those who have already been hurt by the war.”
Harold Hensel, also from Mount Vernon, who campaigned to elect Rep. Dave Loebsack D-IA, told me of the difficulty he finds arguing for peace. “How do you convince somebody that war is not the right thing to do?” he asked. “My United States doesn’t start wars,” Hensel said. “We finish them.”
Bob Royer of Lisbon said he supports honoring the 3,200 American soldiers who died in Iraq, but wondered why the news seldom mentions the tens of thousands of Iraqis who died in that war.
America is now sliding into year five of the Iraq conflict while respectful activists huddle together with their quaking candles, wishing for peace and watching the fires of war rage out of control.
The word “vigil” comes from the Latin word “vigilia”, meaning “wakefulness”. As peace vigils continue across the country, let us hope they produce, not only respect for the dead, but an awakening for the living.
Such a vigil was held recently in Mount Vernon, Iowa, pop. 3,490, on the Cornell College campus, organized by Moveon.org and the Mount Vernon/Lisbon Citizens for Peace. About 50 people showed up for the event, 20 percent or so of whom were members of the media, no doubt hoping for something like a riot that would get them on the nine o’clock news. But a cluster of sad-looking folks, shivering in the March wind, staring at the ground didn’t exactly fit the definition of headline news.
Even the candles, flickering inside Dixie cups were robbed of their dramatic effect by the glaring sun, kept in the sky by the congressionally-decreed early start of daylight saving time. Oh, well.
Like so many peace vigils, this one was solemn, respectful-- at times, even tender. Attendees recounted memories of loves ones who died while serving in Iraq, marking the death toll that has topped 3,200, including 46 from Iowa.
About half those at the vigil were college students, the right age to serve in Iraq or to be drafted if it comes to that. Some clenched their jaws against the wintery chill and the poignant stories of sons and daughters who lost their lives so far from home. Others stared blankly at the dead grass beneath their feet.
At one point, we were invited to speak if the spirit moved us. Following a short silence, retired Cornell art professor Hugh Lifson broke the non-confrontational tone of the vigil, saying, of the White House, “Now we see what happens when arrogance and ignorance combine.”
After the vigil, I asked one of the organizers, Shannon Reed of Mount Vernon if her group was planning a peace event that might be less passive. True to her Quaker roots, Reed replied, “I want this war to end. But I don’t want to hurt those who have already been hurt by the war.”
Harold Hensel, also from Mount Vernon, who campaigned to elect Rep. Dave Loebsack D-IA, told me of the difficulty he finds arguing for peace. “How do you convince somebody that war is not the right thing to do?” he asked. “My United States doesn’t start wars,” Hensel said. “We finish them.”
Bob Royer of Lisbon said he supports honoring the 3,200 American soldiers who died in Iraq, but wondered why the news seldom mentions the tens of thousands of Iraqis who died in that war.
America is now sliding into year five of the Iraq conflict while respectful activists huddle together with their quaking candles, wishing for peace and watching the fires of war rage out of control.
The word “vigil” comes from the Latin word “vigilia”, meaning “wakefulness”. As peace vigils continue across the country, let us hope they produce, not only respect for the dead, but an awakening for the living.
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