Questions from the bootless & shoeless

All the boots & shoes from the Eyes Wide Open Exhibit got wet in the light rain at the end of the day. I took six tubs of boots to dry in my garage. I spread them out and turned up the heat.

This morning I checked and they were all dry. But in handling them this morning it sank in as I looked at the tags & ages. Young lives wasted for what? How are we honoring their ultimate sacrifice?

As history has shown, wars are easy to start and extremely difficult to stop. We don't have a clue as to how we are going to stop this one. The pile of boots will grow larger as the needless deaths & suffering continues.

We almost all say we don't like this war but responding to a poll or signing an online petition entails NO responsibiltiy to do anything about it. We are all much too comfortable and unburdened by this war. Most of us do not know anyone serving and so the war is abstract--something for the politicians/candidates to blab about and hack at each other with.

The deadly concoction of fears, delayed costs & uncertain responsibilities inevitably points to this war continuing until our vague grasp of what our country is descending toward changes.*

Do we really think we can kill all the people who oppose our arrogance & greed? Is cheap oil worth the price of destroying a country? Who will pay the price of our inattention and refusal to be true citizens?

It is often said that those who served in the military did so to protect our freedoms. Many suffered and died so we could be citizens of a democracy (not the ungrateful and unconscious inheritors of all that came before). How do we explain to them that we were just too busy with all the details of our affluence (managing it or being managed by it?).

* Historical Note. While the German military was putting the final touches on their plans to make war on France in 1914, there was a large and active peace movement in Germany and throughout Europe that had arisen due to the continued buildup of military power in Germany and other countries. But the German military had the ear of the Bismark and he couldn't resist the urge to go to war to restore Germany to its rightful place at the top of the heap. It was all so well planned it was supposed to last only 39 days! Think of the glory of being able to proclaim "mission accomplished."

Of course, what was set in motion led to the deaths of millions of soldiers and civilians throughout the 20th century. The war that was billed as the War to End All Wars did nothing of the kind.

My main source on this is Barbara Tuchman's Guns of August (also August 1914). Here is link to the Wikpedia entry on the book -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guns_of_August

Talk about history being written as we speak--the following is the final paragraph:

"On Semptember 30th 2007, former United States Senator from Alaska and 2008 Democratic presidential candidate, Mike Gravel wrote "It's easy to imagine a "Guns of August" scenario that draws in Israel, Saudi Arabia and potentially Pakistan, India, Russia, and China." in a blog post for the Huffington Post. The statement was in regards Hillary Clinton's laughter in response to Gravel's objection to Clinton's yes vote for declaring the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization which Gravel predicts could draw the United states into a wider global conflict."

The following is from an essay on the peace movements in the world

"Today, however, the rhetoric of military action seems to have made a comeback amongst the liberal democracies. An example of this would be the optimistic and "macho" stance adopted by the US and Britain towards Iraq. It has been said that perhaps each generation needs to personally experience war in order to see through political fictions. Today, situations that allow the rationalizing of war abound such as punishing dictators/terrorists or re-establishing legitimate boundaries. In dealing with these situations, the lengthy and often difficult processes of negotiation and non-violent resolution of conflict seem woefully inadequate."

Like all of you, I am just trying to sort out my feelings and what I can do about them. The world has slipped into chaos too easily many times before. Never again?