Posts tagged war

probeauty:

 

There’s been a lot written about the use of rape as a weapon of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Now, the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative has found a 17-fold increase in the number of civilian rapes. Rape as war has become rape as culture. Nicholas Kristoff has written about this in Liberia, and now it’s happening in the Congo.

Researchers surveyed over 4,000 women who sought treatment at one of the hospitals in the Eastern part of Congo, the ground zero of rape. They found that while war rapes were declining, civilian rapes had increased dramatically: 17-fold. Not doubled, nor tripled, nor even quadrupled, but increased 17-fold. We don’t even have a special word for that sharp an increase.

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The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act—DREAM—would allow undocumented young people a chance at citizenship provided they attend college for at least two years or enlist in the military. It’s been described as a dream come true for undocumented youth wanting a chance to stay in this country without the fear of deportation. But many antiwar activists warn that the bill will simply funnel more young people into the military. We host a debate between Camilo Mejía of Iraq Veterans Against the War and pro-DREAM activist Gaby Pacheco.

Gabriela Pacheco, twenty-five-year-old Ecuador-born student who grew up undocumented in Florida. Earlier this year, she and three other students who call themselves the “Trail of Dreams” walkers walked 1,500 miles from Miami to Washington, DC, calling on the President to stop deportations.

Camilo Mejia, the first GI who served in Iraq to have publicly resisted the war and was imprisoned for refusing to go back for almost a year. He is the former chair of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/20/debate_is_dream_act_a_solution

*I have to agree with Camilo Mejía.  I am after all a antiwar activist.  Besides, getting into and paying for college isn’t as easy as some would like to portray.  Besides, why even bother trying when there are recruiters all over the place just waiting to tell you that they will pay for college.  The other point Gaby Pacheco tried to make was that some people want to join the military… you know like actually want to go over to Iraq and more than likely suffer from ptsd and injury, death etc.  And then when they get back still be subject to possible deportation for a minor offense.  I’m not too thrilled about this bill. People shouldn’t have to go through all this to become citizens, especially if they were raised here. 

paynehollow:

“Violence is not merely killing another. It is violence when we use a sharp word, when we make a gesture to brush away a person, when we obey because there is fear. So violence isn’t merely organised butchery in the name of God, in the name of society or country. Violence is much more subtle, much deeper, and we are inquiring into the very depths of violence. . When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind. . So can you look at anger without any explanation or justification, without saying, ‘I must protect my …? Can you look at anger as if it were something by itself? Can you look at it completely objectively, which means neither defending it nor condemning it? Can you? . To live completely, fully, in the moment is to live with what is, the actual, without any sense of condemnation or justification… the face of violence is not only outside you but inside you. .”

—

 J. Krishnamurti

excerpt from: Freedom from the Known

more: http://beautywelove.blogspot.com/

Fuck Yes… exactly where I stand.   

I’m not sure how I feel about Memorial Day.  All I can see it that it supports war and nationalism. Neither of which I identify with.  Yet if I were to say otherwise, I would be instantly labeled as unpatriotic, as someone who doesn’t support our troops, that I don’t honor peoples sacrifices.  The only response I can give; it is for those reasons that I cannot support Memorial Day.  When I see people honoring soldiers, it is not because they are reminding themselves of the atrocity of war, and that for the memory of those lives killed and ruined because of war they must work harder to prevent and stop it.  I only see people furthering their hatred of others, and enforcing their ideals of murdering others to somehow save themselves. It’s a us vs. them Memorial Day. 

I could be wrong, maybe a lot of people don’t treat Memorial Day in this way. 

It ties in very strongly with one of my last posts.  “Our old mechanistic paradigm with its ingrained dualism and separation has made people see the world as a collection of objects to exploit…Such a vision is not only inaccurate but destructive, making our relationship with nature and the rest of the world into a struggle for dominance.” -Diane Dreher … and that’s how I feel about war and nationalism.