I have a beef with The Daily Free Press, the student newspaper at Boston University.
Christian Activists United for Social and Environmental Justice, our social justice group at the School of Theology, organized a panel discussion titled "The Impact of War: A Community Conversation," held in Marsh Chapel on March 28. We invited five individuals from within and outside our School of Theology community, civilians and military veterans, to share their stories, their hopes, and their prayers very openly.
What was the purpose of our discussion? From my opening remarks:
It may seem curious to some of you that we need a discussion like this. Isn’t it obvious how war affects the men and women who serve, their families, and their communities? Sixty years ago we would not need a gathering like this, but these are unusual times. The talk of war is on everybody’s lips, but for many its actual presence is elusive, even invisible. The talk of sacrifice is everywhere, but few have felt what sacrifice is. In fact, some of us may have grown up without knowing any friends or relatives in military service. Whether we support or oppose one conflict or another, a veil has come down upon many of us. We don’t understand the impact of war.
Of course, many of us are preparing for ministry in communities dealing with the awful shocks of war. Therefore, there needs to be a conversation. I think this forum will benefit many of us who are simply cut off from the experience of military service and do not know how to empathize with those who have encountered war and its after-effects. There needs to be, where possible, a lifting of the veil, and an opportunity for many of us who have no idea what military service and its possible trauma are like to learn how to show empathy through the sharing of impressions and experiences. There’s a lot about the impact of war that people just don’t know or don’t find worthy of talking about, and perhaps this forum can become a source of graced enlightenment.
Tonight, from a common but multifaceted Christian and humanistic perspective, we hope to uncover the impact of war and the complexities of our responses to war.
***
The Daily Free Press sent a reporter to cover the event. I was delighted, until I picked up the newspaper the next morning. Here is the puny story the paper published on March 29:
http://media.www.dailyfreepress.com/media/storage/paper87/news/2007/03/29/News/Citizen.Activism.Lacking.In.Comparison.To.Wars.Of.Past.Eras.Military.Panel.Says-2812364.shtml
And here is the even smaller story it ran the same day about student efforts to stop the Darfur genocide:
http://media.www.dailyfreepress.com/media/storage/paper87/news/2007/03/29/News/Local.Arts.Show.Seeks.End.To.Darfur.Conflict-2812355.shtml
Meanwhile, the sports section that day was overflowing with copy about the women's lacrosse team. Here is the letter I wrote to The Daily Free Press in response:
To the Editor:
No offense to your newspaper, but it's a shame that you could devote two articles totaling 35 paragraphs, plus a "7 Questions" sidebar, to the exploits of the women's lacrosse team and only 12 and 13 sentences, respectively, to reports of student efforts to stop the genocide in Darfur and a theological discussion of the impact of war on our loved ones and our communities.
It's easier, I know, to sidestep these grave matters and narcotize ourselves with Anna Nicole Smith, "American Idol," and the Red Sox. Americans are living in a fool's paradise.
Here are my seven questions for your readers:
1. Whether we support or oppose the war in Iraq, do we as American citizens take mutual ownership of this war?
2. To paraphrase Lincoln, do we share the cost of caring for those "who shall have borne the battle" and for their widowed and their orphans?
3. Can we make necessary distinctions in the way we regard the soldiers who fight this war in Iraq and the civilians (most of whom never put on the uniform) who started it?
4. Do we enter Darfur and destroy the janjaweed? If we do, who goes? Who pays for such a military operation?
5. Do churches, synagogues, and mosques teach their social ethical traditions, particularly on the justification of war?
6. Do our churches, synagogues, and mosques actively promote diplomatic alternatives to war, teach how to wage peace, and defend the rights of conscientious objectors?
7. Men and women in the military who believe in God (or don't) grapple daily with issues of life and death, sin and guilt, and the meaning of their service. They need to be spiritually fed. Do communities of faith promote the calling of men and women to the ministry of military chaplain?
Students and faculty are struggling with these difficult questions in a way that doesn't boil down easily into headlines or 250-word articles.
As I explained to your reporter, the talk of war is on everybody's lips, but for many the war's real presence is elusive, even invisible. The talk of sacrifice is everywhere, but few have known what sacrifice is. In fact, some of us have grown up without knowing any friends or relatives in military service. Whether we support or oppose one conflict or another, a veil has come down upon many of us. We don't understand the impact of war.
For the record, the panel at Marsh Chapel included civilians as well as military personnel. Our panel featured a clinical social worker who spent five years counseling men and women traumatized by combat or sexual trauma while in their military service, and a theologian from the School of Theology who is well-versed in Christian social ethics. I wish your newspaper could have captured the flavor of all our panelists' stories and the reverential spirit in which their wisdom was shared.
Anthony Zuba
STH '08
Christian Activists United for Social and Environmental Justice
***
The Daily Free Press published the letter on March 30 but deleted the first paragraph and the name of our group at the end. I guess the criticism hurt them a little too much.
Showing posts with label war. Show all posts
Showing posts with label war. Show all posts
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Between Boston and Baghdad
Last week my mind trained on the war in Iraq more than it did on the homeless in Boston. On Friday I left St. Francis House early in the afternoon in order to finish packing for the journey to Washington and the massive antiwar demonstration on the National Mall. The next thirty-six hours were some of the happiest I experienced this year. I yelled myself half-hoarse that warm, sunny Saturday, passing by the halls of power, demanding that God’s will to peace be done. The road trip proved just as enjoyable as the march, as the conversation kept running mile after mile.
Yet even in the midst of the jubilant journey and peaceful procession, I could recall what brought me there. My mind was on the war precisely because of the homeless. With the billions of dollars we have sunk into remaking Iraq in our own image, we could have been investing in urban renewal, including job training and housing development, and counseling services—mental health, legal, and financial—to rebuild the lives of our homeless and the communities in which they wander. Harnessing the talent of our young, strong men and women and the treasure of our most generous fellow citizens, we could have rebuilt New Orleans and all the communities ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and returned hundreds of thousands of displaced brothers and sisters to their rightful homes. Yet what have we done all this time? We have made war, begetting more wars. We have destroyed lives, thereby destroying the better parts of our own lives. We have caused uncounted numbers of Iraqi men, women, and children to flee their cities and towns, with refuge in Europe or the United States their last hope. Homelessness … that is what we have “created” in Iraq.
During the march I wore the rugged metal cross given to all the homeless men and women who attend Common Cathedral, the street church led by Ecclesia Ministries. The word “Ecclesia” is engraved into the curvature of the cross. It reminds me that I am the member of a spiritual assembly whose unity transcends time and space in Christ. How fitting, on that mild winter day in Washington, to bear witness to the worldwide assembly of displaced persons within one of the largest assemblies I’ve joined, itself the product of myriad pilgrimages. All of us felt called to disperse from our particular communities to remember the living and the dead dispersed from theirs. The homeless soldiers, unable to return because of redeployment … the homeless Iraqis, unable to return to their native soil because of mass violence … the homeless in America, unable to return to the places once theirs because of the blind negligence of their brothers and sisters.
This war hurts all the homeless. For every day we let the strife fester, we do violence to the least among us here and abroad, and the vain cause for which we fruitlessly fight undermines the genuinely righteous causes for which we must vigorously fight. And all the while, God watches and hides.
Yet even in the midst of the jubilant journey and peaceful procession, I could recall what brought me there. My mind was on the war precisely because of the homeless. With the billions of dollars we have sunk into remaking Iraq in our own image, we could have been investing in urban renewal, including job training and housing development, and counseling services—mental health, legal, and financial—to rebuild the lives of our homeless and the communities in which they wander. Harnessing the talent of our young, strong men and women and the treasure of our most generous fellow citizens, we could have rebuilt New Orleans and all the communities ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and returned hundreds of thousands of displaced brothers and sisters to their rightful homes. Yet what have we done all this time? We have made war, begetting more wars. We have destroyed lives, thereby destroying the better parts of our own lives. We have caused uncounted numbers of Iraqi men, women, and children to flee their cities and towns, with refuge in Europe or the United States their last hope. Homelessness … that is what we have “created” in Iraq.
During the march I wore the rugged metal cross given to all the homeless men and women who attend Common Cathedral, the street church led by Ecclesia Ministries. The word “Ecclesia” is engraved into the curvature of the cross. It reminds me that I am the member of a spiritual assembly whose unity transcends time and space in Christ. How fitting, on that mild winter day in Washington, to bear witness to the worldwide assembly of displaced persons within one of the largest assemblies I’ve joined, itself the product of myriad pilgrimages. All of us felt called to disperse from our particular communities to remember the living and the dead dispersed from theirs. The homeless soldiers, unable to return because of redeployment … the homeless Iraqis, unable to return to their native soil because of mass violence … the homeless in America, unable to return to the places once theirs because of the blind negligence of their brothers and sisters.
This war hurts all the homeless. For every day we let the strife fester, we do violence to the least among us here and abroad, and the vain cause for which we fruitlessly fight undermines the genuinely righteous causes for which we must vigorously fight. And all the while, God watches and hides.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Some Untimely Thoughts About the War
Before I think twice and lose my nerve, I will put these thoughts out into cyberspace.
President Bush always talks about the war in Iraq as the major front in the war on terror. We are bringing the fight to the enemy so the enemy won’t be able to strike us on American soil. Well, it doesn’t seem very neighborly of the United States to bring our fight into a nation that did not war on us. Didn’t Bush’s father tell him that it doesn’t make us a kinder, gentler nation to do something like that? Did President Bush ask the Iraqi people if it was okay to bring our dogfight with al-Qaeda into their backyard? I mean, if you’re about to have a brawl with some folks, you “step outside,” but you don’t step into someone else’s home!
Again, President Bush always talks about the war in Iraq as the major front in the war on terror. By that, we mean al-Qaeda, of course, because they’re the ones after the United States. That was our fight. Bush and his deputies say the new Iraqi government stands by our side as a major ally in the struggle to defeat terrorists. Well, if that’s true, how come I never hear Nuri Kamal al-Maliki or any of his deputies talking about defeating al-Qaeda? Have you ever heard the Iraqi leaders we prop up speaking as vehemently as President Bush does against those terrorists? Or maybe they are too busy fighting several different wars on terror: Shiite militants versus Sunni militants, Shiite militants against their own kind, and Iraqi democrats versus foes in Iran and Syria that don’t want a democratic Iraq. Oh, and we want Iraqis to help us defeat al-Qaeda, too? What’s in it for them? Was that ever their fight? No wonder we’ve got Sunni and Shiite insurgents warring on our soldiers, who must be wondering whom to protect and whom to shoot.
Before we invaded Iraq, there were no wars going on inside that nation. Now there are five. How many battles are we supposed win at once? We don’t want any part of the sectarian wars, and Iraq doesn’t want any part of our al-Qaeda war. Iraq, in fact, has declared war against our al-Qaeda war and, beyond that, our very presence there. You call that a partnership?
Nevertheless, President Bush has decided to send more American troops to Iraq to fight all of these wars at once, the American war on terror and the wars on Iraqi terror. I guess this finally puts to rest the myth that there ever was a coalition of the willing united in a global assault on terrorism.
When President Bush is not talking about the war in Iraq as the major front in the war on terror, he is talking about it as a mission to spread liberty. We’re there to spread freedom. However, do you ever really hear President Bush and his deputies wax rhapsodic about the ultimate sacrifices our soldiers have made to protect Iraqi freedom? Do grieving families want to hear that their sons and daughters died to make free a nation that presently seems incapable of exercising freedom as we know it? On the contrary, his encomiums are always about the ultimate sacrifices our soldiers have made to protect our freedom. Let’s be real and admit that despite the arguments being made that a secure Iraq guarantees Iraqi and American freedom, our venture in Iraq has always been about American security and American interests first. If he were honest, President Bush would take equal time to honor the ultimate sacrifices of untold hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens, nameless, unmourned, and unknown, who have died for American freedom.
You might think I sound ungrateful for what Americans did to remove Saddam Hussein from power and release Iraqis from his indefensible tyranny and insane brutality. That’s probably true: I am not properly grateful for the passing of this dictator from the world scene or for the people who made sure Saddam and his deputies could do no more harm to their people. But my sense of gratitude is challenged, because the ends did not justify the means by which we pursued those ends, and the intended results of achieving our narrow ends have not been realized by any stretch of the imagination. If it is fair to ask Iraqi citizens if they are grateful for having been freed from the grasp of the iron fist of Saddam, it is also fair to ask them if they are grateful for what they have been “freed” into today. Additionally, it is fair to ask whether the Iraqi people can ever be free as long as the United States is present in force on their streets.
These thoughts I submit humbly, but angrily.
President Bush always talks about the war in Iraq as the major front in the war on terror. We are bringing the fight to the enemy so the enemy won’t be able to strike us on American soil. Well, it doesn’t seem very neighborly of the United States to bring our fight into a nation that did not war on us. Didn’t Bush’s father tell him that it doesn’t make us a kinder, gentler nation to do something like that? Did President Bush ask the Iraqi people if it was okay to bring our dogfight with al-Qaeda into their backyard? I mean, if you’re about to have a brawl with some folks, you “step outside,” but you don’t step into someone else’s home!
Again, President Bush always talks about the war in Iraq as the major front in the war on terror. By that, we mean al-Qaeda, of course, because they’re the ones after the United States. That was our fight. Bush and his deputies say the new Iraqi government stands by our side as a major ally in the struggle to defeat terrorists. Well, if that’s true, how come I never hear Nuri Kamal al-Maliki or any of his deputies talking about defeating al-Qaeda? Have you ever heard the Iraqi leaders we prop up speaking as vehemently as President Bush does against those terrorists? Or maybe they are too busy fighting several different wars on terror: Shiite militants versus Sunni militants, Shiite militants against their own kind, and Iraqi democrats versus foes in Iran and Syria that don’t want a democratic Iraq. Oh, and we want Iraqis to help us defeat al-Qaeda, too? What’s in it for them? Was that ever their fight? No wonder we’ve got Sunni and Shiite insurgents warring on our soldiers, who must be wondering whom to protect and whom to shoot.
Before we invaded Iraq, there were no wars going on inside that nation. Now there are five. How many battles are we supposed win at once? We don’t want any part of the sectarian wars, and Iraq doesn’t want any part of our al-Qaeda war. Iraq, in fact, has declared war against our al-Qaeda war and, beyond that, our very presence there. You call that a partnership?
Nevertheless, President Bush has decided to send more American troops to Iraq to fight all of these wars at once, the American war on terror and the wars on Iraqi terror. I guess this finally puts to rest the myth that there ever was a coalition of the willing united in a global assault on terrorism.
When President Bush is not talking about the war in Iraq as the major front in the war on terror, he is talking about it as a mission to spread liberty. We’re there to spread freedom. However, do you ever really hear President Bush and his deputies wax rhapsodic about the ultimate sacrifices our soldiers have made to protect Iraqi freedom? Do grieving families want to hear that their sons and daughters died to make free a nation that presently seems incapable of exercising freedom as we know it? On the contrary, his encomiums are always about the ultimate sacrifices our soldiers have made to protect our freedom. Let’s be real and admit that despite the arguments being made that a secure Iraq guarantees Iraqi and American freedom, our venture in Iraq has always been about American security and American interests first. If he were honest, President Bush would take equal time to honor the ultimate sacrifices of untold hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens, nameless, unmourned, and unknown, who have died for American freedom.
You might think I sound ungrateful for what Americans did to remove Saddam Hussein from power and release Iraqis from his indefensible tyranny and insane brutality. That’s probably true: I am not properly grateful for the passing of this dictator from the world scene or for the people who made sure Saddam and his deputies could do no more harm to their people. But my sense of gratitude is challenged, because the ends did not justify the means by which we pursued those ends, and the intended results of achieving our narrow ends have not been realized by any stretch of the imagination. If it is fair to ask Iraqi citizens if they are grateful for having been freed from the grasp of the iron fist of Saddam, it is also fair to ask them if they are grateful for what they have been “freed” into today. Additionally, it is fair to ask whether the Iraqi people can ever be free as long as the United States is present in force on their streets.
These thoughts I submit humbly, but angrily.
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