Articles
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 Freedom is Stronger than Fear
Janet WeilJanet Weil, a member of CODEPINK since 2003, works with local groups and online activists. She is active in the Bring Our War $$ Home and Ground the Drones campaigns, and represents CODEPINK at the Afghanistan working group of United for Peace and Justice. An address given at 9/11/11 Worldwide Peace Concert and Rally at Western Gateway Park in Penn Valley, CA. Ms Weil was introduced by Sean Keefe. Thank you, Sean, and thank you, Peace Center of Nevada County! I told a young friend I was going to give a speech here at the peace festival on the 10th anniversary of September 11, and he retorted, “It hasn’t been 10 years!” Then, throwing his hands to his head, he suddenly cried out, “Yes! I was in high school!” For almost half his life, the delusional so-called “war on terror” has shaped his reality – and all of ours. Please take a moment to think where you were on September 11, 2001. What were you feeling? Here’s a bit of my story. Tuesday, September 11, 2001. My 17-year-old son woke me up. Standing by my bed, he told me, “There’s been a terrorist attack.” Thinking it might be a shooting in DC, I went with him to the living room. The TV showed those incomprehensible images of planes penetrating the World Trade Center towers. Soon the news of the third plane hitting the Pentagon, and the fourth plane forced aground by passengers in Pennsylvania, filled the screen. I remember thinking, “Well, the world is different than I thought it was. But here we are.” I felt a deep dread. I was afraid of future attacks – the local TV coverage spoke of a possible attack on the Golden Gate Bridge – but even more afraid of an overwhelmingly violent response by the US government. I had a sense that we had suddenly been jolted into a new future – a wrong future. A few weeks later, I stood with 4 other women in front of the San Francisco Federal Building, holding signs: “War Is Not the Answer.” The US bombing of impoverished, war-ravaged Afghanistan had begun. Four Afghans who worked part-time for the UN, clearing land mines, had been killed in one of the first bombing runs. As we stood in silent vigil, a construction worker came up and screamed in our faces: “You are traitors! The military is protecting your rights!” As he stomped away, I yelled at his back, “And we’re exercising them!” Our loud voices proclaimed two conflicting world views. One holds the belief that our rights are protected by the state, often by violence, and an external order that must be respected and obeyed. The other asserts that our rights are protected by our own actions, including public dissent from and resistance to the state, and that these originate in individual conscience. Both are part of American history and identity. On September 11, our country was cruelly attacked. To many Americans, ignorant of the deep resentments of US policy in the Middle East, the attacks were inexplicable. Nearly 3000 people, not all Americans as is often said, but citizens of over 70 nations, were murdered. Many people desired a sort of rough justice, thinking US military action in Afghanistan would provide not only the immediate satisfaction of killing our enemies, but would also defeat the repressive Taliban government, and provide us protection from future acts of terrorism. Others, perhaps the majority, were not sure how to respond and so gave tacit consent to the government’s plans. An alternative course of action, based on international police work and diplomacy, was never adequately advocated for, although there were protests against the war, notably in New York City. On September 14, 2001 only Congresswoman Barbara Lee in the entire Congress voted NO on the Authorization to Use Military Force – an authorization she has just re-introduced legislation to repeal. Barbara Lee’s warning “Let us not become the evil that we deplore” was brushed aside and criticized. Most people thought that military retaliation and a sense of resolution would be swift. Well, here we are, 10 years later into that “wrong future”. An estimated 34,000 Afghans, many of them children, have died violent deaths since fall 2001, in air and drone strikes, in the hated night raids on homes, in atrocities committed by all sides. The national government of Afghanistan, installed by the US and NATO, is one of the most corrupt in the world. The country remains, despite the billions poured into “aid,” desperately poor, with extremely high rates of infant and maternal mortality. Life expectancy for Afghan men is 44 years. For Afghan women, 42 years. Some young Americans who were high school students in fall 2001 joined the US armed services out of love of country, and have returned home dead, or profoundly traumatized and injured. August was the deadliest month for U.S. troops (thus far) in 10 years; 66 U.S. service members were killed. Since October 2001, 1760 Americans have died in what is grotesquely called “Operation Enduring Freedom”. Army Ranger Staff Sergeant Jared Hagemann, who killed himself on June 28 of this year before his 9th deployment, is one of 159 suspected suicides of active duty soldiers as of this summer. Here we are, having poured out over $1 trillion in upfront war costs, and deep in debt. Taxpayers in Nevada County, California have paid $374.4 million for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. For California, it has been $146.9 billion. As a young man I follow on twitter, Brian, tweeted yesterday: "Global War on Terrorism" is the war profiteers' perfect war. Indefinable. Ubiquitous. Never ending. Any little act excuses its expansion.” And I would add: very, very profitable. Don’t believe me? Ask Halliburton and KBR and DynCorp and Blackwater about no-bid contracts, cost overruns and lack of Congressional oversight. In August I did a training on Code Pink to a group of interns at our sister organization, Global Exchange. I asked these young people: How have the wars affected you? A few of their answers: “The economy is going to shit. Getting a job right out of college will be difficult. My uncle has cancer; couldn’t afford the health care costs of preventative screening. Why isn’t our military spending in health care [instead]?” “War has made me call into question how the US values life. Not only are people abroad being killed, but Americans as well. Life is valuable – why are we just throwing it away on a war with a purpose I can’t find?!” “How haven’t these wars impacted me?! On a wider plane, these wars have wasted everyone’s tax dollars, and made our country look horrible. I love to travel and when people ask me what I think of these wars of the past and present administrations, I’m embarrassed. Personally, being Middle Eastern, these wars have increased discrimination towards my family, my friends in various places, at airports and even in arguments.” My young friend’s reaction when I asked him this question: “I found out the government hadn’t been telling me the truth. It pissed me off! It really pissed me off!” Yeah. We’ve all had a lot of those moments over the past 10 years. And I don’t even have time now to talk about Iraq, and “weapons of mass destruction.” So what can we do? What can YOU do? I’ve got a full calendar here of actions to take starting tomorrow but the main thing I want to talk about is being in solidarity with the October mobilization in DC, starting on Thursday, October 6. It’s not a “march” and it doesn’t end in a day or a week. Here’s some words from the October 2011 Statement: “October 2011 is the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan and the beginning of the 2012 federal austerity budget. … We call on people of conscience and courage—all who seek peace, economic justice, human rights and a healthy environment—to join together in Freedom Plaza, beginning Oct. 6, 2011, in nonviolent resistance similar to the Arab Spring and the Midwest awakening.” If you can go to DC, please go. You’ll find CODEPINK there. If you cannot go to DC, please COME to San Francisco, where starting at 8 AM in UN Plaza, 7th and Market, I and many others will be doing a solidarity action there for several hours, concluding at the New Federal Building. You may have noticed something about my speech: I have not said the word “Obama” (until now). That’s because this struggle is not about him, or any other single powerful person, in the government or the military or the corporations or the media. It’s about us, and how we will finally demand an end to both wars, so that 10 years from now those 14-year-olds in high school NOW are not coming home damaged or dead from Operation Endless War Profits, so that THEY have education, jobs, futures full of possibility. I close with a quote in honor of the Norwegian people’s courageous response to the terrorist attack on July 22 which killed 87 people, and which was based on the lone, insane killer’s hatred of Muslims and a multicultural society. The Norwegians utterly rejected the incitement to give way to xenophobia and terror. “We cannot change what happened. But we can decide what it does to us. We can decide to stand together. … We want to live in a society which offers the freedom of opinions and speech. We want to understand differences as possibilities. We want freedom to be stronger than fear.” -- Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway We as Americans cannot change what has happened in the past 10 years. We cannot bring back the dead. But we can demand that our tax dollars be spent on human needs, not war and militarism. We can reject “terror” as a way to frame our foreign and domestic policies. We can commit ourselves to work for peaceful tomorrows for everyone, but above all for young people. We, too, can say that freedom is stronger than fear. Let us begin today. Thank you. These remarks are dedicated to my young friends and colleagues Rae Abileah, Chelsea Byers, Olivia Evans, Sharon Miller, John Falchetta, Haakon Weinstein; my son Daniel Weil; and to all young Americans now in their 20s, who have become adults in this past terrible decade. |
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Education and Action for Peace and JusticeThe Peace Center of Nevada County honors the essential power of people in community. Through open inquiry, education, and nonviolent direct action, we nurture peace, equality, justice and dignity in ourselves, our community and our Earth. Bulletin Subscriptions!If you want to receive our bulletins by email, please sign up here. How To Reach UsEmail: Address: Office Hours: Volunteers are usually here1 p.m. - 5 p.m. Mon - Fri Call to confirm. Telephone: Cindy Sheehan’s speech in Grass Valley on the 8th Anniversary of the Iraq War now online!Thanks to Anne Moore and two local H.S. videographers, for posting this video on you tube and the Peace Center and Michael Moore’s websites! Cindy Sheehan Speaks -8th Anniversary Iraq War Donate We welcome and encourage donations to the Peace Center. Keep the way of peace and nonviolence a part of our community. Please visit our Donations Page. |