Re: [Leica] we're ok

[George Lottermoser <imagist@concentric.net>]

bdcolen2001@yahoo.ca (B. D. Colen)9/12/0112:24 PM

> Yes, some times it can be difficult to define
> terrorism...however...

I promise that this will be my last post re: this thread. 

As the original poster of what you'll find below was, so was I
moved by this - and I respect all on this list so much - and
believe that any group that could imagine FOM 2 - may wish to
consider the following:
___________

Dear TAP, I belong to another listserve in Canada on the subject
of NATO. A group in Ottawa has organized a "Festival of
Non-Violence" to take place in a park across from the USA embassy
on Oct. 6 when NATO is scheduled to meet in Ottawa. Since
yesterday's tragic events there has been an on-line discussion of
the fate of these plans. I am scheduled to speak and read
poetry at it - I am wondering about my participation. (I also
refer you to the statement by the War Resisters League in New
York at www.warresisters.org/attack9-11-01.htm)

I am forwarding to TAP one of the responses because I was so
moved by it.

" It seems at this time inappropriate to have a celebratory or
festive event so close to such a huge tragedy, which itself will
surely spark other tragedies.  The US military will be very
anxious to retaliate.  By October 6, the US may very well be
launching bombs at a variety of global targets. 
  
  In this context, is a Festival atmosphere appropriate?" Should
our response be seen as a festive, fun, happy, celebration?  I  
believe the tone of our event must change to suit the context in
which we find ourselves. " statement by festival organizer.
This is the response. This is the biggest illusion of North
Americans that somehow we find ourselves in a new context.  Yes
maybe for North America this is novel, but the reason many people
initially objected to a "festive, fun, happy, celebration" is
that there is nothing "festive, fun, happy" about the daily 
situation that Third World people's live, a situation of
oppression, torture, military aggression, genocide, mass
starvation, and incredible misery. Whether it be the monuments
destroyed by NATO, the fear in my grandmothers voice, the
thousands of poor Ecuadorians I met, the faces of children on the 
verge of death in maternity clinics across Ecuador, the cries of
Palestinian mothers whose children had their heads blown off by
Israeli security personel, the brother, son, and father who lost
his entire familly in the ethnic carnage spawned by Rwandan and
Ugandan occupation forces in Congo that has left over 2-million
resting in unmarked graves across the Great Lakes 
region, the Colombian villagers massacred by right-wing
paramilitaries who used chain-saws to dismember their victims,
the 4-million infants of less than a month in age that die each
year, the black inmate executed like so many others, or the
countless other victims and examples of how globalization 
crushes life and the human spirit, I personally never thought,
and many others concured with me, that a "festival" atmosphere
was the "best" idea or even "appropriate" within this context.  I
think that for those interested, an examination of the
"carnivalesque" as analysed by cultural studies theorists, and
the debates this form of social disruption has engendered, is 
worth a study to contextualize in a more sober fashion my
admitedly emotive reactions to the current discussions.
  
  Now more than before an event to plea for nonviolence is surely
needed.

Why now more than ever?  Is it b/c this time the victims are
North Americans? This is the only difference between today's sad
event and the countless other examples just like it.  Please
Richard, avoid falling into the trap of American exceptionalist
discourse where everything that happens to the United 
States is somehow seen as distinct and novel in the anals of
history and worthy of special attention and human compassion. 
Like Fanon argued "the unity of humanity, which in the colonial
experience had not been positively manifested has to be striven
for. This unity can only be achieved by the negation of social
conditions that deny the common human essence".  By accepting
American victimization on September 11th, 2001 as somehow outside 
of history and a unique event that from hereon-in should mediate
all our actions as human-beings, we in effect contribute to the
very same social conditions that give rise to the monstrous
denial of the humanity of those "alien others" that are so
carefully and meticulously constructed by the corporate media.  I
think such a stance should be avoided at ALL costs.

  Nonviolence should be what we most strongly emphasize. 
Opposition to the repeated cycle of violence is very important. 
I believe it is appropriate now to emphasize that we oppose
violence whether by a rogue superpower (US), a military alliance
of its friends (NATO) or by terrorist groups.

  In this context, is it appropriate to hold a festival with an
antiNATO message in a park facing the US embassy? Of course, why
not?  NATO and the US are terrorist groups in my mind, they 
terrorized my familly, neighbors, friends, and acquaintances.  
If we oppose terrorism these acts should crystalize how the
victims of not just NATO, but Western foreign policy feel on a
daily basis.  I think it is very appropriate to hold a PROTEST in
front of the US Embassy, b/c it is the most symbolic structure in
all of Ottawa.  

 Can you picture the security that will be assembled there?  can
you imagine how sensitive they will be and how easily provoked by
the slightest thing?  Personally I think this would be a major
turn off to many folk who might otherwise attend.  Getting as
many people as possible to attend is surely one of our goals.  

I think even less people will attend if this thing is turned into
some amorphous and vague teach-in on such broad and harmless
categories as "Love and Peace".  Richard, I think you
understimate the extent to which NATO and imperialism animates
imigrant comunities in this country, there are real 
passions behind people's opposition to Western militarism, the
very same passions you felt today towards the perpatrators of the
tragic acts that have transpired across the USA.  Think about how
you felt today...please, reflect on it solemenly and seriously. 
Did you feel like your whole world was turned upside down?  Did
you feel like things, including yourself, could never be the same
again?  Did you feel like you wanted to call everyone you knew,
even if they were far from the disaster,  just to verify that
they are okay?  Did you feel like nothing was safe anymore?  That
all security was abandoned in that plume of smoke?  Did you feel
that pain in the pit of your stomach, the one that almost made
you feel like you would vomit?  Did you feel this violence rock
your daily life, prevent you from concentrating on anything 
else?  Did it pervade your thoughts, emotions and feelings?  Did
you cry at the sound of another human voice cracking in
desperation as it tried to relate the horror it had witnessed? 
If so then I think you can be sure that the countless friends,
relatives and co-nationals of the victims of US aggressions
across the world will come out to Ottawa regardless of the 
security measures taken, b/c they have felt what you felt today
for maybe their entire lives.  For half my life I've endured the
pain and suffering of watching my country being torn to shreds. 
I know kids who've only known suffering and pain of this nature
for their whole lives.  These are acts that hurt, that maim, and
injure, kill and crush, not only those they claim physically, but
also those that they end-up affecting  the heart or the mind.

By a Canadian from the former Yugoslavia

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