name: marumori

email:

url: marumori.diaryland.com

message:

Hey, I respect where you are coming from, and I hear your feelings with open ears. There are a few things I'd like to add, though, and maybe you can see them from the perspective of someone who goes to those protests AND does a hell of alot of other work to end the suffering of iraqi women and children. and i'll try not to make this too long.... It's easy to get caught up in political rhetoric. Many people, radical, conservative, etc. DO attend their college classes, spout rhetoric, shout their wee heads off, and do little else. It's easy to with all the so-called unbiased U.S. media out there spreading the war propaganda over the place like spoiled mayonnaise. That said, I REEEEEEEEALLY appreciate NPR. But the message I think most of those little protesters would send out--BOTTOM LINE--is that they value human life more than ANYTHING else, and they have a respect for it that time adn time again, our government has shown a complete lack of regard for. We're not going in there to save the Iraqi people from tyranny. Other countries might be, but the U.S. is not. If we gave a whip about that, we would've lifted sanctions years ago and prevented the deaths of millions of children from starvation and disease. THAT'S no question of east versus west, it's a question of economic interests. We can't just go in there, sweep out all the baddies and set up a democracy like a monopoly game. I mean, i was a kid when the Gulf "war" was taking place, but i do know that it was pretty much a slaughter. Is it worth it to use the proposed solutions, big explosive toys, violent, destructive, expensive as they are, to clear it up? There has GOT to be another way, and that's what those annoying demonstrators are trying so desperately to voice. maybe they're not doing it the right way if that's not what you're hearing, but they are trying to get our otherwise deaf leaders to hear them out. they do other things, they send food, money, medicines, if not to iraq then to the white house. people sent baggies of rice to President Bush addressed to the People of Iraq instead of bombs. YES, women and children and men in iraq have suffered things so horrible that it makes me cry to even think of it. I don't know off the top of my head if iraqi women are forced to wear burqas, abayas, hejabs, whatever they are called in their different forms (not that anyone shoudl be forced to). If it is forced and any violence towards is the result of the issue, then I would think that would be a prime concern of my government. It's not. At best it's a public relations throwback--don't we look good when we're caring about women? We let the Taliban rage for years before we gave a flying fuck about Afghani women on a massive scale. it's all about the money. Wearing the burqa should NEVER be forced, but it SHOULD be a personal choice. Many Islamic feminists choose to wear the veil as a symbol of revivalist cultural pride. Don't assume that burqas are always a form of oppression, that is a criticism of the east because "they're not like us." I DO wear my miniskirts and lipstck when I feel like it with respect to those women who are forced to live in poverty, isolation, and repression. While doing this, I keep in mind how lucky I am to be able to wear these, and how unlucky some of my sisters have been who've been raped with their miniskirts used as an excuse for the violent act. It's not the clothing at issue here, but the violence. I also give thanks that I am able to love who I want when I want. I don't think feeling guilty for the blessings we do have is helping women or men or children in Iraq, or Rwanda, or Kosova, or Aghanistan, or North Korea.......How much power do we REALLY have if we sit back and accept the wack proposals that are given us. A violent invasion of Iraq is NOT what i want in this world. Violence can't stop violence on ANY level. There is another way, and those demonstrations serve more to inspire a vision of a peaceful community and world than they do really change policy or military decisions. If it matters at all to one person, then it matters a LOT to more and more and more.... i DO dare to wear the clothes i want, i DO dare to speak up about these injustices and think for myself, i DO dare to oppose my government, i dare to love, spread a message of peace, not buy the bullshit my government is tossing around, and be fiesty and unstoppable even when women in iraq must struggle in fear. They are always in the back of my mind. thanks for your words, though, and i hope this didn't sound too self-righteous. I just wanted you to know that there are a lot of people different from you who care in their own ways. K, see ya. kt