- Somewhere tonight in Iraq, a small girl lies sleeping
who in a few weeks may be a lump of scorched flesh buried under concrete.
-
- On a basketball court somewhere in the United States
a young man lands a jump shot, who in a few weeks may have no legs, or
eyes, or have tumors already brooding in his brain from exposure to the
depleted uranium of our own weapons.
-
- A young boy who is healthy and vibrant today will be
racked with cancer. A mother will hear her children crying for food and
have nothing to give them but tainted water to quench their thirst. Land
that is today rich and fertile will, a short time from now, be contaminated
with radioactivity that lasts longer than all the years between ancient
Sumer and Babylon and now.
-
- And young men and women who in the innocence of their
hearts volunteered to serve their country will be led to perpetrate unspeakable
crimes that will haunt their nights and blight the rest of their lives.
When they complain of strange ailments, the Veteran's Administration will
admit no connection. And for years afterwards, as has happened since the
first Gulf War, they will take their own lives in a steady stream of suicides.
They will not be the sons and daughters of the men and women who sit in
Congress or the White House. A disproportionate number of them will come
from communities in our own land who suffer poverty, dispossession, discrimination.
-
- And all of this will be done at the command of men who
have never themselves faced combat or fought a war, who rob our schools
and hospitals to pay for their own weapons of mass destruction, who promote
an empire-building agenda of their own that will not provide the security
they claim. For the sheer injustice of our attack on a country that has
not attacked us will provoke such fear and hatred against us that all our
bombs and missiles and cops and spies will not be able to keep us safe.
-
- The media and the politicians tell us this war is inevitable,
that we can't stop it, that our protests and petitions and pleas make no
difference. They murmur a constant incantation of our powerlessness, lulling
us into a nightmare sleep.
-
- But we can still wake up. We can choose to walk out
of the nightmare, and dream a different dream.
-
- All it takes is for each one of us who cherishes the
lives of children to refuse to be silent, to say no to war, to say yes
to peace.
-
- And to ask ourselves, how have we abandoned our country,
our fate, into the hands of callous men who have no compunction about wasting
lives? What spell has been cast that fogs our eyes and binds our hands?
What lies have we believed? What power have we let slip away?
-
- Replace the nightmare with this dream: that in the moment
when one world power has amassed the unchallenged military might to make
its bid for global empire, its own people rise up and say, "No. That
is not what we want to be. We don't want to rule the world over the broken
bodies of children. We don't want blood on our hands. We want children
who are sick to have the best possible care, in Iraq and in our own country.
We want schools and jobs and parks and hospitals and food for the hungry.
We want to join hands with the people of the world, and strengthen the
institutions that are slowly and painfully learning to solve conflicts
without bloodshed, and teaching us to respect our differences. We know
that peace must be built on justice, and we want peace."
-
- Dream that we wake up, stand up, speak out, not in the
thousands but the millions, joining with millions around the world. Dream
that soldiers refuse their orders, dockworkers refuse to load ships, secretaries
shut off their computers, workers close their factories, and even politicians
find the courage to stand for what is right.
-
- And make the dream real. If you have spoken out before,
now is the time to speak again, to make another phone call, write another
letter, stand in another vigil. If you have marched before, march again
and this time bring more of your friends and neighbors. If you haven't
marched, if you have been immersed in the demands of your own life, if
you feel that your small voice makes no difference, now is the time to
speak anyway, to interrupt your ordinary pursuits, to become the one small
drop that just might turn the tide.
-
- If you can get to New York or San Francisco on the weekend
of February 15-16 for the big marches and rallies, come--because the numbers
are vitally important.
-
- If you can't, there will be marches and rallies and vigils
to join all across the country. Find one, or call one of your own.
-
- Be public. Be visible. Be the loud, uncomfortable conscience
that has disappeared from the halls of power.
-
- And believe that truth is stronger than lies, love trumps
fear, and no cabal of power can contain the multitudes when we awaken and
choose life.
-
- Starhawk
-
- The New York March and Rally is on February 15, in soldarity
with marches in capitols all over the world, and is sponsored by United
for Peace and Justice.
-
- The San Francisco March and Rally begins at Justin Hermann
Plaza, at 11 AM, and marches to the Federal Building. To join with the
Code Pink women's cluster and the Pagan Cluster, meet us at 10 AM at Montgomery
and Market St.
-
- For details and a list of planned actions around the
country, check www.unitedforpeace.org.
-
- Starhawk is the author of Webs of Power: Notes from the
Global Uprising and eight other books on activism and earth-based and feminist
spirituality. Her website is www.starhawk.org.
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