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A Letter Written in Anger and in Sadness
Micah 4: 3-4 reads: And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong
nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their
spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his
vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid; for the mouth of
the Lord of Hosts has spoken it.
Almost three thousand years later, not only are these
promises
unfulfilled, but humanity is moving further and further from that promise. The
last century--the 20th Century--has to be the bloodiest, the most cruel, the
most destructive in the history of the world. We spent that century killing over
100 million of our fellow human beings in war casualties, many more millions in
death camps, and ethnic cleansing in Germany, Russia, Kosovo, Rwanda, the Congo,
Viet Nam, Cambodia, Indonesia, and other places in the world. We spent the
century destroying art and architectural treasures. And the immediate threat is
that we will continue that course into the 21st.
The second promise of Micah steadily recedes as poor
nations become more desperate, while wealth and power accumulate in the hands of
fewer and fewer. It is this injustice more than anything else that is the root
of terrorism.
One of the much used and little followed sayings today is, "Thinking
outside of the box." In other words, let's try something different. A
recent UN study has concluded that thirteen billion dollars would feed every
hungry person in the world including our own in America. On the other hand,
Americans and Europeans spend seventeen billion dollars a year on pet food. By
all means let us feed our pets; but, what would happen if the U.S., instead of
spending the additional 40 billion Bush has requested on top of the already 360
billion dollar defense budget, were to spend that money getting fresh water,
sanitation systems, food, better health care, and education to the destitute
nations of the world? Money so used would go far in drying up the roots of
terrorism.
Here are some figures that should make this wealthy nation ashamed.
The U.S. spends only one one-thousandth of its GNP for international assistance,
while the average European country gives four times as much. For every dollar
America gives, Norway gives seventeen. The little country of Denmark gives $339
dollars per person per year for international assistance. Most of what we call
foreign aid goes in the form of military hardware, to curry favor with despots,
and to buy military bases in foreign lands.
Thinking outside of the box: What would happen if the US were to use
its economic clout to see that workers in foreign countries made a living
wage--and while we are at it raise our own minimum wage? The unconscionable
conditions under which many of our everyday products are produced in third world
countries foster the fanatics who wish to destroy the system. The world will
always produce fanatics, as we have ours in various cult leaders, organizations,
and government positions, and as the world produces its Hitlers, bin Ladens,
Taliban, and Jihad leaders. However fanatics need soldiers willing to serve and
die. A young person who can look forward to sitting under his own vine and fig
tree and have no fear is a poor candidate for strapping explosives around his
waist or committing suicide by flying a plane into a building.
There are a few thinking outside of the box. A number of people who
lost loved ones in the destruction of the World Trade Center recently held a
peace vigil with Iraqi women who lost loved ones in the 1991 bombing of a bomb
shelter. Over 400 adults and 53 children died. We called it "collateral damage."
The "smart bombs" that destroyed the shelter thought it was a command center.
Collateral damage equals bloody fragments of children lying about. Isn't it
Hell, and I mean Hell, when we feel justified in killing other mothers' babies
in the mistaken notion that that will somehow protect our own. They also are
God's children who only long to sit unafraid under their own vine and fig tree.
To this day most people regard Operation Desert Storm as remarkably
clean. Officially, the U.S. military listed only 79 American soldiers killed,
plus 59 member of allied forces. However, and I repeat verbatim a paragraph as I
found it: "A subsequent demographic study by the U.S. Census Bureau conclude
that Iraq probably suffered 145,000 dead--40,000 military and 5,000 civilian
deaths during the war and 100,000 postwar deaths because of violence and health
conditions. The war also produced more that 5 million refugees. Subsequent
sanctions were estimated to have killed more than half a million children
according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and other international
bodies."
A UN estimate expects that there could be as many as 500,000 civilian
casualties--collateral damage--when we start bombing Iraq. One of the reasons
given for overthrowing Saddam Hussein is to stop him from killing his own
people. We can do it better. It will be another glorious victory. My
father served in France during WWI; I served in the Pacific during WWII; a
younger brother served during the Korean War; my oldest son got into
the service at the tail end of Viet Nam and spent four years building military
bases for the next war in Japan, Guam, and Diego Garcia; his son, but for a knee
injury sustained in training, would now be hunkered down in Kuwait ready to
continue the carnage.
Is this to be the fate and destiny of one generation after the other
until, with our ingenuity in inventing ever more efficient ways of killing each
other with germs, chemicals, and bombs, we succeed in destroying each other
totally?
When will we allow every man and woman to sit under their own vine and
fig tree and not be afraid? When Will We Ever Learn? When Will We Ever Learn?
Edwin Pedersen
815 7th Street South
Luck, Wisconsin
Ph. 472 2795
espdmp@hotmail.com
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