Letters to the Editor for Dec. 31
Letters to the Editor for Dec. 31
Friday, December 31, 2010 First Published by Daily Gazette, Schenectady, NY
Personalizing the casualties of war in an eye-opening exercise
I have recently been participating in a war healing circle, a project dedicated to working with veterans to heal the wounds of war, cosponsored by the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany and Soldier’s Heart. We have been reading the names of U.S. servicemen and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan in the previous two weeks. As we read the names, the distress and grief have been palpable.
Putting names and ages to the numbers, personalizing statistics with a mention of the soldier’s hometown or his/her military unit, makes them real people — mostly young and now dead. More than anything, sitting quietly [enables us to] feel the loneliness of death. We also think of the dying and dead women, children and men in Iraq and Afghanistan, so many that no one is really counting, and no one truly wants to know. At our last meeting, one veteran spoke up: “We have gotten used to the killing. It has become too easy.”
On Dec. 16, [I was arrested] as I approached the White House fence to willingly chain myself in a veteran-led civil resistance to demand an end to the Middle East wars. Other local activists arrested included Elliot Adams of Sharon Springs, Linda LeTendre of Saratoga Springs and Joe Lombardo from Delmar. I could not help but think about this veteran’s comment along with the comments of Barbara Bush on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on March 18, 2003. “Why should we hear about body bags and deaths?” she asked. “Oh, I mean, it’s not relevant! So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?”
War devours our young. Week after week, the number of deaths grow — some by combat, others by suicide and by homicide. And week after week we read, and will continue to read, the names of the dead to remember and honor. We read their names to cherish their brief lives and to cherish and thank God for our own lives. Standing at the fence, I objected — on moral, legal, and ethical grounds. I object because the wars continue with no end in sight, and because President Obama has failed to implement meaningful change to end them. I object because, in truth, I must and will answer to God. But in the final analysis, I am here because I too have gotten used to the killing. It has become much too easy, and I am dying a cowardly death by not resisting this evil. As life becomes more fully conscious, our responsibilities to nonviolence increase. In this season of peace, I hope all will hear the clarion call of resistance to stop the killing and end the wars now!
John Amidon
Albany
The writer is a member of Veterans For Peace.
