This picture is from a 1967 anti-war demonstration at the Pentagon. Peaceworks Director, Mark Haim, was at the Pentagon and he shares these thoughts on war.
Pondering
During
the Vietnam War I pondered.
How could so many deny reality?
Deny
reality,
Deny the crimes our nation was engaged in.
Crimes
during that war and so many more,
Ever since.
So many more.
Ever since.
Nixon won 49 of the 50 states.
McGovern was
for peace,
That must mean that he was weak.
Hard, not soft.
That's Nixon, Dick Nixon.
Who can chronicle the wars,
When
there are so many?
So many wars,
More than we can count.
Hot
wars.
Cold wars.
Major wars,
Low-intensity wars,
Covert
wars,
Proxy wars,
Civil wars,
Uncivil wars.
Most all
wars are uncivil.
How can anyone be civil as they blow to bits
fellow human beings?
Watching the genocide go down is a hard
pill to swallow.
Gaza, Palestine, Lebanon, Ukraine, Sudan,
Burma
The beat goes on,
The beat goes on.
I accidentally
typed the "beast goes on.
"Accidentally?" Hmm
The
beat goes on and some beasts keep making ever more sophisticated
devices of death and destruction.
Devices of death and
destruction.
More sophisticated devices
Expensive devices,
In
every sense of the word.
Expensive devices,
Devices capable of
wholesale slaughter.
Blinders on,
See no evil.
Hear no
evil,
Speak no evil.
Deny, while merchants of mass death
laugh,
Laugh all the way to the bank.
It's more than 50
years now, and still I ponder.
Ponder what allows such deadly
denial.
Ponder what it will take to wake the sleeping,
Ponder
why the beat goes on.
Ponder why the bombs keep falling,
Ponder
why we pay hundreds of billions for new nukes.
Nuclear warheads,
new and improved.
New missiles too,
Can we hit within ten
feet of our targets?
Can we make the rubble bounce?
Can we
continue to avert our gaze?
Can we deny?
Can we deflect?
Can
we do nothing while children are murdered?
Wholesale
murder,
Murder day and night.
Murder in the refugee
camps.
Murder on the hospital grounds.
Murder in the school
yards.
Murder here,
Murder there,
Murder, it seems,
everywhere.
I still ponder perspective.
From childhood
war, and those who make war, are glorified.
Glorified war,
glorified warriors, we celebrate them.
We glorify
Our
heroes,
The bravest and the best,
Selfless servants of the
common good,
Protectors of our nation.
Those celebrating,
those celebrated,
Do they ask questions?
They must, right?
Why
were these lives lost?
What has endless war brought us?
What
has it cost us?
How much longer will their flag-pledging
persist?
How much longer will tens of millions of us believe the
lies?
Embrace nationalism.
How much longer before we know
that "us verses them" is a scam?
Nationalism is a
con.
Shouldn't we all know this?
Shouldn't we not be afraid to
say "scam?"
Isn't self-censorship just a bite?
Many
'fraid of losing their jobs?
Millions are in denial.
Millions
more take the course of least resistance.
Don't make waves.
Keep
your head down.
There's a death count nearly every morning on
Democracy Now!
Can
we live with this?
Will we get up and do something to end the
genocide?
Are we looking the other way?
Perhaps, our inner
voice, recognizes the injustice.
Speak out inner voice!
In
our heart of hearts we all know that the death and destruction must
stop.
The death and destruction must stop.
Must stop!
How
can we even begin to know the deep, abiding pain that accompanies
war.
The deep, abiding pain that accompanies war
Deep, abiding
pain.
So very much pain,
Yet many hide from its reality.
I
ponder some more.
I ponder a flower,
A flower amid the death
and destruction.
It grows misshapen and stunted,
Amid the
rubble of war.
Can you please bring me a flower?
Thank you,
but I need one flower for each,
For each life cut short,
So
many gone, washed away,
In the flower of their youth.
So
many blown away,
So many lost, so soon.
How many flowers will
it take?
I ponder this.
I ponder.
