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WHY SO MUCH CONFLICT?
BY RICHARD JOHNSON
What is at the source of human conflict? Is it
discord, disconnect, divisiveness, misunderstanding,
plain old human pride? What is the source of these
conditions we all seem to experience in varying degrees?
Is it the bad ego (is there a good ego)? Is it basic human
insecurity? Is it unbridled selfishness and insensitivity to
our fellow humans?
What is at the core of human conflict? Maybe it’s
a lack of skillful communication skills, or sheer laziness
and lack of commitment to sufficient quality communica
tion among ourselves do we even care enough?
Maybe it’s generally a lack of collective personal
development, an inability to understand and know our
essential selves, our divine selves, and therefor humans
not relating well to themselves, let alone to others.
Are we consistently failing to ask productive and
constructive questions of one another? Do we get caught
up in human dynamics of “right wrong good bad” and
become unable to get out of those modes, and think and
act outside the horribly destructive box we put ourselves
into?
So, are we stupid? Maybe we just get what we
deserve
How do we transcend our collective propensity
to human conflict? How do we effectively challenge this
notion of war as part of the human condition?
What if we took some of the Pentagon budget
and applied ourselves and our resources to developing
the collective 'human kind’ on a grander scale than has
ever been envisioned? Rather than dreaming up every
conceivable way of degrading and destroying it. What
would our enemy base look like if we imagined and
worked harder for a world more in these terms?
What would it be like if this country had a Presi
dent thinking and talking these thoughts and supporting
deeds and action of true human values?
Without the conversation Richard Johnson ardently asks
for us to engage in, the future is wan and bleak indeed. Perhaps
a start might be to teach everyone o f us the principles o f debate
and argument so that we do not feel so threatened by diverse
opinions and ideas and strike out wrathfully against them. After
all, a nation that claims to prize open discussion ought to know
how to do it. Richard’s concerns are local as well as universal;
he lives in Astoria ~MPMc
WINTER SOLDIERS
I didn’t serve with John Kerry in Vietnam, but I was
with him when Vietnam Veterans Against the War hurled their
war medals at Congress in Washington, D.C. in the spring of
1971 He spoke to the Senate about why Vietnam veterans
from all over the United States were in Washington to oppose
the war while I said similar things to the House of Represent
atives. He had been a Navy officer, I was a USMC sergeant,
but the W A W traversed military rank and thousands of the
war’s veterans hoped the American people would heed our
protest because nobody knows about a war better than those
who have been in it.
In my opinion, John Kerry, three times wounded and
holder of the Silver Star, demonstrated the same courage and
respect for American values when he acted against the war that
he had at war Now that he just might be the next President of
the United States, his political adversaries are hinting he was
a traitor for protesting against Vietnam; a quickly discredited
photograph circulating all over the country pairs him with the
rightwing's favorite apostate pinup “Hanoi" Jane Fonda in the
same type of odious smear campaign George Bush Sr.
fabricated with the black felon Willie Horton in 1988.
It might be remembered that the nation’s original
patriots were traitors (and, heaven forbid, revolutionaries!);
our first President, the “Father of Our Country," was the greatest
traitor of them all. Today s 'Sunshine Patriots' act as if they have
forgotten our history In particular, those who are impugning
Kerry are quite likely the same people who call foul when
George Bush Jr.’s dereliction of military duty during Vietnam is
made a campaign issue — yet he boasts he is the nation's “War
President," which makes his military service a fair inquiry. (Bush
claims he supported the Vietnam war but was apparently willing
to let others fight it.) By implication, not only Kerry but all who
dissented against Vietnam — especially we who are its veterans
(as well as Jane Fonda) — are traitors, an insinuation conferred
upon present-day dissenters to the Iraq War and to Bush
administration policies in general
The issues about Vietnam and Iraq are in many respects
similar in both wars the nation was committed to attacking
another country by deliberate deceptions by leaders callous to
everything but their own agendas. It is the same argument now
as it was then: Do we continue to send American troops
to kill and die for questionable purposes or do we best support
them by ceasing fire and bringing them back home alive?
We in the W A W called ourselves 'Winter Soldiers’ (in
contrast to Sunshine Patriots) because we bitterly opposed the
war we fought in and defied the omnipotence of the Presidency
and the Pentagon we had previously served
Bush wants everybody to think he’s the Sword of God
and that any dissent is unpatriotic heresy. John Kerry disagrees.
So do I Jane Fonda probably does too. Perhaps that makes us
traitors November might reveal that a majority of Americans
are
-Michael McCusker
SHADOWY GUY
BY ROBERT BRAKE
I fondly remember that great radio show The Shadow
broadcast from 1937-1954 The “Shadow” was Lamont Cranston,
who could cloud men’s minds so that they couldn’t see him —
and solve crimes in the process. The only way to detect the
Shadow's presence was to shine a light on him so that he
became visible.
I’d like to shine some light on a present-day Shadow
among us, the Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney.
The difference is that Cheney doesn't solve crimes; he seems to
hide, inspire, or commit them.
I’m astonished at our shadowy Vice President’s history
— especially as Bush Sr.’s Secretary of Defense and Halliburton
CEO. Recently accused of bilking the U S. government for
reconstruction projects in Iraq, Halliburton denied that former
CEO Cheney had anything to do with it. Right.
This man has always seemed shadowy. As Chief of
Staff for President Gerald Ford, Cheney earned the nickname,
“Backseat."
Later, after he stepped down as GHWB’s Secretary of
Defense, he became the Halliburton CEO, earning a $36 million
salary in 2000, while running for Vice President. (His current
“deferred salary" is only $150,000 a year.)
Between 1995 and 2000, CEO Cheney helped increase
government contracts issued to Halliburton by a whopping 91%.
Revolving door?
Then there’s that strange Energy Plan fiasco.
Immediately after the disputed 2000 election, Cheney
conducted secret meetings with Halliburton, Enron’s Ken Lay,
and his oil, gas and nuclear pals to discuss a national energy
plan. Problem was —Cheney resisted GAO attempts to discover
who attended the meeting and when they met.
Corporate-friendly Cheney refused to turn over 13,500
pages of energy plans developed principally by his energy pals.
Probably a national security issue.
Immediately after 9/11, Cheney retreated to an
extremely low profile, appearing on CNN on rare occasions to
deny wrongdoing. Cheney said he preferred a “secure location"
— safe from terrorists or truth-seekers.
When Cheney did resurface he used his basso pretendo
profundo voice — like the voice of a dean of boys at a strict
private school. Cheney speaks sparsely in a low hypnotic mono
tone, with his lower jaw tilted to the side in a self-assured, “I only
talk out of one side of my mouth” kind of way.
Listeners at the tables of power have no real choice but
to listen. Cheney’s the one who must be obeyed. Cheney’s dry
Wyoming voice has the same effect as a high-pitched whistle on
a dog.
If the Pentagon is largely responsible for mishandling
the occupation in Iraq, it's Cheney’s voice that is responsible
for the paranoid vision — the with-us-or-against-us biceps flex
against the world — that got us into this long Iraq slog.
Cheney’s clandestine world is a Bizarro world where
no doubts exist. Cheney indulges in extremes of judgment,
over-pessimistic about our ability to contain Saddam Hussein
and over-optimistic about the gratitude he claimed we would
encounter as "liberators” in Iraq.
In Cheneyworld, the invasion of Iraq made the world a
“safer” place, WMD are still concealed in Iraqi basements, every
Iraqi insurgent is a card-carrying member of Al Qaida, and the
increase in attacks on Americans reflects the guerrillas' desper
ation, not their strengths.
Sadly, President Bush seems seduced by the siren call
of that deep Cheney voice and lugubrious Cheney worldview.
The President leaves himself open to manipulation by Cheney
because, by his own admission, Bush doesn’t read the news
papers and relies on his inner circle to filter information to him.
Dangerous — since Cheney sees the world as a dangerous
place, war as mankind’s natural state, and enemies lurking
everywhere.
Yes, this Shadow does have the power to cloud men’s
minds so they cannot see him. But if we shine the light on him,
this Shadow becomes visible.
Remember those famous opening lines of The Shadow
program? “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The
Shadow knows." But does Cheney know?
Cheney also resembles another famous character — the
Wizard of Oz. There he is, hiding behind curtains of secrecy,
issuing that scary, threatening voice.
Near the end of The Wizard o f Oz, the Wizard agrees to
help Dorothy return to Kansas — but on one condition. He says
to her: “You have no right to expect me to send you back to
Kansas unless you do something for me in return. In this country
(Emerald City) everyone must pay for everything he gets. Help
me and I will help you."
Sound like Cheney? Let’s all “shine some light" on
Cheney's pals in Washington.
Robert Brake lives in Ocean Park, Washington. He
writes a column regularly for the Chinook Observer, ‘Ear To The
Ground.’ He sent this example, which was published January 21.
I think Cheney and all those Washington, D.C. spooky guys in
suits are the real WMD," he wrote.
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