25 September 2005
True patriotism reawakens in America
It was heartening to learn that so many decent Americans found the courage to voice their dissent over what the Bush regime has done to their beloved country. As a Washington Post article reported,
"Tens of thousands of people packed downtown Washington yesterday and marched past the White House in the largest show of antiwar sentiment in the nation's capital since the conflict in Iraq began...
...Signs, T-shirts, slogans and speeches outlined the cost of the Iraq conflict in human as well as economic terms. They memorialized dead U.S. troops and Iraqis, and contrasted the price of war with the price of recovery for areas battered by hurricanes Katrina and Rita."
Ordinary people, from as far away as Ohio, travelled to Washington DC to be part of this remarkable reawakening. For some, their heartfelt sentiment was sparked in part by the fallout from Hurricane Katrina.
"Leslie Darling, 60, came from Cleveland with four friends and said it was her first antiwar protest. She said she was moved by what happened after Hurricane Katrina.
'It made clear that while we spend all this money trying to impose our will on other countries, here at home in our own country, we can't take care of each other,' she said."
It appears past and recent war veterans have also found their voices. A recent Iraq veteran who served two tours of duty also joined the rally.
"'I've never done this before, but here I am, in uniform, figuring this is the only way I can shove it to Bush,' said Cookinham, of Newport, R.I., a Persian Gulf War veteran who recently returned from a second tour in Iraq. 'This war makes no sense.'"
The Post's article quoted many protesters saying that they had opposed the war all along and were emboldened by recent polls suggesting a majority of Americans now disapprove of Bush's handling of the war.
One hopes that the dissenters are a growing influence in the country and that these true patriots will sweep the neo-con cancer from the Republican Party and open the way for a return to traditional Republicanism in that party. For the Democrats, one hopes that they too, can resist the urge to adopt more Right wing positions in an effort to regain political ground.
In the end, it matters less whether the next president is Republican or Democrat. It matters more that the next president is a person who doesn't subscribe to the neo-con ideology of making illegal wars the option of first resort. Doing so places decent patriotic citizens in an invidious position.
"'I hear from him about once a month,' said Brenda as her husband gently waved a placard that said, 'Proud of my soldier: Ashamed of this war.'"
"Tens of thousands of people packed downtown Washington yesterday and marched past the White House in the largest show of antiwar sentiment in the nation's capital since the conflict in Iraq began...
...Signs, T-shirts, slogans and speeches outlined the cost of the Iraq conflict in human as well as economic terms. They memorialized dead U.S. troops and Iraqis, and contrasted the price of war with the price of recovery for areas battered by hurricanes Katrina and Rita."
Ordinary people, from as far away as Ohio, travelled to Washington DC to be part of this remarkable reawakening. For some, their heartfelt sentiment was sparked in part by the fallout from Hurricane Katrina.
"Leslie Darling, 60, came from Cleveland with four friends and said it was her first antiwar protest. She said she was moved by what happened after Hurricane Katrina.
'It made clear that while we spend all this money trying to impose our will on other countries, here at home in our own country, we can't take care of each other,' she said."
It appears past and recent war veterans have also found their voices. A recent Iraq veteran who served two tours of duty also joined the rally.
"'I've never done this before, but here I am, in uniform, figuring this is the only way I can shove it to Bush,' said Cookinham, of Newport, R.I., a Persian Gulf War veteran who recently returned from a second tour in Iraq. 'This war makes no sense.'"
The Post's article quoted many protesters saying that they had opposed the war all along and were emboldened by recent polls suggesting a majority of Americans now disapprove of Bush's handling of the war.
One hopes that the dissenters are a growing influence in the country and that these true patriots will sweep the neo-con cancer from the Republican Party and open the way for a return to traditional Republicanism in that party. For the Democrats, one hopes that they too, can resist the urge to adopt more Right wing positions in an effort to regain political ground.
In the end, it matters less whether the next president is Republican or Democrat. It matters more that the next president is a person who doesn't subscribe to the neo-con ideology of making illegal wars the option of first resort. Doing so places decent patriotic citizens in an invidious position.
"'I hear from him about once a month,' said Brenda as her husband gently waved a placard that said, 'Proud of my soldier: Ashamed of this war.'"
