haiku retrospective cclxxvi

remote control
i can turn off the TV but
not the war

Now that the chickenhawks have ridden roughshod over world opinion and the desires of the U.S. peace community, they want us to stifle our dissent. It was okay to argue against the war before it started, but now we should support our troops by silencing ourselves. To dissent in the midst of a war is to “give aid and comfort to our enemies.”

This reminds me so much of what the Southern gentlemen said to the abolitionists before the Civil War. “You may disagree with slavery, but, as long as slavery is in existence, you must put your consciences on the back burner and help slaveowners retrieve their property.”

Dissent, and even civil disobedience, are not merely the right of citizens in a free society. Dissent and civil disobedience are our responsibility to our society. Crimes of conscience have always stood on the front lines of the struggle for freedom.

For more than 350 years, Quakers have believed that war is morally wrong, against God's plan for humanity, against Jesus' commandments to his followers. We will not stand silent now.

dark nights
stand firm
in the Light

20 March 2003