By RJ Schinner
They didn’t hear you yelling at the TV when Bush talked
about “staying the course” in Iraq.
 Fallujah after an airstrike
An Iraqi child after witnessing their parents killed by US troops at a checkpoint  A survivor of the Haditha massacre whose family was among the 24 people killed by US marines on Nov. 19, 2005
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They can’t see the peace button on your backpack.
They can’t hear your laughter at the latest satire of Bush
on the Colbert Report.
They didn’t hear the phone call to your parents about how
utterly insane it is that government torture is becoming legal (though the NSA
might have been listening in).
They didn’t read the essay you wrote last semester
documenting all of Bush’s lies about the war on Iraq.
They weren’t outside the movie theater when “An
Inconvenient Truth” let out to the sound of outraged conversations.
They won’t see any opposition to the war from you when you
cast your ballot for Democrats arguing that they can be “tougher on
terrorism”.
They can’t hear you counting down the minutes until Bush’s
term is over, and even then they won’t hear your sighs of relief as a new
president continues the same horrors.
They can’t hear your private disgust, your whispered
discontent, or your conversations filled with contempt for Bush and all he
represents.
So how will they hear you?
Your sentiments do matter. But not in and of themselves. If
you ACT on your sentiments, if your disgust goes from private conversations to
determined protest, a whole different dynamic can begin – where people here and
around the world can stop the current disastrous direction and begin to shape
the future of the planet.
The sound of gunshots next door, of bombs destroying
neighborhoods, and of cries at funerals is what presently fills the ears of
people in Iraq.
This deafening destruction is being carried out in our name by our government. We
have a responsibility to make sure people in Iraq and around the world hear
something different – a clear repudiation of the nightmare the Bush regime is
reigning down on them and a commitment to bring it to a halt.
There is a day to get this started. October 5th: will they hear you?