My fellow Generation X-Y-and Z-er’s,
The state of our union is dire. Roughly four years ago tonight
President Bush stood before the U.S. Congress, America, and the
world and made a statement that would precede four years of deadly
battle, at a time when Americans were still reeling from September 11th.
“The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”[2]
How easily many fell in line with these words, how easy it was to look
the other way, leaving this President to march thousands of young men
and women into battle. Four years later we know the truth.
There were
no WMD’s. But since the 2003 US invasion more than 655,000 Iraqi
civilians have been killed, countless injured. Over 3,000 US soldiers
have been killed and over 20,000 have been injured.
As this
disastrous war rages on thousands of miles away, four years later, most
of us have had our belief in the corruption of our government cemented
and reaffirmed. War is ugly and wrong. We all know that. But what are
we supposed to do about it? Its all just too depressing. These are
sentiments echoed by young people around me everyday. As we shrug our
shoulders and turn up the volumes of our ipods, young mothers are
anguished over losing their sons, fathers cry fruitless furious tears
for daughters lost, while sisters, brothers, grandmothers and
grandfathers are being blown up in greater numbers every single day.
There is a growing attitude of “sorry not my problem”, “there’s nothing I can do” and “every man for
himself” among young people. But when I hear these sentiments I
can’ t help but wonder if the skyrocketing rate of young people
suffering from depression, anxiety, and drug abuse has anything to do
with the fact when you do not have the capacity to care for any but
yourself, it also means deep down inside that you do not believe that
anyone cares for you?
If we do not stand, with humanity, on
the side of humanity, if we truly adopt this attitude of apathy towards
one another, at the sake of gaining the whole world, we will have lost
our souls. If we accept our powerlessness in the face of this
situation, what other kinds of horrors will we learn to accept?
The state of our union, with each other with the world, is heavily
contingent on each and every one of us. Will we turn the other way, or
will we refuse to allow torture, war crimes and crimes against humanity
be carried out in our names with our tax dollars? If we accept this as
part of life, what are we really saying? We are saying that in the
larger perspective money and material things outweigh people’s lives,
that we choose television, mtv and ridiculous celebrity gossip over the
things that are meaningful, the things that resonate in our hearts and
in our souls…Justice, equality, compassion. These are all concepts
that need to be translated into action in order to remain real.
Not only do we need to demand this war must end, but also that the
people who work for us–our civil servants–THE GOVERNMENT, start
reflecting the fact that WE DO NOT BELIEVE ANYONE IS ABOVE THE LAW. War
crimes are war crimes. If we do not hold President Bush responsible,
the way the Vietnam
generation failed to hold Nixon reponsible, it will have disastrous
repurcussions that will reverberate throughout America and the world.
It’s all of our choices, and there is no time to lose. The state of the world is at stake.
Who’s with me?
Anastasia Gomes
World Can’t Wait–Drive out the Bush Regime
Worldcantwait.org