I get thinking, does this little email of mine, this nth blog or social media post, my letter to the editor, to my congressperson, governor, mayor, dog catcher... does it matter?
Does it even matter if I go to another protest?
Well, friends, nothing has made me want to KEEP SPEAKING UP more than this recent email from a blog-friend (now in the USA) who was a teenager in Bosnia during their civil war (1992-1995).
I originally met her when I read her old blog Bosnian Girl.
This week she wrote:
If we've got freedoms--of speech, of meeting in public, of petitioning for change--let's use them.
You know what happened in Bosnia. If you don't, you can look here. "A Photographer Looks Back on the Horrors of the Bosnian War. But, oh my god, I can't recommend looking.
Let's not be Bosnia.
Does it even matter if I go to another protest?
Well, friends, nothing has made me want to KEEP SPEAKING UP more than this recent email from a blog-friend (now in the USA) who was a teenager in Bosnia during their civil war (1992-1995).
I originally met her when I read her old blog Bosnian Girl.
This week she wrote:
"I survived one civil war. And I live among the Trump supporters, although I’m not one.
So lately, I keep thinking how the situation here is eerily similar to the situation just before the war started in my country of origin.
There is a difference between here and Bosnia. People here keep on saying their opinion. That difference might save the USA.People in Bosnia kept quiet all the time because we also had unmarked and armed officials who would break into your house during the night and take people away. Such people disappeared, not even corpses were ever found. So people did not dare to speak up, did not dare to say that they do not support the lies of the government.You probably heard on the news what is going on in Portland. Such troops need to be disbanded. Really, a law needs to be made to make such unmarked armed officials illegal. If that becomes the norm, then the USA will slide in the war.
I’m glad that in Portland protests are now stronger than they were, and that there will be an investigation of those mysterious troops."
If we've got freedoms--of speech, of meeting in public, of petitioning for change--let's use them.
You know what happened in Bosnia. If you don't, you can look here. "A Photographer Looks Back on the Horrors of the Bosnian War. But, oh my god, I can't recommend looking.
Let's not be Bosnia.
It is frightening what is happening here and with you and in other places.
ReplyDeleteYou wonder how on earth it all got like this
Step by step, eh? we walk right into it, over and over...
ReplyDeleteBUT... we can do it differently. Or at least we can try.
As Beckett said,
"Try again.
Fail again.
Fail better."
I'm hoping for at least a "fail better."
This, too, has been on my mind recently. I even said, when Eisenhower built the interstate highway system, it was to move troops easily, if needed. I thought of that years and years ago, as a joke. And now it's not.
ReplyDeleteJoanne, it wasn't a joke. A bunch of the money was from the defense budget, and the specs for bridge clearance etc. were made to allow the passage of the military's big vehicles carrying cannons etc.
ReplyDeleteNow that I think about it, the roads were filled with military convoys when I was a kid (late 40s and 50s)--I haven't seen one in years. How do they move around now? (Maybe I'm just on the wrong roads now.)
I saw Portland on my TV news last night, police really bashing into people with their gun butts and punching, punching, punching. I felt sick and had to turn it off. I have a blog friend living there.
ReplyDeleteWe're used to thinking of our country as so stable and progressive -- the light of the world. But light can turn to darkness pretty quickly.
ReplyDeleteJOANNE & Sally: Yes, like the Romans, we Americans know armies need good roads!
ReplyDeleteI started to look up how troops are transported but it was too depressing, and I just couldn't...
Though I was sort of intrigued with what a MASSIVE undertaking "military logistics"are--I read part of an NYT article about moving military equipment (including coffee pots) from Iraq to Afghanistan.
Then felt my spirits sinking into a swamp and gave it up.
RIVER: I'm with you---can't watch too much of the sickening violence. I am moved at the pictures of plucky moms and medievalists standing up to the police/troops though.
I hope that it will inspire change, the way public outrage at photos and film coverage of police attacking peaceful protestors in the Civil Rights era actually pushed change to happen.
STEVE: Yes. I think that too, how fast it changes.
Or does it? I used to think--it's been a while--but I did think, "We're the good guys."
But were we?
Depends on where you were standing, I guess.
Still, I know what you mean--it's shocking to lose the illusion (even if it is just an illusion).
P.S. Sally, I finally just replied to your good and thought-provoking comment a couple days ago on "An Affirming Flame".
ReplyDelete