We can all agree, at least I hope we can, that peace is what we want. Some people will argue that we must all unite, now or never, in uprooting the evil that has scourged this earth with terrorism. Others argue that cheering for war with the attitude resembling a Monday-night football pep rally is a dangerous statement towards humanity; similar to what happened on Sept. 11.
It is dangerous because this attitude has a chilling absence of respect for human life, regardless of race or nationality. Dangerous because we really do not want to see the global impact that cutting edge technology-to-kill will produce, especially when funded by a huge chunk of our taxpayer money.
Although President Bush declares, "that you are either for us, or against us," we still must self-reflect a little if we do not want to be blind to what is going on.
To bring about peace for humanity, we have to have a lot of respect for ourselves. For many of us the U.S. is the most democratic and free country in the world, and this patriotic feeling spreads over us like butter on fresh-baked bread. For many people, especially students, it is hard not to become critical of our government's practices and policies when we are conscious of the reality and history of world relations.
People easily forget that another important act of patriotism is to confront and abolish our own racist, Jim-Crow policies in the U.S., as it is to defend our land. Martin Luther King, CÇsar Ch†vez and countless others that sacrificed themselves to better this country, are shining examples of this patriotic critical thinking and "universal" respect.
Our heroes and their struggles for civil and human rights in this country teach us that if we walk away from our problems then our problems find all of us.
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The Civil Rights movement of the '60s and the Vietnam War revealed the deep wounds of social contradictions and racist undertones inherited in U.S. society, both overseas and in our own backyard.
In our "global quest" to exterminate terrorism from the world, it only makes sense to evaluate the role our government has played. For example, there can be no mystery who trained bin Laden and the Taliban who are apparently living in Afghanistan.
The CIA trained and armed them against the Russian army. We also armed Sadam Hussein, Manuel Noriega, who was on the CIA payroll, and paid for the massacre of more than 30,000 civilians in Nicaragua during the 1980s Contra War.
These highlights are not to be just scorned but to reaffirm that responsibility is an attempt to embrace not only those that live in this country, but all of us who live in this world.
I felt strange when a friend told me how different our experience would be if we were born in another country which experiences these types of horrible attacks on a daily basis.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of countries to go around. This is not something we often think about. We are quick to flex our muscles that we can "bomb Afghanistan back to the Stone Age" without realizing that Afghanistan has already been destroyed over years of warfare against the Russians, and Great Britain before them.
The destruction left more than 500,000 disabled orphans, according to the United Nations.
Do we even know where Afghanistan is on the map?
In our nano-size knowledge of world relations we have to be careful how we label an entire country, culture and religion. We have to be careful not to fall in the vicious trap of the Spanish Inquisition or the New England which hunts.
Finally, do we have the courage to fight for peace not only internationally, but also in our own backyard?
by Maceo Carrillo Martinet
Daily Lobo Columnist
Questions, comments and suggestions can be sent to Maceo Carrillo Martinet at conunco8@unm.edu.
