Choosing Peace

It’s difficult to remain in a bubble these days with so many threats of war in places like Iran, the Congo, Iraq….  I wonder if most people feel as I do: Enough with the news already.  Let’s just listen to the radio.  And we can go on and on, with no information, believing that we are all O.K.; it’s only those people in Iraq, Palestine, and other regions like the Congo who suffer.
 
But don’t we all suffer from the plague of war?  And if we allow ourselves to think about what is happening to some of our fellow human beings, don’t we feel like we have to do something?  I do. I want a personal meeting with God and ask Him why there is no intervention.  Where is the earthquake to swallow up the war machine?  Where is the tornado to end the various holocausts being waged against the Palestinians and Iraqis?  I’m sorry, God, but where are you?
 
And then I begin to think that maybe we humans are gods, like those on Mount Olympus wreaking havoc upon the world to declare our superiority over the earth while destroying everything and everyone in our path.  After all, the earth is limited in its supply and in what it can sustain.  Do we really believe we will live forever?  How can we if we continue to waste each other and the planet?
 
Over one million Iraqi civilians have died.  Over three thousand troops have died since the beginning of the war.  That offends me.  That tears me up inside.  Why is it O.K.?  Tell me, who is being liberated?
 
I believe that I can share my planet with others.  I believe that I do not have to hoard everything for myself.  I have enough. 
 
I thought about the war and how it seems to be a war over resources, because nothing else makes sense to me.  It’s O.K. to kill people because we need to maintain authority in that region.  It is no longer a war of liberation; it stopped being that years ago. 
 
I know.  You want me to change the station, right?  O.K., who won on American Idol last night?  I have no clue.  How about on Project Runway, my favorite show?  But now I don’t know because I refuse to be distracted while the indigenous peoples of the earth are suffering en masse in holocaust-type conditions.
 
I refuse to watch my favorite show.  What can I do if God won’t reveal Himself!  What can I do to stop the “madness?”  Nothing!  So like all others who happen to linger too long on the wrong radio station, I will hurry up and change to music I love, to anesthetize myself and shield myself from feeling even a hint of the mass grief of the abused peoples of the world.  I will not allow myself to feel despair.
 
But I can no longer sit with my eyes closed.  I must see what we are doing and the crimes we are committing.  Then I must take action.
 
What can I do?  Plant a garden, ride my bicycle, depend less and less on oil, use recycled goods, write to the President, my congressman, march for peace.  I will not grease that squeaky wheel.  I will ride my loud and squeaky protest against the well-oiled machine of war and outrageous assault against the earth.
 
And I say to gods and goddesses alike… Amen.

By Lisa Trimarchi

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