By “What was it like to live during the war?”
When I was growing up, I used to ask my grandparents that question all the time. All four of my grandparents were young children when World War I started; they were young parents at the beginning of World War II. As a child, I just couldn’t imagine how people could live during those times. I couldn’t picture what life must have been like. Were they allowed to laugh or smile, when there was so much destruction and suffering? Did they go to parties? Did everyone talk about the war, all the time? How did they live?
Of course, we all know now what it’s like to live during a long war in the 21st century. It can be so difficult to open your heart to the suffering in the world today, and so easy to settle in to the routine of our day-to-day existence. Each day we wake up, rush to work, get together with friends, get caught in traffic, get caught in office politics, get caught in emails… and each day so many time zones away, another family is terrorized at gunpoint, another young soldier is killed, a home is destroyed, a child is killed while her sister is raped. And if you live in America, it’s being done in your name.
Nearly a dozen of us at Rainforest Action Network are joining Code Pink and thousands of others around the world who are fasting to end the war in Iraq and to bring our troops home now. We believe deeply in nonviolence, and have the highest respect for Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and others who used the weapon of love to make the world a better place.
For what purpose have we been ruining the lives of so many American and Iraqi families? It’s time to bring the troops home. Fast.
Michael Brune
Executive Director
Rainforest Action Network