Coastline Pilot

March 14, 2003

 

Chasing the Muse

By Catharine Cooper

 

 

“Until we find each other, we are alone.” Adrienne Rich

 

Rhetoric fills the corners of every available journalistic tableau. Papers, magazines, websites and the broadcast channels bulge with faces, lips wagging, words pouring, but I can make no sense of them. For every point of view, there is a counter. For every ‘fact’ there is a refutation. It is difficult to ferret reality from propaganda, and the power of the truth is waylaid and buried.

 

The beast among us is wild and on a rampage. The Ivory Coast is besieged by a civil war between three separate factions. In Venezuela, anti-government demonstrations fill the streets with secret police. Palestinians and Israelis lob missiles at one another like children with snowballs – but with deadly results. North Korea claims its nuclear expansion program is for power; our government says it’s for weapons. Nuclear facilities turn up in Iran.

 

I want to know the truth. I want certainty about what is real and what is not, and in the current escalated climate, that seems less and less possible. Secrecy reigns. “Intelligence” cannot be shared without risking the lives of the providers. Behind every position is the struggle for power and control, and truth becomes the poor handmaiden, bent to do the deliverer’s bidding. Sanity hides far in the wings.

 

Will America invade Iraq? This is the only question that merits discussion. It is the question that divides the United Nations Security Council. It is the question that drives peace demonstrations, phone and email campaigns across the globe. The answer could irrevocably mark our foreign policy and our status with trusted allies on foreign and shared shores.

 

Do they or don’t they? This is not a hair commercial but another reality check. Are there chemical and biological weapons stashed in bunkers, in mobile trucks, in neighboring states? Are they ready to use or to sell to be used against Americans? It seems obvious that our government believes this to be true. The UN Security Council concedes that Iraq is not in compliance with the terms of their disarmament, but no one can accurately assess what is in their stockpile or under production.

 

If it is true that weapons of mass destruction are poised to assault our American shores, does that warrant a full frontal attack upon the country of Iraq? Do innocent people have to die because one man, crazed enough to murder and gas his own people – will not relinquish his weapons?

 

World sentiment seems to dictate a more prudent path. What human being could possibly beg for war? No one wins. People, property and social structures are ripped apart. Children die. Mothers and fathers die. Babies die. Laughter and joy die. We’ve proven that to kill a cancer, one does not need to kill the entire body.

 

Across the globe citizens gather together, praying and begging for peaceful solutions. I am haunted by the words of President George Bush, Senior, who in 1991 stated, “We are now in sight of a United Nations that performs as envisioned by its founders.” This was spoken in response to the UN Security Council’s unanimous resolution to use force to remove Iraq from Kuwait. That same Council now seeks to forge another solution. I am afraid our administration does not have the patience and has lost its trust in the Council’s guidance.

 

Is our administration’s position fear based or commerce based? Are we after oil or safety? Is this ultimately a religious war? Who REALLY has the answer?

 

Human beings are frail bodies, built of soft tissue, easily destroyed. We have risen quickly in the evolutionary time scale as the pre-eminent species on this planet, and our legacy must be to protect it and ourselves. Part of our journey is to develop evolved methods of conflict resolution. As children we are taught to dialog, not throw stones. As adults, we must remember those lessons and build upon them. Everything we are and everything we can be is at stake.

 

We have traveled outside our atmosphere and stood men on the moon. We have landed machines on Mars and we know, from that distant vantage point, the uniqueness of our home planet. We have minds that are the best and the brightest and have created technological revolutions of things once thought impossible.

 

It is time to say, President Bush, I do not want to go to war. We have the intelligence at our disposal to be brilliant stewards of life on earth. We can find another solution.

 

 

Catharine Cooper is a local writer, photographer, designer and member of the Laguna Beach Open Space Committee. She can be reached at 949-497-5081 or ccooper@cooperdesign.net.