Coastline Pilot

April 25, 2003

 

Chasing the Muse

By Catharine Cooper

 

What amazing creatures we humans are.  Bright eyes filled with the power of colored sight, bodies that continually challenge and test their physical limits, and minds that absorb and expand knowledge with the broad capacity to create.  We are gifted beyond our ability to see ourselves.  Yet, millenniums have passed since first we stood erect, and still, we have not mastered the social or cultural skills, which would allow us to live in peace. 

 

Our diversity is our undoing.  We do not walk with the same gait or even share a common language (save mathematics, and it is not readily spoken).   How can we expect to understand one another, when belief systems, imparted to us from birth, vary so widely?  Can the Christian really embrace the Muslim?  Can the Jews and the Christians reconcile the Testaments?  Can a Shiite understand a Buddhist? Can the one path actually hold the many?

 

We are trained to hold our own beliefs as correct and righteous.  It is what we stand for.  We impart to children our moral and ethical standards.   We are grown in communities and nations with shared common values.  These values give us strength, but who is to say they are better than our neighbors?

 

I am a citizen of the most powerful country on this planet, one who has now proven to the world that it has the biggest and baddest ‘stick.’ If the rest of the world doesn’t like the way Americans play, too bad.   We have decided that our way of life is the best, and we have the military might to make everyone step aside.

 

Who really, should I be afraid of?  Those who don’t agree? The French?  The Germans? The Russians?  The poor Iraqi’s jammed in the streets without a functioning water distribution system?  Or is it my own country, who without hesitation, turned against the world and invaded another country?

 

I have been told I am ‘brave’ for speaking out.  Brave for speaking out?  Because?  That the men in the dark car might come to my door and take me away?  Because you might question my Americanism?    Because you might not like me anymore for holding a different point of view? 

 

I do not support the invasion of Iraq. American military do not belong in the middle of the Middle East.   I do not believe this incursion will result in an end in terrorism, anymore than all our billions of dollars have resulted in our winning the war on drugs.   That does not mean that I don’t believe in America, or that I wish ill to the brave young men and women who find themselves sent to fight.

 

Heck, I’m just jealous.  I want to be Bechtel.  I want a contract worth $450 million and counting.  I want a sure thing.  A private no-competition contract to rebuild a country that my country has guaranteed to destroy.  Sweet.  Couldn’t we have gotten rid of the dictator another way and spent my tax dollars at home?

 

Of course, I am thrilled at the sight of Iraqi citizens toppling the statues of their hated oppressor.  Who could possibly not celebrate their potential freedom?  But that does not mean that the means justify the end, and in truth, the end is far from sight.  We expect a citizenry, who have lived for over 20 years under a dictator, to suddenly step up and know how to govern themselves.  We expect them to open their arms to democracy and know how to pick leaders that will support their desires (as long as their desires embrace American values). 

 

There is talk in the press, about how each war has to have a ‘story,’ one which the world can embrace and feel good about.  The promotional kit for this war began to ‘free the world of weapons of mass destruction,’ (not popular, and not easy when the those weapons remain undiscovered), then shifted to a campaign to ‘liberate Iraq.’  Who can’t like that story?

 

People have written to me asking me what to do.  The most important thing is to stay conscious and not be swayed by the emotional tide.  Utilized your rational and intellectual skills.  Write your elected officials.  Continually let them know what you are thinking.   It’s utilizing that guaranteed freedom of speech.  If you do not speak out, they have every right to believe you agree with the common tide.

 

Catharine Cooper can be reached at ccooper@cooperdesign.net, or 714 296 5250.