Earth Blues

[H2O Man]

" Oh, say can you see, it's really such a mess
Every inch of earth is a fighting nest
Giant pencil and lipstick tube-shaped things
Continue to rain and cause screaming pain
And the Arctic stains
From silver blue to bloody red ....."
-- Jimi Hendrix; 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)


I started to try to write this on Saturday night. I continued yesterday, right into today's early morning hours. At first, I thought of opening with Bob Marley's song "War," the lyrics coming from a speech that Haile Selassia delivered in October of 1963 at a U.N. Conference on World Peace. This was just weeks after the Organization of African Unity (OAF) was founded in the Ethiopian capital city. Older forum members will remember how this meeting influenced Malcolm X, including his founding of a non-religious organization in the US to advance human rights.

The lyric regarding a willingness to fight "if necessary" presented a stumbling block for me. While I do believe that "violence" can be justified -- and sometimes necessary -- in the context of self-defense -- it generally can only result in a temporary peace.

I was getting ready to head out to a reunion of friends from college when I began hearing the news about the terrible violence in the Middle East. It became a topic of discussion among the twelve of us still alive at the reunion. One of my old friends has, over the decades, gone from being liberal to a rather conservative christian pastor. He viewed these events in the context of his understanding of the books of the bible.

I tend to view it differently. I have a cousin in Ireland, who during "the Troubles" was forced with his family to see his brother executed in their living room. I was in touch with this cousin until about a year ago. He quit drinking about once a day, though I am unaware of him ever going 24 hours without drinking. As a young man, I was in favor of fighting against the foreign forces on the island. Today I understand that in such conflicts, no one wins and eveyone loses.

By the time I got home, the news reports told of things becoming much worse. To quote Robert Burns' poem from 1784, "man's injumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn." And Martin Luther King, Jr., " Violence begets violence; hate begets hate; and toughness begets a greater toughness. It is all a descending spiral, and the end is destruction — for everybody. Along the way of life, someone must have enough sense and morality to cut off the chain of hate."

I do not pretend to know "the answer" in the Middle East, beyond "stop the violence." But how? Nothing has worked well thus far. It is impossible if both sides do not recognize the other's right to exist, as human beings, and to exists as a nation-state. Yet attempts to make that a reality have not been successful. What we are witnessing has a long history.

The scenes being shown on the news are heart-breaking. It is difficult to watch, and is surely causing great pain and suffering for innocent human beings. When families lose a member (or morethan one) to this type of extreme violence, it causes trauma. There are three types of actual trauma: acute, chronic, and complex. These will haunt people through generations.

Even watching the news reports brings about emotional responses. There are many good people in the United States with friends and relatives in that section of the earth. That likely includes here on this forum. So I understand how people feel, and understand and respect that many think more violence will provide protection, however brief or long, from the next round of violence.

It's a tough topic to discuss, including with friends. Older forum members will recall in late 2006, when former president Jimmy Carter published a book on this. While I disagreed with the part where he at least appeared to say oppression can justify terrorism, I thought it was an important book. I also think that Israel has a right to exist, without being attacked.

I do not know a great deal about Gaza. But I read an OP/thread about the percentage of people there support Hamas? One response -- by one of the people I've liked and respected here for many years -- responded that wasn't a valid measure, because about one-half the population were children. I understand that measure as extremely important. My primary concern is for the children of Israel and of Gaza. Thus, I will end with a quote from Albert Camus:

"I share with you the same revulsion from evil. But I do not share your hope, and I continue to struggle against this universe in which children suffer and die."