From: Smithhemb at aol.com <Smithhemb>
Date: Fri, 7 Jun 2002 17:47:13 EDT

RE it's easier to be a pacifist when a war is long ago and far away.

My reaction has been just the opposite. Unlike Jeffrey, I didn't grow up in a pacifist tradition, but, to me, pacifism was an immediate/natural/rational but also visceral response to the events of September 11th. It's very easy to explain to people why I think that the War on Terrorism is wrong. It has been harder to answer "What would you have done about Hitler?" questions. In fact, that requires a kind of re?ucation program that I'm currently in the midst of. _Slap Your Sides_ is in the queue, but I've started with non-fiction.

I don't just identify with the Americans who were killed on September 11th. I identify with the Afghan civilians we've killed since. And I'm horrified by (and feel complicit in) the violence my government is unleashing/supporting. The immediacy of all this makes pacifism easier and more imperative.

I think that militarists know that abstraction works to their advantage -- not to the advantage of pacifists. That's why we have phrases like
"collateral damage" and why weapons that work in ways that are horrific to describe are named things like "daisy cutters."

Sue Hemberger Washington, DC
Received on Fri 07 Jun 2002 04:47:13 PM CDT