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When I was a youth minister there was a religious song that was very popular called: “Make a Difference.” Being a ‘soccer mom’ for my grandchildren this week, I have confirmed a lesson that I have been learning how to “make a difference.”
When in early July I pointed out that our Representative Gwen Moore voted for a rule change that that allowed 33 billion more dollars* for the war in Afghanistan, I was criticized by a ‘peace liberal’ that I was ‘bitter’ and did not understand the game playing that goes on in Washington.
This war spending bill, with all the sweeteners and disguises, passed the House of Representatives, despite the fact that all the Republicans and 38 democrats voted against it. The Senate refused to go along with the house manipulations and sent a straight up or down bill back to the House. This time all but 12 Republicans were set to vote for it so ‘peace liberal’ democrats, 102 of them like Representative Moore, were allowed to vote against it. The bill passed, was sent to the president, and more money for the war in Afghanistan, to kill or be killed, goes on.
I felt obliged to tell ‘peace liberal’ friends that Rep. Moore voted against this second bill. One person ‘suggested that everyone call Rep. Moore’s office to “Thank Her for Voting against the bill.” I did not think this was a good idea and said so. For this I was a criticized again and a ‘peace liberal’ organization sent out an email alert that everyone call her office to thank her.
This small experience confirmed something I have learned over and over again but fail to fully act on. With just a few word changes Martin Luther King Jr. said it best many years ago:
“I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the peace liberal. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the peace activist’s great stumbling block in his stride toward peace is not the ‘Tea Partu’ or the ‘Right’, but the peace liberal, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the peace activist to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’ Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.” (See Continue for original quote}
Like Pogo, I say: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” One of my elder friends wrote a note supporting my “no thank you” suggestion. He said:
“I happen to think that you were quite right in advising people not to call Gwen Whatshername for voting the way she did! Some of your protest folks have got to realize that politeness is out of the question here. This is serious business…. very serious, involving the lives of troops and innocent folk who just happen to be in the way. Put aside the niceties of parlor etiquette (did I spell it right?) and think of the seriousness of the situation. Damn serious!!”
Sorry ‘peace liberals’, individuals and organizations, friends and critics, for saying all this about you. When it comes to a mentality of “kill or be killed” that pervades our country I have no choice but to say, in the words of Martin Luther King Jr. “Never again will I be silent on an issue that is destroying the soul of our nation…”
War is serious business and war is hell. Just like the fires of hell we cannot stop war with a sprinkling can of water. We need a mighty hose of water and even then we might not stop wars, but we will at least go down fighting and trying to make a difference.
Here is the full quote from Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
“I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’ Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
* Some reports say the bill was for $37 billion, not 33 billion, in war spending for Afghanistan. But what is a few billion when you are talking war spending?
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