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Show THE ZEPHYR/ APRIL-MAY 2007 The company took a break. My squad found a cozy shelter in an abandoned enemy dugout. We found a loaf of bread, heavy, tough, dark, welcome change from K and C rations. Someone said, “I don’t want to die.” There was no answer to that. From a letter in the Plattsburgh /Press-Republican. Until Americans understand that war is never winnable we will continue to act as the world’s police force, using our children as fodder for causes that can only be solved through dialogue, understanding and compromise. or grassland, build an opposition that does not shrink from standing up, an opposition that doesn't fear stupid labels like “extremist.” Because that’s where we actually are, on the far edge. The way out is to turn 180 degrees away. We need breathing space. We need ‘happiness in resistance. We need a joyful turn from killing to curing. The earth requires healing of its many wounds. While we're at it we might kick out distorted images of what it is to be a man, of what it is to be a woman. In the immortal words of the song by Florence Reese, “Which side are you on?” Signed, James Lundy, a veteran, Chazy, New York. From the War Between the States, 1861-1865. Some with their entrails torn out and still hanging to them and piled up on the ground besides them and they still alive. Some with their underjaw torn off, and hanging by a fragment of skin to their cheeks and their tongues lolling from their mouth, and they trying to talk .... And then to see all those dead, wounded and dying horses, their heads and tails drooping, and they seeming to be so intelligent as if they comprehended everything. (1) Blount, Jr,/At the Front, 1861-1865/. Anderson Valley Advertiser, July 25, EDITOR’S NOTE: Martin Murie was seriously wounded in Italy in April 1945 and lost the sight in his right eye. He also lost many of his best friends in combat. Sixty years later, heis a passionate and determined advocate for peace. Minaniiaemen The company took a break. My squad found a cozy shelter in an abandoned enemy dugout. "The Realtor who knows what's REALLY going on in Moab!" Someone said, “I don’t want to die.” There was no answer to that. 1., Roy 003. | There never was When I left that last steep ridge .... didn’t make it to the top ... I found our squad’s BAR man terribly wounded. I looked for a medic, found one, started to lead him to the wounded man. “I see where he is,” the medic said, “you go on, take care of yourself, and you won't need that any more.” He was pointing to my M1. Only then did it sink in, I was out of it. ] watched the medic go to my badly bleeding foxhole comrade, then found arock to prop my rifle against, didn’t want it to get it dirty.. I'd carried that damn weapon in the snows of Colorado and the heat of Texas and used it in the mountains of Italy. This is embarrassing, but I have to admit that leaving that rifle was wrenching. Sure, I was happy to be alive, but without a rifle I felt truly bereft. That lasted for maybe ten seconds, a little more than that crazy notion of becoming a snake.. One more strange thing, and then I’m through confessing. It was nearly dark when I regained the ridge from which we had jumped off into that narrow little valley and then up slope. Big trees, probably chestnuts, silhouetted against a darkening sky, like witnesses. They spoke to me. No, of course they didn’t, but they sent.a message. “We have nothing to do with this. It’s a human affair.” I joined two other walking wounded, left my squad, my platoon, good old miserable G Company, _ bad peace. Benjamin Franklin 86th. Now, a witnesss to endless war, I recognize truth when I read of wounded vets from Iraq or Afghanistan wanting desperately to rejoin their units. Here’s what another GI wished he had said when asked to speak about war: We are here today because we survived and we survived for many different reasons. A few of us survived because of skill or bravery, but most of us survived because, through no fault of our own, we were never sent where a bullet or bomb might kill us .... We should be thankful for our good luck but also remember that merely surviving does not make us heroes. (unsigned letter) We also have to realize that walking away from combat does not make any of us instant authorities on world affairs. Also, each war has different sides to it, circumstances ARCHES REALTY . 150 EAST CENTER ST. MOAB. UT 84532 BUS: 435.259.5693 800.634.0770 CELL: 260.9553 judy@moabproperties.com www.moabproperties.com {each office is independently owned and operated) vary a lot, including casualty rate of each outfit. What combat vets have in common is that they return from the dark side of the moon, far, very far, from green pastures where generals write memoirs, where think tanks comment, where reporters report and especially where politicos like Hillary and Obama talk in generalities. One of my heroes was the cartoonist, Bill Mauldin, who was called up by pompous General Patton and told to quit drawing that strip for Stars and Stripes showing Willie and Joe as sloppily uniformed, woebegone sad sacks. Mauldin refused, went on drawing Willie and Joe the way they were, the way we were, ordinary humans caught in war. We loved that strip. Let’s not be bamboozled by Bush’s sneer, “cut and run.” When we say “Bring the THE LOST PEOPLE OF MOUNTAIN VILLAGE Troops Home Now,” that’s shorthand rhetoric too and it means “cut and run,” the intelligent thing to do. Besides, those who desperately wish to cover defeat with “victory” can go ahead and declare victory: Saddam is dead, his Probing a little deeper, we have to ask, “Well cider-in-Chief keeps death busy over there for Oil rate-political-governmental domination. Profit and regime in tatters. then, what keeps us there?” Our Deand Empire. That’s the reality, corpopower, hard to tell which comes first. of the “amenities Pronouncements in the word-war are cover-up propaganda, for home consumption. Do gone berserk world rules realize that war is a system reaching into other systems, such as global warming, extinction of species, injustices all over the world. War is not something you turn on and then off. The whole thing is just too monstrously big and unpredictable for generals and presidents and prime ministers to handle. It has long, very long, consequences. Consider this: In the Philippines the Moro people have carried on guerrilla war, off and on, for generations, from the opening of the twentieth century. Outraged memories of racist slaughter by the U.S. Army at the end of the Spanish-American war. Terrorist pacification. Today the Moros are still at it, fighting back guerrilla style, though we and the Philippean dictator have bestowed a new name on them: Terrorists. Most of the thoughts I’ve been putting down here are “extremist.” Sure, but notice what we're talking about. We're talking about domination by a minuscule fraction of humanity, in our name, a fraction that sets itself up to decide the fates of all others. The word “all,” that’s extremist too, and I mean it, because peoples everywhere are affected by this insane (another extremist word, and I mean that too) all-out shock-and-awe death dealing. I suggest we square off and lock horns with that reality. Well, big surprise, our rulers clearly prefer their contemptuous treatment of lives, and they are using every horse in the barn to convince us to “stay the course.” What's the cost? What, for example, does depleted uranium weaponry do to our troops, and to all of us when uranium dust gets into wind currents that have traversed the globe from time immemorial, indifferent to boundaries between peoples, between states, between the rich magnate’s energy-inefficient mansion and the low-wage neighbor in the next township. The answer stares at us, a granite stare, right up close. . “Thisie ighfilm is‘ not funny.” + Steven Peabody, appeals for Hightower stripes and dirt or sage 9 President Colorado Board of Reai Estate Professionals Si ees Mountalnrimn oe rd ir i Tet in 15 minutes, and with more humor than I’ve been able to accomplish in 15 years.” By BUY THIS DVD!” i js Jim Stiles FROM THE SHEEP MOUNTAIN ALLIANCE All proceeds go to the Sheep Mountain Alliance. Visit www.sheep tainalli org, with an order blank or you can ~ use paypal. The price is a donation of $18.00, plus, $3.00 handling. Telluride is trying to raise money to buy our entrance, the Valley Floor. We were forced to use eminent domain and a Delta jury awarded Neal Blue, CEO of General Atomics his full price, $50MM. All the details are on www.valleyfloor.org. This war thing has no “safe” or meaningful position in “the center,” where bi-partisanship ... same thing, centerism, wavering on the fence ... abound. Jim of Texas reminded us, some time ago, that the center is nothing but yellow - dead armadillos. What can we do? We can get down on the ground, smell the “I've donated ad space for this film because it says more about the insane effects The Judge just granted us an extension to raise the additional 6.6MM we need. Call Valley Floor Preservation Partners. 970-728-8256, for more details. |