SECTION TWELVE

sm
COLUMN SEVENTY-SIX, OCTOBER 1, 2002
(Copyright © 2002 The Blacklisted Journalist)

UNSOUNDED ALARMS
A TIME FOR PEACE

What new words can I write about our world that would be more eloquent or insightful than those that have already been written these last twelve months, following an event which left three thousand beds empty?

I didn't personally know anyone who died in the Twin Towers, the Pentagon or that field in Pennsylvania. However, I do know that the subsiding shock has been replaced by dark overwhelming grief.  Deep wounds are now filled with the ache of loss.  I feel for the wife who can't snuggle next to the warmth of her husband on a cool autumn night, or the little girl with a tummy ache who, this morning or any morning, will never get the love she needs from her mommy.

Here in sunny Los Angeles, I look at my son and listen to his questions.  I have no answers.  I gaze into his eyes and try to make his world seem safe, since that is what the experts instruct me to do.  But I know he is worried, just as I am worried.  I want to apologize for the ugliness of humankind.

In the last hundred years, humankind has come close to destroying this earthly paradise. The planet would fare better without our species.  We have dominated our world like bullies. We have dominated each other.

My eight-year-old tells me about bullies in his playground at school.  They were around when I was younger too.  The bully begins his oppression by giving "the look" which instills fear in others.  He thrives on his reputation.  Where did he learn this behavior?  When we tolerate his behavior, we are enabling him.  When a teacher reacts adversely to a child’s courage in reporting a bully’s injustice, calling him a tattletale, she is further enabling the bully.   But the play yard is a metaphor for the world. A bully loves his label, and so does America, with its self-proclaimed “role” as the world's superpower.

The playground grows in size from elementary school to junior high, and bigger still in high school.  The bully adapts to meet his new environment. "The look" is no longer sufficient and is replaced by other acts of oppression. The bully robs kids of lunch money, beats them up, humiliates them. The bully is a self-proclaimed tough guy, sometimes even a tough girl.

I remember those girls who pulled my hair after gym class when I missed a pass during a volleyball game. I still remember the fear and oppression, even in the supervised safety of a school playground.

But fear and oppression are answered with righteous indignation that takes the innocence from children's eyes and fills them with hatred.  Sometimes they use their allowance to build bombs in their suburban garages.  With automatic weapons, these oppressed kids charge through their schools, shooting anyone who may have given them that "look" during the past eight, nine or ten years.  It was that kind of rage that caused the war zone of Columbine.  The same rage from oppression breeds international terrorists who want to point their weapons at a self-proclaimed bully, the U.S.

Alarms have stopped ringing beside those three thousand empty beds.  But let the rest of us hear those unsounded alarms as wake-up calls. It's time for self-examination.  It's time for us to take responsibility for our country's acts of global oppression.  It's time to put a stop to the bullies in both the playground and the world.  It's time for peace.  ##

CLICK HERE TO GET TO INDEX OF COLUMN SEVENTY-SIX

CLICK HERE TO GET TO INDEX OF COLUMNS

The Blacklisted Journalist can be contacted at P.O.Box 964, Elizabeth, NJ 07208-0964
The Blacklisted Journalist's E-Mail Address:
blackj@bigmagic.com
  

THE BLACKLISTED JOURNALIST IS A SERVICE MARK OF AL ARONOWITZ