What's astounding is that so many insist this kind of madness is practical, is realistic"..and yet would look at VFP's bottom line, "To abolish war as an instrument of national policy" and say "now, that's crazy!"
How can this be? Well, think how much we pay this system every year to produce this culture of death, and then define it as normal, in fact as the only way to live unless we want to freeze to death in the dark. There is one good thing about all this -- when we realize what a constant, herculean effort the system must make to construct such a massive delusion and maintain it in the face of everything rational, we can sense how fragile the empire really is. If you doubt that, recall the statues of Lenin toppling all across Russia in 1990, when just two years before such a thing was unthinkable.
And so we've come full circle, back to Strother Martin's demand to get your mind right! We can either do that, or stand dumbfounded on the side of the road, waiting in awe for the Imperial Oz to give us direction.
Well, we're here to tell the nation that Veterans For Peace knows what we see today is not the only way forward. War is not an unavoidable absolutes. Human beings decide to create injustice, to promote empire, to whip up public fears. But veterans know human beings can make different decisions. We can create better outcomes. We can build a just society. We can create a culture of democracy. We can abolish war. We can, and we are!
But remember this other passage from that great speech of King's. "We may cry out desperately for time to pause"but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, "too late.'"
Sisters and brothers, let us begin!
Ferner is president of Veterans For Peace
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