Jazzed for Peace

I was privileged tonight to meet Jimmy Massey, an Iraq veteran who is making the protest circuit speaking out against the war. He made me think of Mickey Rooney in the Andy Hardy movies. No, he's not short, but fresh-faced and earnest, and he looked so young. It is hard to believe that he has seen the atrocities that I am sure he must have. He was at our vigil tonight at the clock park, along with Dahlia, a lovely young Iraqi woman who is also a speaker about the war. Dahlia warned us on Jimmy's behalf that the increasing number of vets who are speaking out publicly are putting themselves in jeopardy of serious retribution from the government and the military. Massey told us that the mission statement of IVAW is Get the Troops Home Now, Take Care of Them When They Get Here. It is little enough that we do, the ten or twenty of us who manage to drag our butts to the park on Tuesdays with out signs and our candles. Last week some dumb ass motorcycle guy shouted angrily at the group. Tonight there was one older guy in an SUV that gave us a vigorous thumbs down for our efforts, but the response has been overwhelmingly positive from passing motorists who respond to Honk for Peace signs with horns and peace signs. I have a hard time imagining that our miniscule efforts can have any significant effect on the course of the war, to say nothing of the repair to the Constitution, the restoration of US credibility in the world or justice to the criminal administration that has devastated our country. There is so much to be done and there is so much ignorance and apathy. How can so many people be so uncaring and uniformed? Most of the people that I talk to do not understand what is going on and how their own freedoms are being infringed upon and taken away. The parallels have been pointed out in that amazing essay someone wrote comparing the US to pre-war Germany. It is frightening. If everyone who went by the park tonight and honked would just have stopped and held a candle for ten minutes... peace now.