We’ve been in Iraq for FIVE YEARS.
That’s about all there is to say. Five years. FIVE YEARS.
We’ve never missed our friends and loved ones in Iraq more than we have today.We stopped by the commemoration in Louisville this afternoon, held at the foot of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial near Jefferson Square in downtown Louisville:
Despite the cold wind and heavy rain, at least 30 people were there by noon. We’ll stop back by later this evening to see what’s going on.
Various speakers showed up… most of whom we weren’t able to get names for. Of note: Rep. Jim Wayne, Sister Miriam, Rev. Todd Eklof of Clifton Unitarian Church.A few of the powerful words Todd shared:
I’m on the wrong side because I refuse to pretend that the news media is only now beginning to uncover certain facts about this war, like there were never any weapons of mass destruction; that the Bush Administration misrepresented Intelligence Reports and allowed the real perpetrators of 9-11 to go free … There is little journaling going on among journalists today! Instead, the national media has become nothing more than a corporate popularity contest among networks that don’t report the news; they invent the news! … the reality is that all of us have known about all of these lies since long before this war ever began. … the news media helped take our minds off them by ceaselessly covering O.J. Simpson, Britney Spears, Anna Nicole Smith and whoever else would help get our minds off the reality of the war. So I’m on the wrong side of the national media today!
Some photographs, text of Rev. Eklof’s speech after the jump…
Rev. Todd Eklof:
Other speakers:
WAVE3 and the Courier-Journal showed up:
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Rev. Todd Eklof’s speech:
On the Wrong Side
It’s March 19, 2008, and my son turns 16 today, just two years from draft age. It’s March 19, 2008, five years to the day since the United States began its deadly and unwarranted invasion and occupation of Iraq. Last year on this date, when I was asked to speak at a similar event, I tried to keep my anger and my politics to myself and focused my remarks on remembering the unfortunate victims of this pointless war. But today is March 19, 2008, and I woke up on the wrong damn side of the bed!
If you’ve ever woken up on the wrong side of the bed, you know it makes you feel like you’re on the wrong side of just about everything that’s going on. And I certainly feel like I’m on the wrong side of a lot of things going on today!
I’m on the wrong side of the mainstream media today! Two days ago I saw a headline that said, “As fifth year in Iraq ends, U.S. death toll nears 4,000.” I guess it must be because I’m in such a bad mood, but I want to know about the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, mostly civilians– mothers, fathers, children– who have been blown to bits, shot to pieces, or crushed beneath the weight of their own homes because of this inane war? I must be on the wrong side because I don’t believe Americans are the only ones who count in the world! I must be on the wrong side because I can’t ignore the untold suffering, devastation, fear and violence my tax dollars have brought to my innocent Iraqi neighbors. I must be on the wrong side because I refuse to believe the tragic and senseless destruction of the World Trade Center ever had anything to do with what’s going on in Iraq today!
I’m on the wrong side because I refuse to pretend that the news media is only now beginning to uncover certain facts about this war, like there were never any weapons of mass destruction; that the Bush Administration misrepresented Intelligence Reports and allowed the real perpetrators of 9-11 to go free so it could meet its own long standing agenda of gaining control of Iraq’s oil supply. The corporate owned and controlled media wnats us to believe it’s been doing its job all along, when, in fact, it used its powerful forum to beat the drums of war and help get us into a quagmire that has needlessly left thousands of Americans dead or dismembered, along with hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. There is little journaling going on among journalists today! Instead, the national media has become nothing more than a corporate popularity contest among networks that don’t report the news; they invent the news! They don’t tell us what we need to hear, they tell us what they think we want to hear, and sometimes what they want us to hear! But the reality is that all of us have known about all of these lies since long before this war ever began. We just chose to ignore them and the news media helped take our minds off them by ceaselessly covering O.J. Simpson, Britney Spears, Anna Nicole Smith and whoever else would help get our minds off the reality of the war. So I’m on the wrong side of the national media today!
This week, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, the national media continues to hound Senator Barack Obama because of comments his minister made. They imply that if Obama remains at the side of his minister, he must be on the wrong side of America. Well, I must be on the wrong side of America too, because I happen to agree with some of what Reverend Wright is being criticized for saying, especially when he asks us to consider the violence of 9-11 in light of our own nation’s history of violence, like the annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and our support of state sponsored terrorism against Palestinians and Black South Africans. If Obama and Wright are to be condemned because of this opinion, I guess I should be condemned too, because I’m on the wrong side of this issue. I don’t believe wiping out major cities with nuclear bombs is ever justifiable; I don’t believe you can force a million people from their 2,000-year-old homeland, into a slum, then wrap a fence around them, with guards, guns, and checkpoints, and not expect repercussions; and I don’t believe a nation can become rich and powerful by marginalizing poor people around the world and not expect a few chickens to eventually come home to roost! So I guess I woke up on the wrong side this morning!
And I’m on the wrong side of an economic strategy that has spent nearly a trillion dollars to ostensibly bring “freedom to Iraq,” when far too many Americans don’t have access to the freedoms that living here is supposed to offer; like the 47 million Americans, including 11 million children, who don’t have health coverage. Just to get an idea of what a billion is, a billion seconds ago was 1977! And now our country is paying nearly 15-billion-dollars a month on the war in Iraq, while gas prices are skyrocketing, thousands of people are losing their homes, the U.S. dollar is worth less than ever before, the cost of a college education is surpassing the break even point, public school children don’t have adequate facilities, resources, or the number of teachers they need, and our nation’s bridges are collapsins and interstates cracking apart because of neglect! I must be on the wrong side of this issue because I don’t believe the Iraq war is worth the cost!
I’m on the wrong side because I don’t believe I must support this war to support our troops!
I’m on the wrong side because I believe that national media is creating the news, not covering it.
I’m on the wrong side because I believe my tax dollars should go toward providing health coverage to every American, not toward killing innocent Iraqis.
I’m on the wrong side because I believe we should provide adequate education to our children, not devastate the lives of children half a world away.
I’m on the wrong side because I believe people should be our priority, not profits.
I’m on the wrong side because I believe true power is about giving life, not taking it.
And I’m on the wrong side because I believe every life counts, American and Iraqi, Christian and Muslim, Brown and White, Rich and Poor.
It’s March 19, 2008, and I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, but I am awake and I see what’s going on, and I’m here to tell you, I am one pissed off pacifist!
And when I lay down to sleep tonight, I hope I dream; I hope I dream about the world as it should be– about a world in which the powerful finally realize the impotence and futility of war. I hope to dream about a world at peace in which everyone counts, regardless of their nationality, or their religion, or their gender, or their income. I hope to dream about American soldiers coming home safely to their loved ones. I hope to dream about Iraqi children laughing and playing in the streets. I hope to dream of healthy children everywhere– of children swimming in public pools that haven’t been shut down just so we can afford to pay our police and firefighters. I hope to dream of millions of young people graduating with college degrees. I hope to dream of young couples growing old in their homes. And I hope my slumber will rid me of the nightmare of so many empty shoes, and relieve me with dreams of people dancing and celebrating life. And tomorrow, when I wake again, I hope my dreams will have come true; but if not, I’ll be content enough to say, it’s March 20, 2008, and I woke up on the wrong damn side of the bed!
More photos and such to come tonight.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Yellow Dog // Mar 19, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Great coverage! Thanks and Bless You.
2 anonymous // Mar 19, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Don’t we all just wish that Saddam Hussein was still alive and in power?
3 John Brady // Mar 19, 2008 at 10:08 pm
Don’t we all just wish that 4,000 Americans were still alive and our reputation in the world wasn’t ruined and al-Qaeda wasn’t strengthened by a ridiculously stupid invasion and occupation?
4 ... // Mar 19, 2008 at 10:19 pm
The real mistake was letting Saddam stay in power after the first Gulf war.
5 Steve Magruder (I, not D or R) // Mar 20, 2008 at 3:37 am
anonymous: Nobody wishes Saddam was still in power, or even alive (given his crimes against his people) but the U.S. had no business in removing him from power. He posed no imminent threat to the U.S. It was always up to the Iraqi people to deal with Saddam, not the U.S. conducting an unjustified invasion and mass murdering campaign just to get at one tyrant. The Iraq War brought the U.S. to Saddam’s level, and GW Bush has indeed become the Second Butcher of Baghdad.
George H. W. Bush did the completely honorable thing in 1991. He completed the objective, and got our troops out. And sanctions kept Saddam in check nearly perfectly.
Anyone who still supports this war needs to get out of this country, including Bush. Ship the f’er and his neocon cohorts to Paraguay. It’s time to return the U.S. to reason and sanity.
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