LeftExchange
What I Feel Isn't Important
- by Cary Hopkins Eyles
Several important questions were asked of me in Steve’s "Where is your line in the sand?". I will now respond to them and other issues from that essay.
I will use some excerpts from Steve's essay as jumping off points:
Steve continued:
"Wealth being evil is a truly communist perspective. We all see how well that little experiment worked out."
"Just because people don’t have, doesn’t mean they should be angry about it. I’m really sorry when I look at all the people I know who don’t have health insurance or don’t feel they can afford other life niceties or necessities."
"I find it interesting that you all feel that TV networks and cable companies and the like are conspiring to keep this kind of stuff off the airwaves."
"Keep reading the papers, Care. Almost everything that was taken away has been revised or revamped. Do you think that people raised on freedom can be so easily fooled? Do you believe that people out there in the rest of the country ‘aren’t’ at least as smart as you? There are millions of people stirring restlessly and calling and writing their congressmen. You should be doing the same and I hope you are. All societies are changeable. The question should be what is it we want changed?"
"…But do you believe in justice? Punishment for criminal acts is an acceptable social practice."
"Having been in the criminal judicial system for a short while you know what it’s all about. The bigger the crime the bigger the punishment is how it’s supposed to work."
"…I am not one who would nuke the whole country, but I do require my country to defend our peace and to keep us safe. I believe that is what’s being done. Some innocents may die. I am truly sorry for this. I pray that it will not happen. I know that it will. I believe we must proceed to a conclusion that keeps Americans safe, regardless of the time or energy involved. I don’t like it but I do see it as necessary."
"…I know there is no talking with people of bin ladin’s type. Have you seen the tapes that show him boasting? What are your feelings about that? Would you have let the Japanese off the hook at Pearl Harbor? Would you have let the Germans off the hook at the camps? Where is your line in the sand?"
I know many feel anger and that is understandable. But pain and anger will not change anything. And whatever a person feels about the situation is completely acceptable. What matters is what the person does with those feelings. I know it is no where near the same but I feel pain and anger at a lot of things that happen to me in my daily life but when a friend casually hurts my feelings, I do not hit them. When someone cuts me off in traffic, I do not shoot at them (of course – I don’t live in L.A.). Many people whose family members have been killed by murderers do not support the death penalty (or in this case, some people who lost loved ones in the World Trade Center do not want war). These actions (d.p. and war) do not truly bring justice or closure; they do not take away the pain or bring joy. They only create pain for others.
So those are my feelings on that. Now let’s discuss why my and your and everyone’s feelings on the subject are fairly unimportant. We have a system of law in our country which was created to be impartial. Our traditions stem from English common law and those rules, regulations and guidelines are there to ensure fairness. We do not have a system where we solve our disputes based on emotion. So if you kill someone I love, I do not in turn go kill someone you love. At least not without consequences. Why do we have the system of law that we do? Let’s follow this to its logical conclusion. Say you kill my… cat. Then I get mad and I kill your dog. Then you are hurt so you react by killing my goat. And I come and burn down your corn crops. See where I am going with this? The law is not about emotions. It is supposed to embody our democratic process. These are things that should make America great. But we chose to discard them when they are most crucial.
As for the examples you posed, you are again treating these situations as if there are only two options - kill the perpetrators or let them off the hook. I think that as a smart person you know that there are more choices than that. Also, don't forget that if you agree with this kind of "justice" you need to apply it fairly. This means that you have to create a list of the crimes committed by the American government and encourage that the offenders at hand are brought to justice.
So in response to your question, my line is clear. I abhor violence and do not support it in any form. I present to you that your line in the sand is more important. You support what is happening – so when should it end? How many people need to die? Do you truly believe that your government will stop when bin Laden is dead? Will they ever catch him? They have said this war may continue for 40 or 50 years!!! Will you accept that? I do not want James (Steve's 12 year old son and my little brother) to be having this same argument with my children and I sure as hell don’t want any of them to be part of this atrocity.
So I guess in some ways what I feel does matter. If I can feel compassionate towards everyone and see their humanity and not let anger and pain rule my actions, than what I feel (and how I behave and what I teach and model to others) may be incredibly important.
.......... Children in Afghanistan
...Cary's Page
"You are correct, we must question our policies. I think it is a day late and a dollar short to be doing this after something like Sept 11. Where were all the voices when all the things that pissed off old bin ladin were going on? Why is it that everyone seems to have such great hind sight and feels the need to scream at the worst time possible."
I truly believe that Steve knows that many of us on Synergy were speaking up well before this happened. American Civil Liberties was busy, Amnesty International had their hands full, Adbusters and their cronies were stirring things up, and people like Noam Chomsky were calling American foreign policy the biggest human rights violation since WWII. While many people may have been silent, we were not.
“Do it in your elections.”
I do. I voted for Ralph Nader because he wanted to change the political system. Real change. He wants to take the power in our country away from the corporations and give it back to the people. Some would say I threw away my vote but I cannot in good conscious vote for something I do not believe in and I cannot be inactive. Besides actually casting my vote, I discussed Nader’s policy with as many people as I could because he was not allowed in the debates and his message was not widespread. I still believe that many people would have voted for him if they knew what he had to say.
I hear this argument quite frequently. Simply discounting another system does not make our system better or the best. We have great poverty, we have completely destroyed our environment, we are spiritually devoid on the whole, we are anti-intellectual and value sports stars more than teachers… I could go on and on. But I didn’t say we need to throw the baby out with the bath water. I want to improve where it seems that you and many others want to defend your ground by saying "we are better than communism" or "we have some of it right". Let me ask you: Is it possible that Capitalism is a stop on the road to a better system? That it is a "little experiment" that hasn’t worked out?
This is a nice philosophy but health insurance is not a nicety (perhaps you realize this is a necessity - our government has not). And we are not talking about people who cannot afford to go out to dinner. We are talking true poverty. I certainly have never experienced it and I don’t believe you have either. We have never been homeless, starving, sick. Being angry will not help these people. But it seems to me that you should be angry that our government kowtows to corporations and allows the pursuit of the almighty dollar to trump the pursue of life and liberty for all. I am angry about it. I won’t use that anger in a violent way but I won’t be silenced about it.
Actually if anyone wants to go back and check my article "From Within" I spent the paragraph before this explaining that it was NOT a conspiracy. See Naomi Wolf’s "Beauty Myth", preface.
I will not sit around while civil liberties are removed and say, the pendulum will swing back. What if it doesn’t? Even if it does, people will be hurt in the meantime (like the Arabs being held in custody right now) and I simply cannot accept that. I believe that people are intelligent but I also believe they are lulled into believing that these things need to be done for their security and that that makes it okay. There is a steady stream of anti-intellectualism and a strong campaign of conformity so many people are afraid to dissent or it doesn’t even occur to them. But there is a whole segment of the population that is taking risks and fighting these changes and I am grateful they are there and I am proud to be part of that group.
As is giving someone a fair trial. That is one of the great things about the U.S. system. There are great flaws in it as well but at least a person is supposed to be afforded a fair tribunal. Not a secret one surrounded by people who have stated that they will get you “dead or alive”. At this point, the only possibility for bin Laden and his men to get a fair trial would be to have one in another country, and even that would be suspect because no one wants the U.S. mad at them. Do you believe these people could ever really get justice? Do you honesty believe they deserve justice or do you just want to "get ‘em"?
Yeah, working on a Masters degree program in Criminology and being a probation officer in a Domestic Violence division has taught me a few things. Mostly that people do not get "justice". Both men and women are abused and nothing happens. People go to jail for things they did not do because they don’t know how to play the system or don’t have the money. True rehabiltation doesn’t occur because there are no funds or resources.
Women who were abused and are looking for financial assistance from the state are judged by not only their income but that of their abuser if it is a spouse or live-in mate.
How can one defend peace through war? Violence begets violence. People who are in a poverty stricken country under a totalitarian regime are being bombed (oh yeah, there is a sandwich or two next to the bombs) by the U.S. and we somehow think this will increase the peace in the future? Let’s be sensible. Study our history. Do not say it isn’t pretty but it is necessary. Say those are human beings and I will not take part in their slaughter. Do not think Americans. Think living beings. We are only Americans by accident of our birth. We are first humans who share common bonds of family and desire to be safe and secure and loved. When you categorize into Americans and Arabs and Chinese etc you sow the seeds for prejudice and us-them mentality.
In my research on the death penalty I have spoken with a lot of people with similar arguments. My feelings about it are irrelevant and I will explain why in a moment. First I will describe my feelings: when I see people being hurt, killed, attacked, tortured, when I see the loss of life, I feel extreme pain. I feel compassion and I feel lucky that my family is safe.
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