WTC.Story.Gerassi

NEW! MEDIA AND PERCEPTION STORIESWill Tears Ever Stop? > By John Gerassi > > I can't help crying. As soon as I see a person on TV telling the > heart-rendering story of the tragic fate of their loved-one in > the World Trade Center disaster, I can't control my tears. But then I > wonder why didn't I cry when our troops wiped out > some 5,000 poor people in Panama's El Chorillo neighborhood on the > excuse of looking for Noriega. Our leaders knew > he was hiding elsewhere but we destroyed El Chorillo because the > folks living there were nationalists who wanted the > U.S. out of Panama completely. > > Worse still, why didn't I cry when we killed two million Vietnamese, > mostly innocent peasants, in a war which its main > architect, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, knew we could not win? > When I went to give blood the other day, I > spotted a Cambodian doing the same, three up in the line, and that > reminded me: Why didn't I cry when we helped Pol > Pot butcher another million by giving him arms and money, because he > was opposed to "our enemy" (who eventually > stopped the killing fields)? > > To stay up but not cry that evening, I decided to go to a movie. I > chose Lumumba, at the Film Forum, and again I realized > that I hadn't cried when our government arranged for the murder of > the Congo's only decent leader, to be replaced by > General Mobutu, a greedy, vicious, murdering dictator. Nor did I cry > when the CIA arranged for the overthrow of > Indonesia's Sukarno, who had fought the Japanese World War II > invaders and established a free independent country, > and then replaced him by another General, Suharto, who had > collaborated with the Japanese and who proceeded to > execute at least half a million "Marxists" (in a country where, if > folks had ever heard of Marx, it was at best Groucho)? > > I watched TV again last night and cried again at the picture of that > wonderful now-missing father playing with his > two-month old child. Yet when I remembered the slaughter of thousands > of Salvadorans, so graphically described in > the Times by Ray Bonner, or the rape and murder of those American > nuns and lay sisters there, all perpetrated by CIA > trained and paid agents, I never shed a tear. I even cried when I > heard how brave had been Barbara Olson, wife of the > Solicitor General, whose political views I detested. But I didn't cry > when the US invaded that wonderful tiny Caribbean > nation of Grenada and killed innocent citizens who hoped to get a > better life by building a tourist airfield, which my > government called proof of a Russian base, but then finished building > once the island was secure in the US camp > again. > > Why didn't I cry when Ariel Sharon, today Israel's prime minister, > planned, then ordered, the massacre of two thousand > poor Palestinians in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, the same > Sharon who, with such other Irgun and Stern > Gang terrorists become prime ministers as Begin and Shamir, killed > the wives and children of British officers by > blowing up the King David hotel where they were billeted? > > I guess one only cries only for one's own. But is that a reason to > demand vengeance on anyone who might disagree > with us? That's what Americans seem to want. Certainly our government > does, and so too most of our media. Do we > really believe that we have a right to exploit the poor folk of the > world for our benefit, because we claim we are free and > they are not? > > So now we're going to go to war. We are certainly entitled to go > after those who killed so many of our innocent brothers > and sisters. And we'll win, of course. Against Bin Laden. Against > Taliban. Against Iraq. Against whoever and whatever. In > the process we'll kill a few innocent children again. Children who > have no clothes for the coming winter. No houses to > shelter them. And no schools to learn why they are guilty, at two or > four or six years old. Maybe Evangelists Falwell and > Robertson will claim their death is good because they weren't > Christians, and maybe some State Department > spokesperson will tell the world that they were so poor that they're > now better off. > > And then what? Will we now be able to run the world the way we want > to? With all the new legislation establishing > massive surveillance of you and me, our CEOs will certainly be > pleased that the folks demonstrating against > globalization will now be cowed for ever. No more riots in Seattle, > Quebec or Genoa. Peace at last. > > Until next time. Who will it be then? A child grown-up who survived > our massacre of his innocent parents in El Chorillo? > A Nicaraguan girl who learned that her doctor mother and father were > murdered by a bunch of gangsters we called > democratic contras who read in the CIA handbook that the best way to > destroy the only government which was trying to > give the country's poor a better lot was to kill its teachers, health > personnel, and government farm workers? Or maybe it > will be a bitter Chilean who is convinced that his whole family was > wiped out on order of Nixon's Secretary of State > Henry Kissinger who could never tell the difference between a > communist and a democratic socialist or even a > nationalist. > > When will we Americans learn that as long as we keep trying to run > the world for the sake of the bottom line, we will > suffer someone's revenge? No war will ever stop terrorism as long as > we use terror to have our way. So I stopped > crying because I stopped watching TV. I went for a walk. Just four > houses from mine. There, a crowd had congregated > to lay flowers and lit candles in front of our local firehouse. It > was closed. It had been closed since Tuesday because the > firemen, a wonderful bunch of friendly guys who always greeted > neighborhood folks with smiles and good cheer, had > rushed so fast to save the victims of the first tower that they > perished with them when it collapsed. And I cried again. > > So I said to myself when I wrote this, don't send it; some of your > students, colleagues, neighbors will hate you, maybe > even harm you. But then I put on the TV again, and there was > Secretary of State Powell telling me that it will be okay to > go to war against these children, these poor folks, these US-haters, > because we are civilized and they are not. So I > decided to risk it. Maybe, reading this, one more person will ask: > Why are so many people in the world ready to die to > give us a taste of what we give them?