MNH: 4/8/03
Seeing “shock and awe” on TV maybe made your heart swell with patriotic pride. Mine constricted in despair. I have too many memories and too many images imprinted which I can’t erase. While watching the “fireworks” (so named by a high school student) an image of the past superimposed itself on the screen. About five years ago I took our dog, Jaeger, on my daily walk through our woods. Jaeger, as always ran with his nose to the ground. I saw him stop and scoop something up. I immobilized the dog between my legs and forced his jaws open. In his mouth was a mouse, unharmed with three babies clinging to her for safety and protection. I shook the dog’s muzzle, the mouse with her babies fell out and disappeared among the debris of the forest floor. I leashed the dog and only released him after I was sure that Jaeger had forgotten about the mouse nest back there. I do not like mice. They girdle my newly planted white oak seedlings, chew up the Styrofoam insulation in my chicken coop and just are a nuisance all around. But when I saved the mouse and her babies I did not let varmints go, but a mother and her little ones. Bush and his war supporters do not see children clinging in terror of death to their mothers who just like the mouse are unable to protect and save them. This American administration only sees oil and the Israeli government only sees extended territory.
Why does my heart constrict in despair? It is not only because I as a child like the Iraqi children desperately wanted the noise of the explosions to stop; It is Orwell’s “l984” applied to Iraq: plundering is aiding, occupation is freedom, death is liberation.