The Face of Peace?

6 thoughts on “The Face of Peace?”

1. She has probably helped the cause of ending the war sooner by keeping the cost of the war in the public view.  It’s hard to argue with the last election and current poll numbers but how much of that can be attributed to her is hard to say.

   What do you think?

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   1. I’m not sure she made a difference nationally. I think she helped local Dems win, but with the tide against the Republicans, hard to quantify her contribution.

      She did make a difference with plenty of individual mothers who also had lost children in the war. She did succeed in making Bush look bad when he didn’t meet with her in Texas (and later). But to say that she was the face of the American peace movement, I don’t know. I don’t see a peace movement in the US against the Iraq war. Of course there are groups that advocate on the grassroots level, which is important, but publicly, not much more than three or four protesters in front of our Capitol on any given day. Is this just a Colorado thing? I don’t think so.

      It is interesting that the Iraq war has not created a peace movement ala 60’s in the universities and colleges around the US.  It is interesting that although the students may dislike the war, they’re not organizing like the 60’s (they’re too busy getting MBAs). Maybe the 60’s only reflected a nexus in American history where all the factors came into play to create the impetus to get people off their keesters and out into the streets. Maybe the way our government reacts to the modern protests stalls their momentum (“I respect that they are exercising their right to assembly and their right to free speech – but we’re going to do what we want anyway” – ok, I paraphrased Bush there).

      Another thing I find interesting about protests these days is it isn’t all about the war. There are just as many protestors calling for Bush’s impeachment, a stop to  globalization and other issues as there are protesters calling for an end to the war. Maybe the message is too diffuse.

      All in all, it is fascinating that in today’s America people are content not to stick their necks out but go about their business and decry government policies and decisions from afar. There is no other issue that unifies Americans in the new century. The 60’s had civil rights, Vietnam and Kennedy that galvanized a nation. What do we have today beyond the war? Free trade, immigration, tax policy – hardly fodder for a national resurgence of anti-establishment fervor.

      Is it that we are too content with what we have and are too afraid of losing it?

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      1. and was going on a lot longer before the war movement built up stream. I imagine if this war goes on another ten years and we hit 50,000 dead soldiers, you’d see the same thing again. I think most Americans are comfortable and have yet to be personally affected by the war.

         Check out the students in Venezuela though, now there you see a real uprising in the making.  I for one hope they succeed in throwing out that dictator. 

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         1. Was that we got to see the caskets coming home. We havent had that yet. What is the old phrase “a single death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic.” Without seeing the caskets, who hasnt been to a funeral?, we arent really registering that death is taking place. A posed picture in the paper with a name next to it is not exactly a casket.

            They wont. And there will be a lot of  bloodshed if it moves from protests in the streets due to closed television stations to riots and violence.

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            1. of dead and wounded soldiers emerging in the press recently, in the last month. It could be a turning point for the media. The power of an image is more than a thousand articles. Who can forget the image of a Vietnamese boy running naked down the street with napalm burning in the background?

               Americans aren’t registering the loss of our soldiers, I agree. Unless our family is directly impacted, it is too easy in today’s day and age to disassociate ourselves from the war.

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      2. I dont think she helped local dems, I dont think she is/has helped to end the war sooner, and I dont think, as I have heard accredited to her, she put a face and a name to the anti-war movement.

         I think she was pissed and grieving. Whether she made a difference with individual mothers is debatable as well. She may have provided a face for them, but I would argue that it was only a matter of time for a parent to stand up and say “enough is enough.” Her campout made Bush look like an ass, but so what? This isnt Kent State, and there is no draft. Those are two fundamental differences between then and now (going off of the viet nam analogy).

         People havent been given a reason to care yet. Students protesting have not been killed, hell, they are mostly ignored as if they are a bunch of manic street preachers, and bush knows this. It is fascinating to me how this will play out over the years. Your paraphrase of Bush is why people dont care. We have become apathetic. The likelihood of any protest, no matter how widespread, will not change Bush’s mind. I think that is why people just dont care about the protesters.

         Anyone in this war chose to join the armed forces. Friends with the wrong birthday are being drafted and killed in a Southeast asian country that few knew about before hand. These are two small factors that helped create the nexus that you mentioned and I think that those are two of them. 

         I dont know if the message is too diffuse. I think the internet has helped to galvanize a lot of people like never before. Yes, it is cliche for me to say that, but seriously, you can find more campaigns to get involved in and causes to support than ever before. Its easy to share  stories and strategies. Maybe it is too diffuse, but were there really less causes back in the day?

         Once gas prices get higher that may be a unifying force, but to unify the country we need a cause that, well, unifies. Nothing is blowing our collective skirts up. I know this is what you are arguing, but is there something that will get you to stand up and take notice?

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