2003-03-20 - 4:04 p.m.
"I've seen the real atrocities-buried in the sand- stockpiled safety for a few- while we stand holding hands- i'm living in the ice age- nothing will hold- nothing will fit- into the cold- it's not an ec;ipse- living in the ice age-searching for another way- hide behind the door- we'll live in holes and disused shafts- hopes for little more- i'm living in the ice age- nothing will hold- nothing will fit- into the cold- no smile on your lips-living in the ice age" -Joy Division
I saw Nat a few days ago and asked him how we was doing, "It's hard to concentrate with a war about to happen," he said.
I ran into Alex, a boy from my class last year, at a small gathering at union square today, "how you are you doing?" I asked him,
"I'm pretty sad," he answered.
It wasn't until someone out and said it that I felt the tears well up.
I'm having flashback to September, 2001. Glued to the TV with my classmates, Ari Fleisher up there in the press room, that feeling that we must do something, we must move, we must take this system down, but we just stare at the TV while lives are destroyed and lies are spread thicker and thicker. "red alert" in New York and what the hell does that mean? Because I'm not staying inside, cowering with my TV to keep me safe. There's cold rain here, tornadoes, hail and blizzards all over the country. Makes you feel like even the weather is cooperating with atrocities.
When the first Gulf War started I was in third grade. My teacher, Mrs. Sorenson, had us pull our chairs into a circle in the center of the room. She gave us each three poker chips and said when we wanted to speak we could raise our hand and then put a poker chip in the center of the cirlce. We each had a chance to make three comments. We talked about our hopes and ideas for peace, how we were feeling about the fact we were going to war. I don't remember what I said, I remember my friend David, who was from Iran, feeling scared for his family. But I do remember that feeling of sitting together, of having a place to process what we were going through with my peers. And the feeling like even if we couldn't stop it, facing our emotions was at least a start.
And now, I want to say that we can stop this, but I'm not so certain. Being together with people at my school was important for me today. They are not my closest friends, its true, but we are a community of sorts and we share a lot of the same context and its just so important that I know there are people who will question, who will act and who will be there to talk.
We passed out statements with black arm bands and faxed Bob Kerrey (New School President and big time warmonger) statement after statement of students against the war.
Here's what the statement that went with the arm band said,
"Last night, a war began. Or at least that's what it looked like on TV. Southern Baghdad's dawn broke with teh sound of sirens. The already brightening sky further illuminated by teh burning flashes that ripped through it.
"So far away, seemingly a separate world, but it is not. It is the one we share. This sky knows no ownership and these experiences cannot be isolated or forgotton or separated by languages or by oceans.
"As students, as faculty- as human beings, we will mourn the lives as they are taken.
"This black strip of cloth marks a beginning with an end not yet in sight. It is meant to be worn everyday until that end is reached to show that this war is inseparable from our daily lives."
There's a march for "peace and democracy" on Saturday in Manhattan at noon. Assemble between 36th and 42nd streets on Broadway. Check out http://www.unitedforpeace.org for more info.
