A murderous attitude
I had a dream last night about writing my thoughts to you today, not knowing that the topic was going to serve as the backdrop of the lead story in this morning’s news. On the evening of Feb. 7, a man with the disarming name of “Cookie”walked up to a policeman outside a city council meeting in Kirkwood, Mo., and opened fire. He continued his march into the council chambers firing two pistols while shouting, “Kill the mayor.” Before the police ended the insanity, two of their own and three city officials were dead, and Mayor Mike Swoboda and a reporter were wounded. As of this writing, the mayor and journalist are in stable condition.
It is no surprise that the gunman had a history of disrupting city council meetings. It is a little shocking, though, that his main dispute was over a series of parking violations. In a perverse defense, the shooter’s brother told a local reporter that “This was not a random rampage. My brother went to war tonight with the government.”
Oddly enough, warring with the government is the underlying theme of another current city council story. Only this time, a local government has decided to go to war with our federal one. I went to sleep thinking about the absurdity of a Berkeley, Calif., city council vote to encourage people to nonviolently “impede, passively or actively,” the work of local Marine recruiters. To that end, the council awarded a group, called Code Pink, a designated parking space in front of a Marine recruiting station as a spot to launch regular protests against our involvement in Iraq. The council also planned to send the Marines a letter saying if they stayed in Berkeley they would “do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders.”
Since the 1960s, anti-war protests have become a staple of Berkeley politics, and the community has not been shy about its opinions on the current war. In 2006, the city council and voters approved a measure to impeach the president and vice president, citing “high crimes and misdemeanors” over their execution of the war against terrorism.
A couple of days after the current measure was approved and a state assemblyman threatened to pull $3.3 million in previously approved transportation funds, the mayor and council seem to be reconsidering sending the letter.
Whether you agree or disagree with the rationalization or execution of the Iraq war, it is wrong to blame the Marines, or any member of the armed services, for the same reason you cannot blame the messenger for the message. Both the Berkeley and Kirkwood incidents illustrate our all-too-frequent habit of villanizing and dehumanizing our enemies, which is worse because in doing so, we take one step closer to a murderous attitude toward those with whom we disagree.
Let me put it another way. If we see the Marines as the enemy rather than our sons and daughters, and government officials as foes rather than fellow citizens, then we really don’t see ourselves as one country. And, if that’s true, then sooner or later, we won’t be.
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