September 28: Dark days indeed. I don’t know who I’m more upset with right now - the Opportunist Occupying the Oval Office whose over-reaching is not-so-slowly but very surely transforming our democracy into a totalitarian state, or our Congress, which seems to be of the notion that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are sorta neat examples of calligraphy, but not of much significance beyond that. Today Congress deemed it just fine to suspend habeas corpus. I don’t want to go into a big lecture or history lesson here, but there are a few things I really think I should point out for the sake of those who aren’t particularly alarmed by this development:
In our nation’s history, habeas corpus has only been suspended once before this. Abraham Lincoln did it during the Civil War. But here’s a point to ponder. Lincoln subsequently stated that, of all the decisions he had to make during the course of the war, his decision to suspend habeas corpus was the one he regretted most.
Again for those who may not yet grasp the full meaning of this, it means that Congress has granted the OOOO the right to imprison anyone - American citizen or otherwise - without bringing charges, without right to counsel, and with no limitation on the length of that imprisonment. All the OOOO has to do is declare that an individual is an enemy combatant or a supporter of terrorism. He does not have to offer any proof - just make the declaration - and poof! - a citizen disappears. Leave us ponder this for just a moment. The OOOO and any number of members of his administration have repeatedly and forcefully declared that if you don’t agree with him, then you’re on the side of the terrorists. Take me, for instance. I certainly don’t agree with what’s going on - I’ve made that pretty obvious by now. According to the rhetoric of the OOOO, that means I’m supporting the terrorists. And that means, if this latest lunacy is permitted to stand, that he will have the authority to toss me immediately into jail without ever charging me with any sort of crime and with no limit whatsoever to the ability to hold me without charges. I’m not making this up. Dissent is now a crime punishable by imprisonment without either trial or limit. Is it possible this could happen in America? It just did. But I’m an American citizen - I know my rights. Well, I know what they were. I just lost one - a very, very big one. Unless the Supreme Court still retains sufficient wisdom to blast this insanity out of the water, we have just seen a large section of pavement laid on the path to a totalitarian state - and it should make every single citizen’s blood run cold.
And it points once again to how crucial the thing I’m trying to do is. All of this is based on the OOOO’s retention of war powers and the illusion that he is a wartime president. If we are not in fact at war, then the whole terrorism thing must be treated as what is actually is - a dragnet to capture criminals and put their criminal operation out of business. And if it is seen as what it properly is, then those captured or imprisoned in the dragnet are not enemy combatants - they are criminals, subject not to military tribunals or wartime codes, but to criminal charges, the rules and procedures of the criminal justice system and the penalties which apply. And if we are not at war, then the signing statements the OOOO has been blithely applying to essentially every piece of legislation since he gained office exempting himself from complying with the legislation on the grounds that he is a wartime president become meaningless, and our OOOO has to find a way to do things that falls within the bounds of law - just like the rest of us. I want to remind everyone at this point that this is a person who ran for office thumping the Rule of Law bible at every turn, and ever since has gone to great lengths to exempt himself from that rule.
I’m not saying that we don’t need some special rules formulated for dealing with terrorists. Perhaps we do. But I am saying - again - that it is both nonsensical and dangerous to call - or to even think of - the effort to defuse terrorism as a war. And it is far beyond dangerous to give the executive branch the power to (a) declare who is and is not a terrorist and (b) based solely on that declaration, incarcerate a person indefinitely. If we do need special rules to deal with terrorism, let’s clear the table - put the war powers back where they belong, stop pretending this is a war - and sit down and conscientiously produce a structure to properly deal with the problem. But for heaven’s sake, let’s stop sitting back and watching while we’re being stripped of everything that makes us American! That is what - in my own very small way - I am trying to do. Won’t you please join with me? Thank you.
September 25: We spent the afternoon participating in a war protest downtown. Considering that we had encountered little in the way of publicity for it, we thought there was an excellent turnout. Jonna jumped right into it, passing out little flyers announcing my walk and cards with the website address on them. I still have a hard time doing things like that - guess I’ll just have to get better at it. The protest involved some civil disobedience and wound up with three participants being arrested. We learned later on that they were all simply ticketed and released. I thought the police did their job very well. At least from what I saw, they treated all of us with respect and courtesy. Certainly the most moving thing to me was a man - and I regret that I did not learn his name - whose son was killed in Iraq. He silently carried a sign with a picture of his son, a Marine. The sign read, "Bush lied - my son died." How he could have carried that sign, so quietly, so respectfully, is beyond my comprehension - he is living every parent’s nightmare. The police, very wisely, did not confront or restrict him in any way.
Being at the protest allowed me to deliver the very first purchase from our Walking Sale page - a Tibetan singing bowl bought by Bob Davis as a gift for his wife...and Bob paid me twice what we were asking for it! Thank you, Bob! I’m sure you and your wife will enjoy the bowl.
Becky has rearranged the Journal page, so I hope I can remember to add tonight’s post at the top of the page rather than at the bottom. More changes will be coming soon.
As we near the one month mark until I begin my walk I find myself conflicted by the circumstances around me. On the one hand, I am heartened daily as I hear more and more people saying the same things I have been saying for years now. People are beginning to speak out - and speak out forcefully. Truth is slowly coming to light. This weekend the National Intelligence report came out, noting that our actions in Iraq have strengthened the Al Qaeda criminals and murderers, leaving us less secure than we were prior to the invasion of Iraq. I have only one word in comment: "Duh!" Then tonight we caught Keith Olbermann’s commentary on Countdown, where he minced no words in castigating this administration and this president as the worst since James Buchanan - and I had to wonder, could James Buchanan have really been that bad? Thank you, Mr. Olbermann - and may your tribe increase. The closing words of his commentary were, "And you have now tried to hide your failures, by blaming your predecessor.
"And now you exploit your failure, to rationalize brazen torture which doesn’t work anyway; which only condemns our soldiers to water_boarding; which only humiliates our country further in the world; and which no true American would ever condone, let alone advocate.
"And there it is, Mr. Bush:
"Are yours the actions of a true American?"
If you’ve been keeping up with my journal, the words sound a bit familiar, don’t they?
On the other hand I am a bit disappointed in that, of all the groups, organizations and individuals we have sent announcements to so far, the one group from which we have not had one single response is the churches. Not one. Our friend Margo, from Chalice Unitarian Universalist, has been supportive from the very beginning as I’ve mentioned, but beyond her - and a few brief well-wishing emails - we have not had one church organization indicate any willingness to support or get involved in what we’re doing, not one offering an invitation to speak to their members or committees, not one offering to host us for an evening or provide us a place to rest our heads along the journey. Again, I realize I can’t expect much of that until I’m actually underway, but I had truly hoped I would see a greater spark of interest from some of the churches early on.
Tomorrow will be a day to sort through some of the chaos around here and prepare for another swap meet next weekend. We’re going to try Kobey’s down in San Diego this time - a bit more expensive for space rental, but certainly the premier swap meet in the area. Yesterday I picked up some jeans at one of the thrift stores in preparation for the walk. We decided early on that my "uniform" for the walk will be jeans and long-sleeved white dress shirts. I’m guessing that by the time I get to the midwest I’ll be looking for jeans at least one size smaller. Of course, by the time I get to the midwest it will be the middle of winter, so there will be a few layers atop the jeans and shirts. I am not looking forward to that particular aspect of this project. Although I was born and raised and lived all my life up until the turn of the century in climates where I was wazoo deep in snow every winter, I never enjoyed it. I am not a cold weather person. Those who know me well understand that for me to commit myself to something that will see me voluntarily walking through blizzards and freezing rain I either believe with every fiber of my being in what I am doing, or I have gone completely bananas...or both. Pray with me for a mild winter.
September 23: Jonna and I have spent
the past two days tending to some of the nuts and bolts of the project. We’ve been
converting some of our assets for ready negotiability. In other words, we’ve been
getting rid of some of our Stuff. We spent Friday ferreting through the closets and
storage sheds to identify the first victims of our assault on our worldly possessions and
then stuffed them all in the van. Then we spent the first half of today at the
I thought the most amusing one of the day was also
the one that Jonna had the hardest time parting with. It was a set of old golf clubs that
belonged to her dad. Neither one of us golf, but she’s steadfastly refused to get rid
of them for sentimental reasons - they had been her dad’s clubs, after all. But I
guess she finally decided that a set of golf clubs growing dust and cobwebs in the shed
wasn’t really very sentimental, nor much of a remembrance for that matter, and tossed
them in the van with the rest of our sacrificial offerings. One of our first browsers
spent a moment examining the clubs - which also included a bag and covers for the woods -
then offered me three dollars...for the putter. I told him no, that I didn’t want to
sell the set piecemeal - if he wanted the putter he’d have to buy the entire set.
After a weak attempt at convincing me that surely someone else would come along who wanted
the rest of the set he gave up and wandered off.
A few hours later another gentleman came up to me and
offered me five dollars...for the putter. I told him the same thing I had told the first
man. So he asked me how much I wanted for the entire set. I told him ten dollars. He
seemed to think that was reasonable and handed me ten dollars. As I pocketed the bill, he
pulled the putter out of the bag and walked off, leaving the rest of the set behind.
I now have this ominous feeling that a month or so
from now we’re going to be watching Antiques Road Show and there on the screen will
be this man with Jonna’s dad’s putter. We will then discover that this happens
to be the very putter General Custer used to shoot a five under at the Little Big Horn
Country Club the day before he set out to teach them pesky injuns a thing or two - and
it’s worth 18 bazillion dollars. It’s the kind of thing that would happen to us.
We’re never going to be the ones picking up an undiscovered Rembrandt at a garage
sale - we’ll be the ones who sold it for five bucks because it was just so blessed
ugly. Oh well.
We were going to hit the swap meet again tomorrow,
but after Jonna’s experience of feeling like a pound of hamburger dropped into a tank
full of piranas today, she decided to hold off until next week. Just as well, since
I’ve only had about four hours of sleep in the past two days - weekends are busy time
for chauffeurs - and could use the rest. Fortunately, I don’t have anything until
very late tomorrow, so I should be able to catch up before then.
We’re in the process of making some major
decisions as we approach the starting date of the walk, and we’re beginning to get a
bit more comfortable with the realization that this is going to wind up becoming a major
change in the direction our lives will be taking for some time to come. Jonna still
threatens to do me in for coming up with this idea - and still acknowledges that what
we’re doing is undoubtedly the right thing to do - sometimes in the same sentence.
But she has been greatly fortified by the number of emails we’ve received from people
and the number of people we’ve met already who have told us how our courage has
inspired them. This sort of affirmation is worth more than I can say, and I’m deeply
grateful to all of you who have taken the time to let us know that this means something to
you. It means something to us, too.
September 21: Expect to see some
major changes to the website in the near future. I’ve handed over design and
maintenance of the website to our daughter Becky’s high school class and they’re
coming up with some great ideas - some of them are things I’ve been wanting to do and
some of them are brand new. I’ve told them that as long as the basic content remains
intact they have pretty much a free hand, so who knows what you’ll see next time you
visit. Actually, Becky tells me that significant changes are still about a week away, but
they’re working on it.
When they told me they wanted to add music to the
site I said OK on one condition - that they’d include the option to turn the music
OFF! Then she said one of the students even had an idea for what music to use. I told her
what her student had suggested before she could even ask me to guess - Edwin Starr’s
1970 classic "War" (What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!). I had to laugh.
Sure, it’s great. But it’s also, well - quintessential cliche.
Then Jonna had an absolutely outstanding idea. We
happen to have some very musically gifted kids - Dietrich, Becky’s husband Joey,
Kari’s husband Joey (yes, we have two Joeys), and Dietrich’s friend Adam - who
is very nearly one of our own - are all extremely talented. She thought each of them might
like to write and record an original song for the website. We’re going to pitch it to
them and see if they’ll take us on. I hope so.
Speaking of young people - where are they? I’ve
been wondering that for some time now. Maybe it’s just my personal experience, but it
has been feeling like most of the activists out there are on the long-of-tooth and
gray-of-beard side. When we attended the San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice meeting
the other night, I think only one person there was under 40. We need the young people. I
was reading Daniel Ellsberg’s speech given in
Where are they now? Are they too immersed in video
games and internet? Is it that nobody they actually know has come home in a box yet? Is it
that the people crafting this state of permanent war have successfully managed - so far -
to do it while allowing a vast majority of the American populace to pretend that it
isn’t really happening? I don’t know. I think maybe that, just like most adults,
they’re afraid to speak out. They’re afraid that theirs will be the only voice.
I have a feeling I’ll be meeting lots of them on my walk. I hope I can show them that
they’re not alone after all.
September 20: I’ve been asked
more than once now (and heard the same question directed at the anti war movement in
general) the following question: Suppose that we are again attacked by terrorists on our
own soil. Won’t that silence the debate and make what you’re doing irrelevant?
My answer: Not at all - in fact, quite the contrary.
Another attack should only strengthen the immediacy of what I’m trying to do. You
see, if we are attacked again, it will undoubtedly be by either Al Qaeda sympathizers or
some other group of murderous, sociopathic criminals who will not be in any way
representative of any state or nation and will attempt to hide their heinous actions
behind the illusion of religious or cultural ties. Before it happens, we need to be able
to establish clarity as to our response. If we repeat the same disastrous mistake we did
after September 11th and once again declare a "war" against a bunch
of criminals, we only lend them credence and gravitas they do not deserve, just as we did
for Al Qaeda. If it happens again, we need to find the wisdom to react the way we ought to
react to the perpetration of mass murder - an all-out manhunt for those involved with the
act and those who would abet and support them. If we discover that the murderers were
supported or abetted by a sovereign nation, we still need to refrain from turning it into
a war, instead determinedly setting out to form a true global coalition (by the way,
whatever happened to the glorious "coalition of the willing"? Hmmm...) of
nations to bring relentless and unbearable pressure on the offending nation to turn over
those involved in the act. Once we apprehend the criminals, they are treated and tried as
they ought to be - not as enemy combatants in a war, but as criminals, tried in criminal
courts and sentenced under laws of criminal justice.
In so reacting, we maintain a sense of proportion and
reality; we avoid the free-floating anxiety, anger and fear perpetrated on the public by a
bogus "war" bogeyman, and we send a real message to like minded misfits - the
message we have failed to send for five years - that we will not grant you the global
stature you seek; we will not play into your hands. We will treat you as the demented
thugs you are. You have committed a crime, not an act of war, and this time we won’t
let you get away with pretending it is anything other than a crime, nor will we treat it
as anything more or less than a heinous crime ourselves. Your goal is to create chaos -
this time we will not allow you to succeed.
By compelling Congress to reclaim its war powers from
the executive branch before another attack occurs, we will force our leaders to consider
their actions far, far more carefully this time than they did immediately after September
11th. We will force them to realize the monumentally irresponsible error they
committed in granting war powers without limit and without focus to a president who, as it
turns out, is more than eager to take every advantage of every ambiguity afforded him. We
will remember the truth of the adage our president could not quite wrap his intellect
around: "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me".
And maybe, just maybe, if we can put an end to the
incredibly stupid habit of using war as a metaphor for everything and everything - the war
on terror, drugs, poverty, homelessness, AIDs, etc. ad infinitum, we can begin once again
to seriously think about what a unique and terribly grave undertaking War is, and begin to
finally see it in its proper, deadly, and ultimately inhuman light.
September 18: We’re just back
from our meeting with the San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice tonight, where we were
very warmly received and WTETW was officially endorsed by SDCPJ. Thank you, all! I think
we made some very helpful contacts tonight - it’s going to take a while to sort
through everything. It’s also looking more and more every day like November 4th
is going to wind up being quite a gathering. I don’t work again until tomorrow
evening, so during the day I’m going to have to start talking to whatever officials I
need to contact in
One of the women at the meeting - Lace - was quite
enthusiastic about what we’re doing and spent a good deal of time with us helping us
prepare for upcoming media contacts. We really appreciated her input and we know this is
something we’re going to have to be ready for, but I have to tell the truth
here...I’m really not looking forward to it. I know I’m going to have to distill
things down into sound bites, three point messages, nine second exposures. It doesn’t
mean I have to like it. After all, the whole sound bite thing is nearly anathema to what
we’re trying to do. We’re trying to get people to think seriously about things
for more than nine seconds at a time. We’re trying to get people to pay attention to
what they’re being told. We’re trying to get people to stop thinking in slogans
and start thinking about what those slogans mean - for us right now and for the future of
our country.
And while I’m on that subject, let’s tackle
another one tonight. "We’ll stand down when
Look, you guys are new at this. You haven’t had
any experience in running a republic. You’ve already split off into separate
colonies, or "states", n’est ce pas? This whole thing could come falling
down around your ears, and that wouldn’t be good for either you or us. So we’ll
tell you what we’re going to do. We’ll stay right here for a while until
we’re sure you have your feet on the ground. You don’t have to do a thing.
We’ll bring our own contractors in to build the infrastructure you’re going to
need, and they’ll bring their own subcontractors in to make sure everything is done
right. While we’re at it, we’ll be building the biggest fort we’ve ever
built - probably somewhere down around the
Think about it. How long do you suppose we would have
put up with it? How long would it have been until every French soldier or contractor or
bureaucrat in sight had a target on his back? How long would it have been before we kicked
every single one of them back across the
P.S. I’d like to rephrase - for accuracy - a
question often asked recently. The question: How much of your freedom are you willing to
give up for a time to secure your safety? The more accurate question would be: How much of
the reality of your civil liberties, your constitutional rights, your freedom as an
American are you willing to relinquish - perhaps permanently - to buy for yourself an
illusion of safety? For in reality, there is not one single freedom or right which, once
relinquished, you won’t have to fight long and hard to regain. And there is not one
single freedom - nor any amount of them - that you could relinquish that would guarantee
your safety. Those who want you to give up your rights because they say doing so will make
you safer (when in reality they just find all those rights to be so damn inconvenient) are
selling you snake oil ladies and gentlemen - and it’s dangerous stuff.
September 17: We hit a milestone on
the 15th - over 100 visitors to our site on Friday! I am certain that is due to
the fact that Carol Jahnkow of San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice put our
announcement out on their email list. Thanks, Carol and SDCPJ!
Jonna and I took our oldest granddaughter and the
guys (Finn & Spoof) to a Kids Walk for Peace at
Tomorrow evening I’ve been invited to present my
project to a meeting of United for Peace and Justice in
I had a brain drizzle (never quite get as full blown
as brain storms) the other day. We know we’re going to wind up selling our Jeep to
help finance this (although I really, really, really hate to part with it!), and I thought
maybe we ought to do that now. That way I could stop working or work only part time and
use the proceeds to keep things going until the walk begins. This would free me up to do a
lot more work with the website, answer emails, put together plans, scout out speaking
opportunities, etc. It turns out Jonna had the same thought, but is counting on the
proceeds from the Jeep to keep us running through November and part of December. So unless
some more generous angels find their way to us I’ll be plugging away at the job as
long as I can and continue to do the rest of the stuff whenever I’m able to find the
time.
While most everything about this has been going even
better than we had ever thought possible, the one thing that is still worrisome is the
financial aspect. We have had exactly two donations so far. True, they were both quite
generous, but they were the only two. I expected from the beginning that we wouldn’t
see much of anything in the way of financial support until I was at least several hundred
miles into the journey, but I guess with as well as everything else is going, I sort of
thought we’d see a bit more in the way of smaller contributions by now. I’m not
going to worry about it. I know that we can finance the whole thing by selling the house -
and neither of us have any compunctions about doing that if we must, but I’m sure
we’re both hoping that will wind up being a possibility rather than a necessity. For
one thing, by the time we’re in a position where we’ll have to do that I’ll
be a thousand miles or more down the road - and I’d hate to leave Jonna to go through
that all by herself. This is going to be as much - and quite probably more - workload on
her in the long run as it will be on me and I really don’t want to put her in a
position where even more is heaped upon her. She’s a strong woman, but this was my
idea and it’s hardly fair that so much of the nuts and bolts burden should fall on
her. Of course, I realized right from the start that when this is all said and done,
I’m going to wind up in the position of owing her one in perpetuity - certainly for
the rest of our lives and quite probably through several subsequent incarnations.
I was sitting here trying to think of whether it was
time for another current events rant and decided I’d save it for later. I promised to
brag on the guys a bit and I probably won’t have much time to do that when the walk
gets underway, so I think I’ll do it now. Our guys are Finn and Spoof. Or Finnegan
and Spoofendifer (don’t ask me - Jonna named him. It’s something her uncle used
to call the kids when they were being ornery. We just hope it isn’t a vulgarity in
some Germanic tongue). Or Redwinds Highland Spirit and Redwind’s Highland Sprite.
They’re Shetland Sheepdogs - kennel brothers - that is to say, from the same breeder
but not from the same parents. Finn is two and a half and Spoof is one and a half. Finn is
a moosebutt - far too big to be shown in AKC conformation rings. Spoof is right about at
the maximum size for a Sheltie to enter the show ring.
Jonna and I have owned and loved many dogs through
our lives. When our previous dog, Sunshine - a terrier/traveling salesman mix - died at
the ripe old age of 18 it took us about a year and a half before we were ready for another
dog (we grow quite attached to our dogs and grieve them deeply). We decided to try a
purebred and thought a Sheltie would be a good match for us - and that’s how we wound
up with Finn. And since we got a breed that is known to be very good at such things as
obedience and agility and herding, we thought we might try our hand at some of that stuff
for the very first time.
As it turns out, Finn is a canine genius. Really. We
ruled out agility right away, because Finn is just about the most mellow, laid back dog
you’ve ever seen. I picked up a book on obedience training, and by the time he turned
6 months old, Finn had his first win in the obedience ring. He had his first AKC Obedience
title by the time he was nine months old. At that time, we decided to have him tested to
see if he had the instinct for herding. He was a natural. At ten months, he had his first
herding title. He now has five herding titles and is working on his sixth and seventh. One
of the things about my pending walk that pains me deeply is that it means Finn’s
herding career has had to go on hold. Several judges have already told me he has the
potential to become a herding champion, and I don’t doubt that. But the most
important thing is that he absolutely loves herding the sheep, and I hate to deprive him
of that while I’m walking, but it has to be. When the walk is over we’ll get
back into it and pick up where we left off.
Then there is Spoof. We thought it would be a good
idea for Finn to have a buddy and we were right. After an initial and expected short
period of jealousy, they get along great together - chasing each other in and out of the
house and romping and rolling around - except when they’re sleeping or trying to
convince us that they are both about to drop dead from starvation. But where we sometimes
call Finn "Finn the Wonder Dog", we call Spoof "Spoof the
Wonder-What-He’s-Up-To-Now" dog. Finn glows. Spoof sparkles. Finn has herding
and obedience titles. Spoof has finally learned to poop in the right places. Not that
Spoof isn’t every bit as smart as Finn - he is. He just needs to learn to use his
powers for good. And most of the time he seems to have too much fun finding ways to get
into trouble to consider that yet.
I guess I should also mention that they’re both
drop-dead gorgeous. That’s not prejudiced opinion - it’s simple observation.
Almost invariably when we take them out walking in public places, we wind up at some point
being surrounded by people who want to pet them or have their pictures taken with them.
I’m not kidding. And Finn in particular looks like a bit smaller sized version of
Lassie. We had never realized what a cross-cultural phenomenon Lassie is until we got
Finn. We have a habit of counting the number of times we hear "Lassie!" when we
walk the guys. San Diego gets lots of international visitors, and it doesn’t matter
where they come from, they all know Lassie - European, Chinese, Japanese, South American,
African, all parts of Asia - we’ve heard "Lassie!" from people who
didn’t know another word of English.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we all knew
"Peace" in each others’ language?
Enough bragging on our guys for now. You were warned.
September 15: Busy! Just a quick
note tonight - an open memo for all members of congress who have voted to pass legislation
that would permit interrogation methods which are barred by the Geneva Convention (and
thus, in the eyes of most of the civilized world) as cruel, humiliating and degrading
treatment, as well as "outrages upon personal dignity.":
1. Torture does not work. Period. Ask any expert.
2. Torture, in whatever form and notwithstanding
whatever imagined justification, is the most immoral, inhuman, unethical act imaginable.
3. If we step outside of the boundaries of the Geneva
Convention, we immediately lose any basis to criticize, condemn or correct those who would
do the same to our own people.
4. (And most important, I think, in respect to those
I’m addressing) - We, the People - our nation, our ethos, our values - DO NOT PERMIT
TORTURE!!! If you have voted to allow deviance from the Geneva Convention, you have
completely lost touch with those you represent and need to immediately step down from
public service. There is no debate on this. There are no qualifications, no what-ifs, no
arguments. Up until now, your reluctance to do the job for which we hired you, your
inattention to the excesses and over-reaching of our executive branch, and your narrow
minded focus on what you seem to think will play well in the polls have merely been
chipping away at our civil liberties, our freedom and - yes - our ultimate security. But
with this vote you are now beginning to chip away at our nation’s very soul. Stop.
Now. Walk away before you can do any more damage and let someone who remembers what it
means to be an American take your place.
September 13: Jonna and I drove the
first leg of the route today from
When we returned from our research trip, there was
some great news in our email. First, Carol Jahnkow of the
September 12: Story time. I lost my
dad to cancer when I was in my mid twenties and he was only fifty-two. It was devastating.
I not only loved him deeply, but still consider him to be one of the most intelligent
people I have ever known. He loved life, was a very spiritual person and had a tremendous
sense of humor. I believe everyone who knew my dad had great respect and admiration for
him.
I was dealing with the unfairness of his death at
such an early age when a neighbor said something to me that, I must confess, gave me great
comfort at the time. She told me that when someone like my dad, who had so much to offer,
dies so prematurely it must be because God had some very important work for him to do in
heaven. Understand that in my early twenties I was very accepting of all the conventional
interpretations and trappings of mainline western Christianity and not given much to
critical or analytical thinking in the social arena so, like I said, I found these words
to be very comforting - something to hang onto when my spirit was searching for a
"why".
Several years later and quite a while before I
entered the ministry I met a young man who was searching for truth and meaning in his
life. We had many conversations and in one of them he told me that he had rejected
spirituality and the entire concept of God in his quest - and he told me why. He said that
when he was a teenager one of his close friends was killed in a car accident and, of
course, he attended the funeral. During the funeral, the presiding pastor was searching
for words of comfort for family and friends, and intoned that if God had called this young
man home so soon it must have been because there was important work God needed him for in
heaven. My friend said that at that instant he thought, "What a greedy, insensitive,
arrogant God this is! What kind of God would cause this sort of grief to this boy’s
family and friends? What kind of God has so little consideration for us that he would
cheat someone of their life, destroy their mother and father - and all because there was
something ‘important’ to do in heaven? How omnipotent and all powerful is this
God who has to kill kids to get his work done for him?" He left the church that day
and never returned.
When he told me his story I realized immediately that
his reaction was perfectly normal and proper - and I never forgot what he taught me.
Later, when I entered the ministry, I carefully avoided using such simplistic platitudes,
having learned that if we take a moment to scratch the surface, they often say something
very dark and terrible.
I tell this story because I believe we need to stop
talking - and thinking - in slogans and platitudes. A few weeks ago I happened to catch a
short interview on TV of a mother who had lost her son in
It was her sole remaining strand of justification,
and she was holding onto it for her very life. I would never, ever take that lifeline away
from her because for right now - and possibly for a very long time to come - it is the
only thing that will allow her to get up in the morning and make it through another day.
But for the many out there who are not depending on this platitude to maintain a slim hold
on sanity but rather employing it merely as a justification or righteous reason why we are
doing what we are doing in Iraq, I would like to stop a minute and think about what we are
actually saying when we use this slogan. What are we saying about who we are? What are we
saying about our ethics, our values, and how we perceive the rest of the world?
Well, let’s try this analysis: What we are
saying is that if we do not wish to have the innocent blood of our citizens spilled, it is
perfectly alright for us to go essentially anywhere we desire - even into another
sovereign nation - draw our perceived enemies there, and wreak horrific slaughter and
destruction on strangers in a strange land rather than face the possibility that our own
citizens may be harmed. What we are saying is that we are somehow more valuable, more
deserving of protection than anyone else in the world. What we are saying is that we
somehow have the innate right to do whatever we want, wherever we want regardless of what
impact our actions have on others because, well, because we and our interests are somehow
superior to them and their interests. What we are saying is that, outside of the borders
or our own country (and perhaps even within those borders) we are the most arrogant,
immoral, unethical sociopaths ever to wander this planet - with the possible exception of
the
This may not be what we think we are saying. It may
not be what we want to say. But like those words years ago that for a time comforted me
while forever scarring the perceptions of my more perceptive friend, you can bet the
entire farm that those around the world who are watching us and scratching one iota
beneath the surface of our slogans are seeing America in a whole new light - or I guess I
should say a whole new darkness.
Let me approach it from a completely different angle
for a minute - a much simpler, more direct angle. Let’s just put the shoe on the
other foot. We are well aware that there are any number of neo-nazi and other deeply
anti-Semitic groups alive and well in this country, demonstrating their manic ignorance at
every opportunity. Let us suppose that one day, the leaders of
How would we react? What would we say to
The sooner we lose this slogan the better - for us.
And when we finally figure out what we’re telling the world when we say this, we had
better begin looking a lot more closely at the various other sound bites we’re using
to defend our indefensible hubris.
September 11: No words about the
fifth anniversary here - there’s plenty of that everywhere else. Another first today
- our first piece of "snail mail" to our PO box today - including a generous
contribution. Thank you, John!
And some very, very encouraging things today. At
long, long last I am beginning to hear people talking about what’s going on in at
least similar terms to what I’ve been saying for so long and what I’m trying to
address with my petition. As I write this I’m watching a show on the Discovery Times
channel featuring a town hall discussion moderated by Ted Koppel centering on the price -
or cost - of security (or the illusion of it). It should be shown in every high school
class in the country. People are finally realizing that the "war on terror"
isn’t a war at all. People are finally beginning to see that by framing this in the
language of war, we have elevated such radical splinter factions as Al Qaeda from the
murderous sociopaths they are and legitimized them in the eyes of the world. People are
finally talking about the ever more conspicuous push by the opportunists in the executive
branch to create an essentially imperial executive branch that would retain power,
authority and a position above the law indefinitely in the name of fighting an indefinite
"war". People are finally beginning to talk about who we believe ourselves to be
as a nation and whether what we are doing in the world accurately reflects our national
self image. All I can say is that it’s about time - and I hope what I’m going to
be doing will serve to further these discussions in some small way.
September 10: A Memo to the
Opportunist Occupying the Oval Office (or OOOO, for short)
Subject: We, the People
Sir: In the not too distant past you made the
statement, "I’m the decider." Excuse me, sir, but unless our country has
already slid much farther down the path toward a dictatorship than I had even feared, you
are NOT the decider. We, the People are the decider. We always have been, and we are going
to do whatever is necessary to ensure that we always will be. You, sir, are a civil
servant. We, the People make the decisions. You, our servant, don’t even have to like
them. Your job is to act on the decisions we make to the best of your ability as our
representative to the world at large. It is not your place to decide - and it is about
time that We, the People reminded you of that.
More recently you have declared unequivocally that
our sons and daughters will not be leaving
One of your predecessors in the Oval Office, Mr.
Harry Truman, used to keep a placard on his (actually, our) desk that said, "The Buck
Stops Here." You seem to suffer from a misconception of what that placard meant. To
Mr. Truman - and most other civil servants who have sat at that desk - the placard meant
that the ultimate responsibility for the actions and the welfare of our nation rests
squarely on the shoulders of the person occupying that position. It seems, however, that
you have taken it to mean that the ultimate authority, an authority which will permit no
dissent, disagreement or even questioning, belongs to you. In this you are most gravely
mistaken. The ultimate authority in this country belongs to We, the People. For some time
now you have seemed more than eager to claim any and all authority you think that placard
refers to, and you have been far more than reluctant to accept any of the responsibility
the sign actually refers to. It is well past time for you to get it straight - We, the
People are losing our patience with you.
September 9: While I was at work
today, Jonna was on the phone to our daughter and, of course, our youngest granddaughter.
She told our granddaughter about my plans to walk across the
I’m still trying to process this. I haven’t
gotten over worrying about my kids and grandkids on a fairly constant basis. I’m not
sure what to do with the idea of my grandchildren worrying about me. Heck, it’s been
ten years since the birth of our first granddaughter and I still have a hard time thinking
of myself as grandpa. The hair is sparse and gray and random parts are a bit creaky some
mornings, but I’m still twenty-something somewhere in my brain (Jonna will tell you
that I’m perpetually twelve, but that’s another story).
The consensus so far seems to be:
Grandkids - Two are just learning to toddle so they
don’t have an opinion. One is deeply concerned for my well-being and one is just
plain excited.
Kids - Two seem to be really proud of what I’m
doing but are very worried about my safety; one thinks it’s really cool; one
understands why I’m doing it but wishes I’d figure out some saner way to occupy
myself and is also worried; and the jury is still out on the fifth. I think there is
general agreement among them that they should probably come after me with a butterfly net,
but they realize it wouldn’t do any good.
There have actually been a number of times in my life
- more, I think, than most people encounter - when for reasons of conscience or a sense of
the necessity to do what is right - I have found myself compelled to step outside of my
comfort zone, my cocoon of middle class American safety and security. Some of those times
things have worked out well. Sometimes they have not. But I have never regretted having
taken the risk, and I know I would feel like so much waste of skin and bone if I had never
done the things that have placed me in uncertain circumstances. Maybe that’s why I
have a hard time with all of our politicians telling us that they know better than the
next one how to keep us safe. It’s too bad not a single one of them has the good
sense to stand up and say that, in the final analysis, nobody can keep us completely safe
and that the wisest course of action would be to stop fueling what has become a national
obsession and get used to the idea that none of us were born into this world with a
guarantee stamped on our butts.
In fact, it occurs to me that too much security drags
down both the potential and the richness of our lives. How many people only do what they
do for a living because they fear losing the security of the status quo should they try
something new? How many people live where they live because it’s more secure than
pulling up roots and moving to someplace new and unfamiliar? How many of us fear people of
other races or other cultures because we’ve never stepped out of our circle of
familiar homogenous friends and acquaintances and customs to actually get to know and try
to understand someone from a completely different place and background? How much
adventure, how much growth, how much wonder is lost in the name of security. It seems to
me that, given what we must sacrifice for it, security is highly over-rated.
September 6: We sent announcements
to about twenty area churches today and are still working on our list of individuals to
contact. In order to help raise the money we’re going to need to do this we’ve
put a good number of books up for sale on Half.com and have already had pretty good luck
selling those. Tomorrow I’ll be setting up a little photo studio on the dining room
table to photograph a number of our collectables and antiques and other strange stuff that
we plan to put up on Ebay to raise some money. Jonna’s working on plans to set up for
a day at either the Spring Valley swap meet or at Kobey’s in
One of the concerns that’s been in the back of
my mind since the formation of this idea has been for my own personal safety as I do this
walk. Our nation is so politically polarized right now that I have little doubt that if I
wind up attracting any attention, there will be those who, in the mistaken belief that
this is a political statement, would wish to do me harm. It’s something I’m
going to have to live with. Yes, I certainly have major grievances with our current
president and the people surrounding him who are manipulating us in extraordinarily
dangerous ways. But I do not consider him to be a Republican (and most real Republicans
will heartily agree with me), and I harbor no ill will toward those who call themselves
Republicans, know what it means to be one, and act like it.
I believe that as a nation, we are in the midst of a
crisis of grief arising from September 11, 2001. The trouble is, if you’re familiar
with Elizabeth Kubler Ross’ definitive analysis of the grief process, we are stuck
firmly in the anger stage - and being grossly manipulated to remain there by those who
view it as advantageous. Anger - and fear - are controlling our society at the moment. And
it works to the advantage of some because while we are angry we tend not to think too
clearly, and while we are fearful we tend to be easily controlled and manipulated. And
that is precisely what is happening.
This is not theory - it is observation. I work with
people who represent a general range of political affinity, religious beliefs and so
forth. And more than once, when news has come on the television at the shop of more deaths
of our sons and daughters in
As I said, my walk is not a political statement. I
was born and raised in a staunch Republican family. I know what Republicans stand for. And
I can tell you for certain that the people running our executive branch at this moment are
not Republicans. I have tried to come up with a properly descriptive label and the one I
think fits best is that they are Opportunists. They’ll wear the Republican mantle
because it serves their purposes. They will mouth the words of ethics, family values and
morality, but their actions totally belie those words - the words serve their purposes;
actually living them does not. In some cases, such as economics, the classic Republican
agenda does not suit them at all, so they simply abandon it. If I were a Republican, I
think I would be more outraged about what’s going on right now than if I were a
Democrat.
And what is the Opportunist agenda? I can’t
pretend to know the details, but I do know what is at the center of it. It is all about
power and control of this nation and, ultimately, the world. There are those who would say
that it is about profit - about wealth - and I would not disagree except to observe that
in the end, wealth is merely a means to obtain power and control, so it is actually a
secondary rather than a primary concern. The bothersome little secret the Opportunists are
trying to get around is that a nation based on democratic principles does not permit any
one group or any one person to acquire the kind of power and control they seek to
acquire...unless we allow them to change the fundamental way our country operates. And at
this moment that is exactly what we’re allowing them to do. Once upon a time we
abhorred such a concept as a pre-emptive strike. Once upon a time we would rise up as one
and proclaim without reserve that this nation would never stoop to such depths as
condoning torture or indefinite imprisonment without charges or counsel. Once upon a time
we would have shed blood in the streets before we would allow any public servant (remember
that our president and Congress are public servants?) to acquire unlimited, unchecked
power to break or ignore literally every and any law that forms the soul of our nation.
All of those things have now happened. Have we had enough yet? Is it time to take back the
reins of our nation which rightly and only belong in the hands of We the People? Will we
do it while we are still in a place where we can do it peacefully and rationally? I pray
so.
September 5: A very busy and quite
incredible day today. I had to get up at 4:30 this morning to chauffeur a lady to
I needn’t have worried. Veterans working for
peace causes are a very special group of people. As Jonna noted on the way home,
she’s worked with peace groups all of her life and on many occasions has been very
deeply involved, but veterans are in a class by themselves. They have been there. When
they speak out or work for peace they are not coming from youthful idealism or radical
activism or political agendas. They speak from having been through personal experience -
some of it inexpressably horrible - and they know what war does to human beings, and they
know that there must always be a better way.
We were very, very well received and we made two
definite contacts for other opportunities to speak and began to talk about setting up a
network to provide places to stay and groups to meet with as I walk across the country. It
was an absolutely wonderful way to begin our public presentation of our project.
When the meeting was over, one of the members came up
to us and handed me a check. True to my chauffeur’s training, I didn’t look at
it when she handed it to me, but thanked her most sincerely for her generosity. This was,
after all, our very first monetary contribution to our project, so it was very special.
She said she had visited our website and felt that we were doing a wonderful thing. As we
were driving home, I took the check out of my pocket and took a look at it. Jonna nearly
fell out of the van! I’m not mentioning names or amounts here, but you know who you
are - and you are an absolute angel! From the very beginning of this Jonna has been pretty
well tied in knots, fearing that we’ll do this and nobody will pay any
attention...nobody will care. Tonight, suddenly, that has changed a bit and for the first
time Jonna is saying, "We can really do this." Yes, we can. There will be down
times to come and up times to come. But this night will be remembered. You’ve
empowered us. Thank you cannot begin to be enough, but Thank You!
Also confirmed today that we had indeed been offered
the use of a bus by a wonderful lady in Ramona. She understood perfectly when we had to
tell her that Jonna just can’t handle something that big, but we are profoundly
grateful for the offer. I’ll be looking forward to meeting her in Ramona in the very,
very early part of my walk.
We’ve already decided that our official starting
date will actually be a Saturday - either right before or right after the first of
November. We’ll make a final decision tomorrow and reflect that here on the website.
For tonight, we’re both pretty much emotionally exhausted and need to get some rest
to prepare for another busy day tomorrow.
September 3: I think the emotional
impact of the past couple of weeks finally caught up with me today and I pretty much
collapsed. Fortunately I had most of the day off. Unfortunately I spent a good part of it
trying to get out of bed. I did manage to get it together in time to help Jonna clean up
the van a bit. I did have one evening run - guess I haven’t mentioned yet that my
current occupation is as a chauffeur (long story behind that best saved for another time)
- and sat down to check the website when I got home.
The website statistics haven’t been updating
since Friday night, so I don’t know how many people have been visiting the site, but
I know we’ve had visitors, because we’ve received several new signers to the
petition and our first offer of a place to stay for a night along the way - thanks,
Ronald!
And...I think we’ve had our first offer of a
support vehicle. I say "I think" because I only received the second part of the
message that was sent and it seemed to be talking about a bus that’s available. A
bus?! Wow! That’s a fantastic offer - especially so soon. But as much as I would
deeply appreciate such an offer - if that’s what it is - it would certainly be
problematic. For one thing, we’re going to have to wait and see if we will be able to
find enough financial support to allow Jonna to come along with me as I walk to D.C. - and
for another, Jonna has already said that she wouldn’t feel comfortable driving
anything much larger than our van. She also isn’t licensed to drive something huge.
Matter of fact, if by November we’re able to
raise the kind of support we need to allow her to come along, it may wind up that our
trusty, rusty ol’ van will be our support vehicle. True, it already has enough miles
on it to have driven to the moon (quite literally) but what’s a few thousand more? At
least we’d be together. And if we have to be apart for several months that will be
the absolute worst thing about this whole adventure. The dogs would come long too, of
course - Finn and Spoof. I haven’t bragged on Finn and Spoof yet - I’ll have to
do that sometime soon.
September 2: Checking the statistics
this morning, I see that we had 33 unique visitors to the website yesterday. That is
outstanding! It means that, even though I haven’t yet heard back from many of the
organizations we contacted with our official launch on Thursday night, many of them have
at least taken a peek at the website - and that’s a start. If I don’t have to
spend too much time at work today I hope we can send out our planned announcements to
other organizations and individuals. We wanted to hit some of the local and major antiwar
groups with the first announcement. The second group will be to a number of churches and
to specific individuals we want to notify, such as select senators and members of
Congress. Our thoughts right now are to wait a bit before notifying any news media, as I
doubt that they’re going to be very interested until we get much closer to November
first.
I realize my petition may seem a bit simplistic to
some, but I would encourage people not to confuse simplistic with simple. Yes, it is a
simple approach to ending these wars, bringing our sons and daughters home and restoring a
sane balance of power within our government, but it is far from simplistic. After all the
obfuscation, half truths and untruths that have been slung at us over the past few years I
fear that many people are no longer capable of cutting through it all to get down to the
basics of the situation - and that’s what my petition tries to do. When we cut
through all the garbage and get right to the core elements, it is rather easy to
understand that whatever we’re doing in the
But here’s the scary part. If the response to
these realizations is going to be, "Well, if we can’t call it war under the
historic definition of war, then let’s change the definition of war so that we can
continue to do what we’re doing," - then we’re in for real trouble. The
moment we change our definition and understanding of war to accommodate our present
actions we will discover that we have quite literally embarked on a permanent war,
limitless and unending. The "war" on terror - even as it is defined in the
resolutions that ceded Congress’ war powers to the president - does not define a
specific entity as the enemy. It does not define a specific goal that this "war"
is to achieve. It does not speak to identifiable geographic boundaries, balances of power
or distributions of authority. What it does do is permit the president, at will, to
declare war on any given organization, group of people - or even an individual. Imagine
that - the president can declare that the
And the thing that makes it an endless war is that
it’s a war against a concept, an idea, an abstract - a war against terror. The sad
reality is that there is not a single soul alive who is not capable, in their darkest of
hearts, of employing terror tactics when pushed hard enough and far enough. The capability
to unleash terror is a frightening but intrinsic part of the human condition. So
ultimately, the only way to "wipe out" terror (and you’ve heard that phrase
used) is to annihilate all of humanity. If that realization doesn’t frighten you I
don’t know what will.
If we allow the "war" on terror to be
included in our accepted definition of what a war is, the president will obviously have
the right to retain the war powers ceded to him indefinitely and in perpetuity. Our
nation’s careful balance of powers ceases to exist, and the executive branch of our
government can do quite literally anything it decides to do for no other reason that it
has determined - in its sole discretion - that the organization, group or individual
against which it chooses to act is capable of terrorist activities and therefore an enemy.
In other words, by the simple step of considering terror to be an acceptable target
against which to wage an actual war - and giving the president the authority to do so - we
have instantly established the foundation of a totalitarian dictatorship to replace our
democracy. This is not a reach at all. It’s already in place. Think about it. This is
why it is crucial that our leadership revisits the fundamental concept of war, realizes
that our efforts to combat terrorism should not and must not be permitted to be defined as
a war, and immediately undoes the damage it has done by granting the executive branch the
power to wage war against an idea. We are in the midst of perhaps the greatest crisis our
nation has ever faced as we have set the stage for a complete dissolution of our
democracy. I hope that my petition will help cut to the center of this crisis and correct
it before so many of our rights and freedoms have been compromised that we will find none
of our constitutional avenues of action are left to pursue.
September 1: We had planned to send
out the first official announcements of our project today, but actually jumped the gun a
bit and sent announcements to a number of organizations late last night. As a result,
today has been a day of firsts. Our first direct response came from Gila Svirsky from the
Coalition of Women for Peace. She said, "Good luck from the women’s peace
movement in
Our next first came from Dave Patterson from the San
Diego Veterans for Peace. Dave wanted to know if I’d be willing to speak at their
next meeting on Tuesday. Wild horses couldn’t keep me away, Dave! When I got home
from work in the evening and checked the website email, I found we had received both our
first webmail (from Steve Bisbikis, a
Wow - I had some really steamy rhetoric that I was
just about to publish here, but at the very last minute decided - for now - to be valorous
(as it relates to discretion) and save it for another time and place.
August 31: I’ve kept a loose
journal of what has happened since the inception of this idea on August 18th,
but have decided it would be best to spare visitors the angst, trauma and drama of the
past couple of weeks - and there certainly has been plenty of all of that. But tomorrow is
the date we’ve set to officially launch this project in terms of letting the world at
large know what we’re proposing to do, so it seemed like a good time to begin the
journal as well.
We start with some wonderful good news. Our daughter
Becky called this afternoon to tell us she may have found our very first sponsor. Nothing
definite yet, but a business that may be willing to provide some needed electronics for
the journey. Since Jonna and I have elected to approach this whole thing working on the
assumption that we will wind up completely on our own and having to find a way to do this
on our own almost nonexistent resources, it comes as a very welcome surprise to find
someone interested in helping us - and before we’ve even officially launched! Whoever
you are, you can’t imagine how much this has encouraged us, and we thank you in
advance.
Tonight we’re still working on the format of
tomorrow’s announcement and exactly what organizations and which people we’re
going to send it to. Jonna, a classic technophobe if there ever was one, had been assuming
that we’d print letters and send them out to various people. When I told her that I
thought emails would be both more efficient and more effective she confessed that the
thought had never even occurred to her.
We’ve decided that in this first announcement the best plan will probably be to make the message fairly short, referring people to the website to find our petition and the rationale behind it. We hope it won’t take too long to determine what sort of response that produces, then we’ll work from there on deciding how to further generate some attention for the project. Our hope, of course, is that we’ll find some folks who are interested in what we have to say and that I’ll soon be able to establish opportunities to speak to various groups and begin to create some momentum. While the journey and the opportunity to meet and talk with people along the way is the thing, I am going to be holding on to the hope that we just may have the potential to become a catalyst for something much larger than our own personal convictions.
Journal Archives
2006
2007