Anniversaries--and more dismal news from the Middle East

An exhilirating week last week, hosting the third retreat for members of the International Center for Women Playwrights--ten playwrights here writing during the days, then in the evenings cold readings of what they were working on with local performers. Also working as dramaturg for CATCO, our local professional theatre, and their production of original short plays, Ghost Light: The Shorts Festival 2006. That last brought me downtown today for a meeting--the theatre's across from the State Capitol. More news while driving home of corruption and graft on the funding for Katrina recovery, echoing the corruption and graft on suppliers in Iraq. Which reminded me--earlier in the month was the one-year anniversary of an explosion which killed eleven members of Lima Comapny, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines--a reserve company based in Columbus which, during its seven-month deployment in Iraq, lost a total of 23 men. The parents of one of the men killed last August joined us at a MoveOn vigil we organized to commemorate the 2000th American service member to die last fall. Aaron had been dead less than a month. Their memories made the vigil powerfully moving for the dozen of us gathered in the ravine with votive candles.

In June, "Eyes Wide Open", a travelling exhibit organized by the Quakers, visited Columbus. Here are some images of it, in front of the same State Capitol:


A pair of boots for every service member killed in Iraq was set on on the lawn, with tags attached giving their name, rank, age, branch of service, and home town. The boots were set out by state.
Here are Aaron's boots

and the view towards downtown office buildings.
In the center were shoes, slippers, and other footwear representing the Iraquis who've died.

After a week of being surrounded by creativity and artistry (and more about the retreat is available at http://icwpohioretreat.blogspot.com, which I hope captures some of the excitement that was palpable in the rehearsal rooms and theatre spaces), it was jarring to be returned to the world where politicians and profiteers and pundits all surround themselves with graft and outrageous profits, while other people suffer and die--apparently regarded as nothing more than means to profit or power or both.

And worse. In yesterday's Columbus Dispatch, Michael Barone, a syndicated columnist, accuses those who fail to celebrate the glories of the United States's past and its long history of bringing democracy to the world of being "covert enemies" which are equated with terrorists; in his words, "[t]hese covert enemies are those among our elites who have promoted the ideas labeled as multiculturalism, moral relativism and (the term is Samuel Huntington’s) transnationalism." Moral relativism, slipped in there, becomes the center piece, as those 'covert enemies' apparently publically proclaim that Adolf Hitler was entitled to his point of view.

Fifty years ago, when Senator Joseph McCarthy talked about a "fifth column" of traitors, the Communists were the villains. Now the connection is made to Hitler. The tactic is the same: slime those who disagree with you or who challenge the hegemony in any way. Discussing the fact that some of our Founding Fathers were slave holders is apparently equivalent to supporting the Holocaust.

And, of course, Barone's approach is not original with him. The drumbeats began in the early spring, all going in the same direction: to challenge the Administration is be cowardly, if not downright treasonous. Lieberman's primary defeat gives comfort to terrorists. To argue that there should be some reasonable exit strategy to extracate ourselves from the growing civil war in Iraq is defeatist, "cut and run!"

A side note. "Cut and run" is a naval term. It's what you did when tied up at anchor, and a particularly dangerous storm was approaching. You cut the lines keeping your ship moored at the dock--a dangerous place to be if strong winds were bashing the ship against the dock--and ran before the wind out to sea, for safety. Cutting and running is a wise defensive maneuvre, meant to protect the ship and its crew. As with so many other terms, the radical right has managed to totally subvert and distort the original meaning. In its original sense, cutting and running is precisely what American policy in Iraq should be.