The Pacifist In Me

I'm always surprised at the things that get a reaction from deep in my gut. I know that I'm opposed to war, but sometimes I find that my opposition sneaks up and surprises me.

A couple of days ago I got an email that featured photographs of the USS New York, a new warship. The unusual thing about this warship is that it was constructed out of the scrap metal recovered from the World Trade Center. On one level, I could appreciate the recycling of that material, and that it was probably somewhat labor intensive to create something out of masses of tangled scrap. Or maybe not, if all the steel was just put in a large smelter and reconstituted.

Aside from the "ingenuity" of it, I found myself feeling saddened and offended, that someone thought it was a good idea to use the World Trade Center remains to make a weapon of war. Under the last of the photos was the caption: "It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft." This ship is a massive new weapon in the war on terror. Why don't we realize that war IS terror?

I know my reaction to this is heavily colored by the fact that my next-door-neighbor's brother was killed in the Cantor Fitzgerald offices on 9/11, and her parents were the ones to write the NY Times to say to the whole country, "Don't retaliate in our son's name. Don't bring this kind of pain and anguish to other families." Another one of my friends, who lost her husband on one of the planes that flew into the Trade Center is a founding member of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. Through these people, I have met others who lost their loved ones on 9/11, but who have chosen to pursue a pathway to healing through forgiveness. They have worked tirelessly to forge connections with others around the world who are working for peace through understanding and education. They have raised my consciousness regarding the human capacity to forgive, to "love your enemy as yourself," and to witness for peace every day.

Could we have used the 24 tons of steel to build a school or hospitall? Could we have used the steel to build new bridges in this country or to help rebuild the bridges we have wrecked in Iraq? Why did we have to use the wreckage of so many human lives to create another weapon which may be instrumental in wrecking more lives?

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, " Wars make poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows." I would amend that to say, "Warships make poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows."