Editorial

As I am preparing this edition of the CUSLAR newsletter, many in our country are contemplating what will happen if/when our administration decides to go to war with Iraq (not to mention the fact that we have been consistently bombing Iraq for over a decade already). It is a terrifying prospect, I admit, whose ramifications I cannot fully imagine. However, what I find infinitely more frightening than this is our collective ability to forget all of the other problems in our country and our world. Whatever happened to Enron and Worldcom? How about the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor right here in the world’s most prosperous nation? What about the horrifying rate of prison expansion? What about the environment? Not to mention all of the other wars our government is fighting. What happened to Afghanistan? Israel and Palestine? How about Colombia? How many Americans can find Colombia on a map, much less tell you that our government is financing their “civil” war? What is going to happen in Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, and Chiapas in the next few months? And how many of us will be paying attention?

Last night I watched Michael Moore’s new film, Bowling for Colombine. And what struck me most was the way in which he described America’s culture of fear. We obsessively lock our doors to keep unknown perpetrators out. We send our mail to laboratories and order gas masks to protect ourselves from deadly Anthrax. We fear flying, West Nile virus, and killer bees. We fear the threat of “evil-doers” of the world who live halfway around the globe and are concocting plans for our destruction. We fear each other. We fear what we are supposed to fear, and forget the rest.

But I’m tired of this incessant circle of fear and violence. I say, let us not live in fear. Let us not be distracted. Every few years we get fed a new story, but the reality remains the same. Another enemy to fear. Another war to fight. But it really all boils down to the same thing.

We know how the story has played out in Latin America. We’ve always been fighting a war there. It used to be a war on Communism. Then it was a War on Drugs. Now it is a War on Terrorism. And in 10 or 20 years it will be called something else, but it will still be a war. Because Latin America will still have resources that we want. And isn’t that what this is all about? We only fight wars for oil. For timber. For water. For natural gas. For access to these resources. And our government consistently scares us into going to war with them.

So today I am starting a “No Fear” campaign. Because I refuse to blindly fear whatever we’re told to fear this week in order to get us to blindly follow our leaders to yet another war. Let’s empower ourselves so that we do not have to live in fear of every illusive enemy our government tells us about.

No Fear.

No War.

No Blood for Oil.

Not In My Name.

Not Now.

Not Ever.