 Ed Garren is our WeHoNews roving reporter, writer and thinker. He writes from his travels across America and from his temporary base in Portland, ORBy Ryan Gierach. |
Near the end of the movie recounting his life, His adopted daughter Mirabehn and Margaret Bourke White are talking, reflecting on his life and work. Mirabehn says, "He thinks he's failed. --- When we most needed it, he offered the world a way out of madness, but he doesn't see it. Neither does the world."
I cannot begin to articulate the sickness I feel over what is going on in the Middle East these days. I don't have a favored position. I can't force blame on anyone, except possibly the United States and the British for almost a century of meddling, and dividing people into groups that hate each other, and then forcing them to live next to each other, starving their dignity, feeding their hatred.
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I want to clarify that in the purest sense of the word, I am a "Zionist", I've always believed that Israel has the right to exist and thrive. In the 1970s I was proud to buy a set of La Havre tires (made in Israel) for a car I owned, and when shopping for irrigation products, I preferred to buy "Lego" sprinklers (also made in Israel). I figured if anyone knows about efficient irrigation, it is the Israelis.
 Photo by Mikel Gerle. |
But after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, something in me died. At a gathering to discuss the events and the killing, members of a particular Jewish group spoke energetically, even quoting Torah, saying Rabin was a traitor to the Jewish people and that he deserved to die. A black friend in the crowd quietly turned to me and said, "Damn, they've got their own versions of Farrakhan, why are they pointing the finger at us"?
Then Ariel Sharon came into power and everything just took a nose dive. I know that he thought he had good reason to seek vengeance against Arafat, but in the ensuing years, it seems that things have gotten worse, not better.
I have a friend, a Persian Jew, who left Israel because he was constantly mistaken for an Arab. Exhausted from being maltreated by "his own", he came to America, where he is still mistaken for an Arab, but it is less threatening because he can't get arrested here for simply looking like an Arab.
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The thing about war that few tend to remember is that it's just like pointing a gun at someone. You don't do it unless the gun is loaded and you intend to shoot them.
Neither the Arabs or the Israelis are compelled by their religious tradition to forgive. Jesus commanded his followers to forgive, specifically stating that we would be forgiven by God in direct proportion to how we have forgiven our enemies in this life.
 Photo by Mikel Gerle. |
Not all who call themselves "Christian" follow this precept, but it has been the underpinning for American diplomacy for much of our history. A Chinese friend once told me years ago that the reason China had some respect for Americans was that after the Boxer rebellion, the United States was the only nation that forgave it's war reparations against the Chinese. Certainly the Marshall plan, in particular our rebuilding of Germany after WWII embodied this ethos, one which seems sorely lacking in the current insanity in the middle east.
Does anyone remember the Korean Air 747 that got shot down when it accidentally breached Soviet air space? No vengeance was sought because of the dire consequences of a possible nuclear war.
But it seems okay to make "little war." Bomb houses, flatten people under tons of concrete when it collapses, fire rockets back and forth, burn people to death with napalm, blow them into pieces with rockets, mortars and high powered guns. Who cares if we kill 30 people to get to the five that are terrorists, or at least suspected terrorists, "we got them, that's what counts."
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I wonder how long it will take for all of these wars in the middle east to escalate into a nuclear holocaust. Even if it doesn't, how many decades will it take before anyone comes close to forgiveness and some sense of normalcy?
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Is the price of vengeance worth it? Does vengeance ever work? Is the world a safer place? Is there less terrorism because of retaliation? Has it worked?
I listened to Condoleeza the other night on Larry King. She sounded very intelligent, and well meaning talking about the failed American policy of "Stability at any price." What she basically meant was, "we install a dictator, and teach them how to oppress the people they rule, arm them and encourage them to torture and kill anyone who disagrees with them." She went on to say that the new American policy is more inclined to establish stability by way of establishing democracy.
 Photo by Mikel Gerle. |
Frankly, as much as I want it to work, and hope it will work, it strikes me as much as saying, "I want to teach my children independence by protecting them from making mistakes and writing checks to bail them out when they do."
What's wrong with this picture?
Years ago, I had a person pass through my life on a regular basis. His name was Mohammed, he operated a small business in Orange County. One day we were talking and I asked him about why and how he had come to America. With the innocence of a child, he said, "When I was a little boy, in a remote village in Afghanistan, we had no food. We were starving to death. One day, a truck rumbled into our village, it stopped, and unloaded sacks of grain, hundreds of them. Each one said, 'A gift to you from the people of the United States.' John Kennedy was president. I decided then and there that I was going to move to this great country, that could give food to people half way around the world, and when I became a citizen, I would become a Democrat, just like John Kennedy."
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Later, he went to a Pakistani refugee camp to bring his young wife back to the United States. In his mind our greatness rested in our generosity and compassion, not in our weaponry.
August 6th looms, and I ask myself, does anyone here know how to "wage peace?" Mohandus did, so did Martin Luther King. Are their lessons simply empty history? Are they flukes of the past, historic weirdoes that have nothing to teach us? How could anyone take them seriously? Look at what happened to both of them?
 Photo by Mikel Gerle. |
How much would it cost to wage peace in the middle east? Instead of dropping bombs, dropping sacks of food, medical supplies, whatever will help. Instead of fueling the fires of vengeance, which both sides in this battle seem to be very good at, has anyone thought of trying something different? Certainly the current course hasn't solved anything. Ten years ago, the area was relatively stable. Now it's a powder keg, with fires near both sides, and seemingly ready to explode.
I bought a book case last month that had something stamped on the box that no one 25 years ago could have imagined, "Made In Viet Nam."
I see the news clips of the Arabs in all their rage, burning American flags, bodies of Americans, all of it. I flash back on Ku Klux Klan rallies, cross burnings, lynch mobs, and the killings of Medgar, Martin and Malcolm. Could anyone from that world comprehend what exists today? Could "Bull" Conner or Lester Maddox comprehend the world of legal racial integration and the big "ho hum" over all that they were so worked up about?
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Medgar and Martin could, as well as Mohandus, all of whom understood the concept of "neighborliness." They understood that when the dust is settled, we will still share in close proximity the same patch of earth, and former enemies will struggle to make a living off of it. While not perfect, today's "south" is a model for race relations to the rest of the country. Even Malcolm X came to understand that forgiveness and love is the only way to live in this world. One does not stop being angry, but one chooses not to seek vengeance for one's pain.
Peace does not happen because of the rule of vengeance and punishment. It happens because of forgiveness. It happens because oppressors are able to come to terms with their own oppression, people became less interested in being right and teaching others a lesson, and more interested in getting along and building a community of neighbors.
 Photo by Mikel Gerle. |
Martin Luther King said it best, "We will either learn to live together as brothers, or perish together as fools."
Part of living together as brothers/sisters is learning to say "I was wrong, I'm sorry, please forgive me", all things which our desperately litigious society seems incapable of saying. The first thing our lawyer will tell us is, "Never admit guilt."
When I was a teenager, we had neighbors who had fled Castro's Cuba. The husband, whose family owned an agricultural factory, would occasionally talk about the betrayal by his employees, who joined the revolution and forced them out. "We gave them everything, houses to live in, schools, a store to shop in," etc. His American wife would leave the room to another part of the house, pain all over her face. On one occasion, I followed her and she quietly added, "They gave them everything except dignity and hope."
What hope does anyone have in the Middle East? With all this talk of peace, I don't see any actions to back it up. We wrongly invaded Iraq, which will haunt us for decades. The rest of the region seems perpetually inclined to ongoing vengeance and bloodshed, neither side willing to just stop and try something else.
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Sooner or later someone must take the moral high ground and refuse to offer vengeance for vengeance, blood for blood. Sadly, I don't think it's going to happen. The children of Abraham, by both Sarah and Hagar seem determined to destroy each other in the world's worst case of sibling rivalry. I'm sure Abraham is weeping. Sarah and Hagar can't be very happy either.
As much as the children suffer in war, it is the mothers who I think must suffer the most. Anyone who has ever actually been in combat will tell you, there are no winners in war, only survivors.
 Photo by Mikel Gerle. |
What if Israel had offered a truckload of grain to Hezbollah for the kidnapped soldier instead of a rain of bombs? Even if the first load of grain didn't work, after a few, the message would get across. "I respect you in spite of your actions, because you are also a child of God." This posture melted the British Empire, and Jim Crow segregation in America. Has launching retaliation brought the soldier home alive?
I'm sure Arab children go to bed hungry. How would they feel if the grain for the very bread they ate had been given to them by those they had been taught to hate? What sort of consciousness might awaken in them if they were treated with kindness, even in the face of their culture's hate?
Both King and Gandhi spoke of how non-violence forced the perpetrator of hate to examine his own conscious. I have seen former Klansmen weeping for their sins. Are we weeping for ours? Do the Israeli mothers weep for the Arab mothers whose children die? Do we Americans weep for the Iraqis who are homeless and orphaned?
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If we dare to call ourselves a "Christian Nation", then are we prepared to face God's "lessons" to correct our errant behavior?
There is no righteousness in war, vengeance serves no one, it only adds to the insanity, it never stops it. There are no profits to be made in peace. Love does not enhance the bottom line. No bombs made of grain or flowers get sold for profit.
In my darkest moments, I think we have just gone mad with fear and nothing will awaken us until we are all forced to look beyond our own little empires of protection and greed. From West Hollywood to Bagdad, Tel Aviv to Tehran, not much is different, everyone is looking out for number one, with little regard for anyone else's pain, or any long term consequences which our children will be forced to pay.
May God have mercy on us all.
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"The only devils in the world are those running round in our own hearts, and that is where all our battles ought to be fought." Mohandus K. Gandhi
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There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times - Molly Ivins.
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Edward "Ed" Garren, MFT, Edward "Ed" Garren, MFT is a Family Therapist, justice activist, former West Hollywood City Council candidate, writer and sojourner. He is originally from the Tampa Bay area of central Florida. Ed has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Frontiers news magazine, and other books, including "Out of My Mind", a pictorial memoir by Kris Nelson. He is currently working on a book about Addiction in America. More information about Ed can be found at: www.edgarren.us.
Ed Garren can be reached, even in the Red America’s wilds, at