Or: What Happens When You Decide to Stop Being Nice, and Start Being Real (and Nice).
I'm a teacher, a liberal, and I have an honest to goodness Certificate in Peace Studies to boot. My school is, um, well, it is failing. I diaried that already. My district is poor, undereducated, overdrugged, and heavily military. Perfect place for me, no?
So, one of the more rabid, pro-war Christianist ladies decided to launch a drive to "Support the Troops". Apparently the troops could really use some stationery and shampoo as much as extra armor for their humvees. Somebody should tell Rummy!
I emailed the organizer with my response which was that I didn't want to participate in any way in what I feel is an illegal and immoral war, so I wouldn't collect stuff in my room but my kids could give it to the teacher next door. What happened next? Read on---
A hate-filled invective of an email was returned to me. Oops! My suggestion to start a petition drive to bring 'em home wasn't appreciated. I should keep my opinion to myself. Wah?
This from a member of the God-squad who has never shrunk from an opportunity to mention her personal friend Jesus. Did I mention that I've been nice? I've ignored the insipid, religious emails that make their way around the school. They are not appropriate in a public school setting, but then again, not much harm, not much foul. But the email wound me up. I had a serious urge to make some sort of anti-yellow ribbon. Did I learn nothing in Peace Studies?
I went home and made a sign for my car that read:
Really support the troops: Bring them home!
Freedom of expression felt good too, so I added another sign that showed the famous "hooded Iraqi victim on box" and read:
Torture is not an American value
I was on a role! Neither sign seemed too far out. Bring 'em back home and Americans shouldn't torture other human beings. Who could argue with that?
The pro-torture people, that's who! When I left school the next day, there was a sign taped up over mine. It had several pictures of friendly, smiling American soldiers handing out candy to smiling, eager young Iraqi children. In charming, faux handwriting font, the sign read:
The brave American troops are fighting for our freedom and for the betterment of the world!
There were a few problems at that point-
1. Somebody prevented my free expression of speech.
2.
Betterment is such a prissy word.
3. Somebody wants to pretend that all our soldiers are doing is making nice.
4. I don't want to pretend. I'm sure some soldiers are making nice, but we invaded the country and collaterally killed quite a few people. And it looks like
somebody in our military has been engaging in serious "fraternity-type pranks" that have killed a few people.
I'm tired of making nice and helping people pretend that their reality is the right and only one. Oh man, I thought for sure someone was going to rescind my Peace Studies Certificate any minute 'cause I was pissed off and I was gonna answer back.
My next sign read:
Iraq: No WMDs
No ties to Al Qaida
No link to 9/11
No threat to the U.S.
No reason for 2,500 American dead
No reason for 50,000 American wounded
No reason for 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians
No reason to go to war.
Just to be explicit, I added another sign with a picture of a crying Iraqi girl. You know the one. The one that I thought would actually end the war. She is wailing, open-mouthed and wild-eyed, and there is a soldier holding his gun standing beside her. She is covered in her parents' blood because (we didn't give her candy)--we shot her parents for not stopping at a poorly marked checkpoint. Yeah, that one. I added the quote (attibuted to many) that
In war, the first casualty is the truth.
By the end of that schoolday, someone had taped a handwritten note up over my signs. It read:
It is time for America to stop fighting for it's(sic) own intrests(sic) and start fighting for the intrests(sic) of the WORLD. The first step has been taken!
They also keyed my car. Bastards. Do they completely miss the irony of trying to silence someone whilst brave soldiers fight for our "freedoms"? Which freedoms are they fighting for anyway? Obviously not Ammendment Numero Uno.
Argh! I was ready to paper my car with photos from "Iraq War Grief Daily", but then, at some point during my evening run, the Peace Studies Certificate began to wrestle my Id into submission.
When I got home, my daughter was looking at the sign that had been taped to my car. She asked to edit it and return it to my window because whoever put it there was obviously both rude and delusional. My final sign read:
To the stalker(s),
I took this note home and showed it to my 12-year old. She asked if it was written by a student or an adult. She was kind of surprised to find out that it was from an adult because of the poor spelling, the pettiness of leaving it on my car, and (in her words) the lame argument. She edited it for you and said next time use spell check and as for the apostrophe issue, a lot of kids in her class have the same problem.
She also said to let you know that, although she hasn't taken any philosophy classes yet, because she's only in 6th grade, she thinks you've made an error in your conclusion. According to her, your premise that we should fight for the interest of others is a good idea. She is willing to provide you with a list of people we should be helping at this very moment. The people of Darfur are at the top of her list along with sweatshop workers in the Marianas. However, she thinks that because the only people who actually wanted us to invade Iraq were Osama Bin Laden and the neocons, and every country begged us not to, that your conclusion that "The first step (of fighting for the interests of the world) has been taken" might be illogical. Her other suggestion was that you replace "the world" with "Halliburton" in order to make your premise and conclusion into a logical argument.
I took down all but my original sign and put the handwritten sign (with edit marks) and my note back up on my car. There have not been any incidents since then. I reported everything and an investigation was launched so whoever did it has probably been scared off. Scared off or embarassed into submission, I'm not sure. I did, however, find to my relief that the majority of people recognized the inappropriateness of interfering with someone's first ammendment rights
as well as the utter lameness of my stalker's argument.
Oh, my new
IMPEACH
sign is going up tomorrow. Peace.