Peace Takes Courage
As a practicing Buddhist, I have begun to realize the nature of aggression. Both within and without, aggressive behavior has dominated much of my years in this life. What I’ve discovered is that such behavior – anger, hatred, arguments and fighting, are all based upon fear. As such, they are outward signs of cowardliness. No matter the scale, from rude gestures in traffic to preemptive military campaigns, aggression stems from fear.
As a Buddhist, I try to curb my fears, tame my aggressive nature by investigating it and being open and honest – not only with others, but with myself. I try to tread the path of peace. Peace is the opposite of war. So, too is the motivation of peaceful conduct the opposite of fear.
Peace takes courage. But that kind of courage is not celebrated in America. I admit to liking Jimmy Carter for trying to take the more difficult path to peace during his tenure. Most Americans, indeed all of the right-minded ones, view his as a weak eccentric at nest, and a failed president at worst. As President, Jimmy did many good things, taking tiny yet essential steps toward world peace. His downfall was the inherent impatience of the average American and the insurmountable greed of its corporate interests. Neither camp is interested in world peace, then or now.
I write this in response to a website named Peace Takes Courage. Just the title sparked my imagination. Its message cannot be spoken enough: End the Iraqi War. Our conflict is unique in American history, perhaps in world history. To take a horrible disaster perpetrated upon a nation’s innocents and mastermind a fictitious campaign of deceit toward a premeditated goal of warfare against people not actually involved with that disaster has no precedent. Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks on September 11, 2001; no one can deny this truth. To perpetrate the most expensive war in history, a dream that was in the making long before our President and his cronies tipped the electoral scales in 2000, and to base the execution of that dream upon the convenient excuse of a national disaster, is nothing short of criminal.
Criminal behavior, like all expressions of aggression, is rooted in cowardice. Fear drives the criminals in Washington: fear of disclosure forces slander campaigns and identity leaks; fear of the American public manifests in lying and further lying to cover for the previous falsehoods; fear of foreign entities is ultimately expressed in a global conflict of mastery. That is exactly the kind of game the Bush administration is playing. Their fear is so great that no one is exempt from paying the price for their cowardly actions.
America must stand up against this tyranny of fear. We must demand accountability, first with censure, then with impeachment proceedings. If our leaders are as innocent of wrongdoings as they would claim, then to submit themselves to the scrutiny inherent in any public figure, and allow such procedures to commence. Justice, if done well, will prevail and the truly guiltless will emerge unscathed. Only the guilty will be punished, as the law allows.
But that’s another thing their afraid of…