A moral, rational protest

A few days before the campaign in Iraq began, I did what I normally do in times of crisis: I… A few days before the campaign in Iraq began, I did what I normally do in times of crisis: I talked to my best friend. Celeste was preparing to demonstrate in Chicago, aware of the possibility of being beaten and arrested. Despite the tasks before her, she spoke resolutely.

She wanted to go to Chicago to lay her body on the line.

Having exhausted all other means of recourse – letters, protests, phone calls, petitions, rallies, speeches, columns, and so on – she felt that the protests needed escalation, making civil disobedience the next step.

Over the crackling phone connection, something she said struck me. By way of rough rephrasing, she said: “I need to show everyone what this means to me and that I’m opposed to this war with my mind and body, by blocking traffic or lying in the street.”

Contrast this to another friend’s comment to me a week prior. He said, “I guess you won’t be writing a column about war. Being a pacifist, against all war, you can’t make a rational argument opposing this war.”

Does this remove me from the issue? Does being against war and violence, morally as well as logically, disqualify me from speaking against this attack?

Some have criticized the protesters for being uniformed or irrational. As one of my fellow columnists wrote, “In fact the more impassioned some [are] … the less of a grasp they [have] on the issues.”

Protesters are not trying to debate their case against war, nor are they trying to logically convince anyone of anything. Rather they want to oppose the war visibly. Therefore, people saying that protesters are ineffectual miss the point – that morality and logic cannot be equivocated, nor are they functions of each other.

Yet no one protests based solely on either reason or morals. We are thinking, feeling creatures. At times, logic speaks of nothing but numbers – number of people starved by sanctions, number killed in attacks, number who keep their promises to rebuild Iraq.

Each one of these numbers pounds me. Why should I care about people who are not me, who I’ll never meet, starving? I can’t tell you, but I do. These ideas hit head, heart and stomach – thoughts, emotion and instinct. These numbers only matter because people matter.

Statistics resonate because we instinctively revile carnage, violence and destruction. This is not an instance of clinging to moral absolutes, but to employing statistics as a justification for beliefs.

Logic and morality can co-exist. I could make a valid argument for choosing a set of morals, such as pacifism, but not for the morals themselves. Still, how do I explain my nausea at seeing civilians killed, at hearing of a janitor – 35, wife, apartment with window boxes – razed as he reached to adjust the bristles on his push broom?

After considering the motivation – both logical and ideological – surrounding the campaign in Iraq, I concluded that the former are lacking compassion and the latter incomplete.

The test of a rational argument is that there is another argument there to counter it. There are always facts to counter others; statistics fade into a tangle of error margins and research methods. Are there reasons for going to war in Iraq? Yes. Are there equally valid reasons for valuing peace over war, life over destruction and doves over death’s quick horse? Yes.

Morals must decide between the two. Therefore, we must acknowledge morals as valid motivation for protesting war. Flash to protesters asleep on concrete prison floors. Flash to hunger strikes, beatings and arrests. Flash to my thoughtful, passionate best friend lying in the street

As an observer and an American, it is my duty to state the conclusion I came to after examining my head and my heart. Gandhi said, “Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.”

Here is my moral, rational protest: War is wrong, and this war especially so.

To paraphrase Thoreau, a sort of blood is shed when my conscience is wounded. My conscience has been wounded and will continue to be so until this attack is stopped. I hope whatever power in the universe that oversees war, peace and those caught in between keeps humans, both strange to and loved by me, safe. Act now to end this war and let what is diabolical fall away from what is divine.

“This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those who feel.” – Horace Walpole Send your comic and tragic thoughts to sbergman@pittnews.com.