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We need to march to end this war. We need to write, call.fax and visit our representatives in government and demand that they listen to the voice of the people. We need to organize all the peace groups into one cohesive group and demand truth from the democratic candidates. We need to demand complete answers from them. We need to demand that those politicians, who say they want the troops out, act accordingly. We need to hold all politicians to account on this most serious of matters. We need to demand that they appear alongside those hundreds of thousands now marching against this most criminal war. We need to demand that they speak at the peace marches, and that they acknowledge the swelling number of citizens across this great country who would have them step down from the responsibility of government if they lack the courage to face the horror we have created and say no more. No more injustice, no more tyranny, no more murder, no more destruction, no more deception. We need to demand that those who have forsaken the people of this country, those who have abandoned the hopes and longing of millions, those who have no pity or mercy for the hundred of thousands made wretched by the injustice of the tyranny ruling this land, step down. Step down president Bush and all who stand with him, be they democrats or republicans. Stand down! If you will not stand with justice, hope and liberty, then stand down!

We live, it is said, in a time of terror. A terror which pervades every aspect of our daily lives. To question this widely held view is tantamount to blasphemy. Yet question we should. And the question might properly take the form of who. Who experiences this terror? Who perpetrates this terror? What form does this terror take? Why do we speak of a ‘profound terror’? Is this form of terror new? Do we all experience this terror? Do I? Above all else it is the question ‘who?’ that should remain central to our inquiries. For it is around this refinement of questioning ‘terror’ that so much is apparently revealed. The question who will direct us immediately to the particularity of the present terror. We shall be able to see the faces of those engaged in the experience of terror. Although it is too early to begin to speak of the perpetrators and the victims of terror, these terms signalling an apparent evenness in the distibution of the force of terror, we, when asking the question who, will inevitably encounter the face of individuals. It is in this encounter with the look of others that the nature of terror makes itself known. Yet still the question who? announces itself; of whom, to whom. It is of paramount importance. Why? Rather than speak of the universal nature of terror we must address the specificity of its present course. The terror presently felt in the city of Baghdad will be considerably different from the terror felt in Columbia which again is quite distinct from the experience of terror felt by those who witnessed the attack on the people of New York City. This tells us something about the nature of present day terror. It indicates that although the force of terror may be described in terms that are universally understood nonetheless it becomes manifest in ways that are always unique to location, people and culture. The present terror sweeping across the middle-east, for example, undoubtedly has its roots in the logic of US hegemony and the desire, on the part of those determining the course of military conflict, to gain a supremacy within the context of the chaos perpetrated through armed conflict. Yet the form it takes, of suicide bombings, of ethnic confllict and murder under the sign of the occupation, is both new and only one aspect of the resultant conflagration spreading throughout the western world, which has through its history a dynamic and character that is unique and unrepeatable. To some extent we can comprehend the actions of an individual who has come to think that his/her life has become entirely void of meaning. Meaning or the significance that we seek to find or create in life must be acknowledged to not only guide our everyday actions but to shape our world in that the places we have come to inhabit are places where the struggle for meaning will be played out. But to imagine a life that through the sheer assault of determining forces now lacks all ability to change, alter or direct itself toward meaning is to approach the lived meaning of terror. Terror and the accompanying nihilism which directs it, both provokes and answers the call to meaning with a no. The terror enacted daily in Iraq has a particular character and a particular cause. This terror thrives upon the destruction of the very possibility of the normal practices of everyday life. It thrives upon the destruction of the location of meaning. It thrives largely because we choose it to. By destroying and laying to waste the infrastructure of Iraq, by slaughtering and maiming tens of thousands with impunity, the current regime in the United States has revealed itself as the prime mover of nihilism in the world today.

As Thanksgiving approaches, our thoughts naturally turn to those things for which we are thankful.  Of course, we are most grateful for the health and happiness of our family and friends, but, in  addition,  there are other blessings we share with our fellow Americans.

We are thankful that we are a country at peace with the peoples of the world; that our sons and daughters are not dying or falling wounded in a far-off country,  in a misbegotten war; that our leaders continually strive to promote and engage in international diplomacy and pre-emptive peace making.

We are thankful that our President and Vice-President are persons of integrity, high intelligence, and competency, whose administration has been marked by an absence of corruption and waste and policy failures; a President and Vice President whose statements regarding the critical issues of our time are truthful and inspiring,  whose speeches to their fellow countrymen and women and those directed to the world-at-large promote understanding, tolerance, and goodwill, rather than divisiveness and fear.

We are thankful that our Constitution is revered and continues to guide the on-going development of our democracy; that the members of our three branches of government fulfill their constitutional responsibilities and adhere to the constitutional limits of their powers; that the Congress fully engages in its role of governmental oversight, law making, and funding of government programs; that the members of the Supreme Court are acutely aware of the democratic values contained in our Constitution and remain completely non-partisan in all of their decisions; that our President acts wisely, prudently, and within the Constitution in his capacity as Commander-in Chief.

We are thankful that our Congress and our President work together to devise national policies which promote the common good rather than the narrow interests of special, powerful groups; that among these policies are those that address the needs of Americans who still struggle to overcome poverty, lack of health care, and inadequate education in a land of plenty for many.

We are thankful that our President and members of his administration have been in the forefront in recognizing the validity of the threat of global warming and have joined others, knowledgeable in the science of climate change, to develop and promote policies to address our country’s dependence on fossil fuels and our disproportionate contribution of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.

We are thankful that we live in a Republic where debate, dissent, and protest are viewed as fundamental to our democratic way of live, where those who engage in protests are not villified; that we live in a country whose laws and practices ensure the constitutional rights of our citizens, including protection from illegal search and seizure without warrant, the right to legal recourse, and the right to privacy in our personal lives.

We are thankful we live in a country whose signature on international treaties and conventions establishing standards of behavior in war is honored by our leaders, including the legal and human rights of those we hold captive.

We are thankful  that our President and Vice President are respected and admired thoughout the world and that our country continues to be viewed as a good and honorable nation among nations.

Happy Thanksgiving, America..

(And as we gather with our family and friends on this coming Thanksgiving Day in year 7 of the disastrous Bush/Cheney mis-administration, let us all raise a toast to better times.)

Mary Oleary-McGlinn