Sometimes the Truth Burns Our Eyes

Over the past few months there have been both successful attacks as well as failed attempts by suicide bombers on universities in Iraq, I wondered about the insanity of it all. Who would choose universities to target? I found myself empathetic to the plight of Iraqi students struggling to get an education amidst a conflict zone and appalled that they could become sacrificial lambs to the politics of a bloody civil war.

In the United States, university campuses are thought to be protective environments for our burgeoning youth – a buffer from the “real” world. It is where a ritualistic process of initiation into adulthood takes place for so many of us in our culture. Not to mention the fact, that there seems to something almost sacred about a bucolic campus – a place that serves as a beacon of knowledge to light the imaginations of the young and ambitious.

So, “revolting” – the only word I can find to describe the violent attack on the campus of Virginia Tech. It’s simply too much to wrap one’s mind around. Blacksburg is not any where near a war zone.

So many questions now being asked about the massacre at Virginia Tech, but we have heard them all before and the sad fact is – that we essentially continue to find exactly the same answers that are all too often found at the post-mortem of these grim scenes. There is really nothing new, only a different place, time, and this time, yes, even more victims. The gunman was a loner – disaffected by the community in which he existed. His professors had been disturbed about the menacing nature of his writing. And, he was living in a state – no, a nation in which the gun laws are so liberal that he was able to obtain not one, but two handguns and bring them into an institution of higher learning firing as many as 100 rounds of ammunition as students sat in their classrooms.

The United States has borne witness to innocent children being victims of gun shot wounds, music icons gunned down outside their homes, and even our sitting presidents shot while the nation watched. We have little hope that the tragedy at Virginia Tech will bring about enough rage to effect radical changes in our gun laws, but I hope that it is a catalyst for at least incremental policy shifts because anything else would be an insult to our dignity as citizens of this nation. Sometimes the truth burns our eyes like staring directly into the fiery blaze of the sun. We must reconsider our positions and re-evaluate our ideals. We must force a re-examination of ourselves as a nation of diverse values, but interwoven communities. No more children in this country should become the sacrificial lambs to the politics of our Constitution. I don’t care about anyone’s “right to bear arms” because all of the students gunned down at Virginia Tech had their human rights violated as they laid in pools of their own blood.

I found myself wondering, “Hmmm, how old is Karl Rove anyway?”.

Offbeat, as usual, it was only very recently that I rented a DVD of the film, The U.S. versus John Lennon. I found myself surprised by my own reaction to the film. Much of the footage of John and Yoko seemed all too familiar to me, so there was no big surprise there. That the FBI viewed John Lennon as some sort of national threat was just plain weird, but these days I guess it probably doesn’t have the same shock value that it would’ve had nearly eight years ago.

However, what made this film an absolutely mind gripping experience is the nuanced commentary on how Nixon’s Administration attempted, oftentimes succeeding, to manipulate the media, the anti-war movement and the youth vote in 1972. At some point in the film, I found myself wondering, “Hmmm, how old is Karl Rove anyway?”.

I’m not saying that I’m shocked by what Nixon orchestrated. But, was rather jolted by outrage as I watched what people who were of age during that turbulent era lived through. Why were they not more involved in the last presidential campaign or the anti-war movement? It was obvious from the film that although Nixon would plan to be out of the White House when mass protests were held, that the demonstrations were having the desired impact. Nixon was nervous. Only the youth were unaware of their power. Is this their legacy now? Are they apathetic or less ideological now because they never felt validated that they could effectively bring about change? If this is the case, perhaps it explains how the Bush administration happened (again).

Well, why didn’t the fear of “Nixonism” motivate more people to get involved in 2004, especially since we have been taught at least since our junior high history classes that history can repeat itself, right? And, history has indeed been repeating itself in a very eerie way since 2003. The footage of Nixon in The U.S. versus John Lennon was mesmerizing and it was actual proof. If I closed my eyes and just listened, it sounded very much like our current “decider”. One could have easily substituted the words “Iraq” for “Vietnam”.

As the film chronicled the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, it occurred to me that 2008 would mark the 40^th anniversary of that historic event when the Democratic Party opened the political process to all because of the mounting anti-war sentiment and the contentious politics that had overshadowed the convention. I thought about my more mature friends (you know, the ones who lived through that turbulent era) who are ideological, but just couldn’t find the time to get involved in the last presidential campaign. Some even used their children’s overscheduled lives as an excuse. I love children, even the bad ones, but soccer practice in the burbs is just simply not a valid excuse. You see, I think that getting involved in selecting our nation’s “decider” is a great way to teach your children how to become good citizens and it demonstrates an appreciation for the sacrifices our forefathers and mothers made on our behalf. It can also mean the difference in whether or not your child ever has to see military combat.

I know that Yoko Ono Lennon has dedicated much of her life to finding ways to pay a public tribute to her husband’s magnificent legacy, but I couldn’t help wondering if this film was a direct message to the American people, urging us not to forget our own collective past.