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by John Bostrom
Sunday, July 29, 2007
"Lotta Bucks" (Sally Jones) and David picked up "Moira Drugs" (Eileen Bardel) and me around noon, and the four of us started the drive from Staten Island to Central Park. We were somewhat apprehensive. Almost any other event would have been called because of weather. (In fact, later in the afternoon, the Mets game was called.) But Cindy Sheehan has stood up to a lot worse than a little rain. We weren't going to miss the chance to stand with her. We brought umbrellas. And it looked like we'd really need them. We went through a real downpour on the Gowanus. But we emerged from the Battery Tunnel into a mere light drizzle.
We stopped in Stuyvestant Town to pick up Lotta's talented granddaughter, all dressed up for the stage in Snow White costume and a sequined Egyptian veil, representing the younger generation as "L'il Bucks" in our Billionaires for Bush spinoff, "The Filthy Rich for Fossella." Lotta and L'il rehearsed "There's No Business Like War Business" as we continued up toward the Park. The parking gods were with us - we found a spot just off Broadway on 87th. It was still drizzling. We broke out the umbrellas and the plastic-wrapped picture of Fossella.
Joan Wile and a few other Grannies for Peace were resting on benches outside the park entrance. We said our hellos and went in. The first sign of the demonstration was a line of about a dozen people standing just off the park path, mostly old veteran types, with big American flags. I took out the plastic name tag with the "Merce N. Aribuchs, Lobbyist" business cards and the Blackwater USA logo, and pinned it on on the lapel of my black business suit. I adjusted my tie, Then I walked past them slowly, giving them by best impression of a superior officer inspectng the troops. Merce's attitude is that Blackwater is the Ivy League of combat. Enlisted troops the community colleges. Of course they're going to be whining, either about having to kill and die, or about not being supported. Considering the pay they get, the conditions they work under, who wouldn't? That's the point. They're amateurs. At Blackwater, we're above all that. We do war professionally, and get paid well.
They pretty much stopped shouting to check me out. Blackwater tag. It was a bit ambiguous, who was standing for what, on both sides. It wasn't until I got to the end of the line and saw two younger guys holding a crudely painted banner with the words "CASEY WAS A HERO - CINDY IS A ZERO" that it became clear that this was the counter-demonstration. Cindy's group was further down the hill into the park, taking shelter from the intermittent rain by a grove of trees along the Broadway side.
I walked back down the line of flags, nodding approvingly and shouting. "Hoo-yah!" "God Bless America!" "If you can't tear out a man's heart with your bare hands and eat it for breakfast, what good are you?" "It's our oil - it just happens to be under their sand!" and similar stuff. Strangely, that shut them up too.
Then I walked down to the other demonstration. Very small - maybe fifty people at most, with a definite old-hippie look, plenty of ragtag button-wearing longhairs. Halfway there, a fellow came up to me and sort of challenged me. I introduced myself as a lobbyist for Blackwater and offered him my card.
"I don't want your card," he said. "You should go back to that other group."
He waved to some cops standing across the meadow on the path, making hand signals. He pointed to the Flag People, then to me, then back to the Flag People. Like "He's one of them, officers. "
"I've been invited here," I told him, "to set the record straight."
He wasn't buying that. "I don't believe in killing innocent people," he said. "I have a conscience," he said. "And when you get to the end of your life, you'll find out what it's all been worth."
"A conscience is a very expensive commodity," I told him. "I can't afford one. I've got killing to do. And after this life is over, my intention is to come back even meaner and tougher the next time around."
Another demonstrator joined us. This one took my card, got it, and smiled. I left them together and strolled down to the stage area. The stage was low-budget - only about ten by five feet, just fiberboard panels duck-taped together on top of what were probably milk crates, and no microphone. Whoever was on stage had to yell to be heard over the Flag People, who were almost constantly banging things and chanting as loud as they could. "You're cowards!" "America right or wrong!" "Get a job!" In response, from time to time VVAW George McAnanama led the demonstrators in rousing military call-and-response chants that temporarily drowned out the Flag People.
I found some musicians and hung out with them, going out of character, giving them copies of the Iraqupation Rag from my portfolio. Then I went back to being Merce, circulating in the crowd, driving several folks fairly nuts including one very well-spoken journalist whom I had going for a good ten minutes. "Why would we invade Iraq?" he asked. "Is that what the Iraqi's want?"
"Who cares what those towelheaded terrorists want?" I said. "And why invade? For profit, of course! That's what war is for! Making money! I certainly wouldn't risk my life for some so-called democracy for free. Face it, fella. There will always be wars. It's human nature. So you might as well do it professionally and get paid for it. That's Blackwater's approach. It's part of the whole privatization thing. War is just like anything else. Corporations are the engine of progress. Government is the transmission. People are the road."
"Don't you think it's wrong to use money that way?" he asked.
"As far as I can see," I said, "it's not a question of people using money. People die. Money endures. It's not people using money. It's money using people."
Around that time, the guy who'd originally stopped me came over and shook my hand. He'd figured it out. Then the journalist got it too. I had a strong sense of what Steven Colbert must feel like. It's very empowering to step into an opposite character. By giving voice to ideas you oppose, you get a real purchase on what it feels to think that way, which makes you much more confident about expressing what you really think. There's no need to argue or rant against how evil those ideas are - they become ludicrous. They lose their power.
Later, the Filthy Rich took the stage. Lotta and Moira talked about how great Fossella is, and how if you had enough money to get to talk to him, you'd know that. We sang "No Business Like War Business." Then I gave a little speech.
"Blackwater," I told the crowd, "recognizes that you are a special group. Look how you came out in the rain like this. You're the leaven. The yeast in the bread. And Blackwater felt that if I could sort of impregnate that yeast with some realistic, patriotic common sense about war and war profiteering - get you to see that these aren't necessarily bad things - that would be good for the country. That's why I'm here.
"So please, understand. Blackwater supports Congressman Fossella 110 per cent! Hoo-yah! Fossella understands the true function of a Congressman - to represent the government to the people. You people are intelligent and dedicated. All you need to do is get behind your Congresspersons, and do whatever they tell you to do. That's your job as good citizens. Meanwhile, Blackwater is in Iraq, bringing just that kind of democracy to Iraq, protecting you here at home from the terrorist towelheads that would destroy it.
"Don't be misled by what people like Jeremy Scahill write about Blackwater. How can he be objective about Blackwater? He isn't even on our payroll! Take it from me. I'm the horse's mouth. Yes, it's true: our agents get paid more in a day than an enlisted man makes in a month. Yes, the people we kill don't get counted in the official tallies, and you won't find our casualties in the casualty counts either. And yes, if one of our guys gets in trouble, he's guaranteed to be flown immediately to a neutral country, so he never has to face a civil or military court. But that's because we're the war professionals! And remember, we're volunteers! We're volunteering to bring democracy to those savages!
"You of course have a choice whether or not to support Blackwater. But you should realize that besides our original 4000 acres in North Carolina, we're now building big installations outside Chicago and San Diego. In the Gulf War, there were 60 enlisted men to one private military contractor. In Iraq, there's already more of us than there are enlisted troops! We're now an official part of what Secretary Rumsfeld - a fine man, really, once you get to know him - called 'Total U.S. Forces.' Militarily, the days of the enlisted man are numbered. The writing is on the wall. Blackwater is the future of U.S. military operations. And before you start to make a fuss about it, you might want to consider this. We have a lot of real estate. It would only take about fifteen minutes for five of our guys to have you all loaded in a couple of trucks bound for the Camp Blackwater Rehabilitation Facility. And we're very good with barbed-wire fences."
Lotta Bucks adjusted her hat, fingered her pearls, and waved her boa. "I don't see why you bother trying to make these people understand," she said. "They just won't listen. And Congressman Fossella won't listen to them either. The poor dears - they don't have enough money!"
She's probably right. So I wound it up. "I have only two more things to say. One, never piss off one of our drill instructors. You might wind up hanging from a bridge. And two, remember our motto: When the Geneva Conventions get in the way, don't torture yourself - call the professionals."
Later, Cindy came on. She got a very warm welcome. Nothing really that new in her message, other than that she's definitely running for Nancy Pelosi's seat. Just that everyone knows what's going on, Bush shredding the Constitution, lying through his teeth, continuing the destructive, pre-emptive war in Iraq, and getting ready to do it again in Iran - and all the media can find to talk about, besides Paris Hilton, is the miniscule difference between Obama and Clinton. As if that difference mattered. As if depending on the Democrats would solve anything. Well look at who sponsors CNN - Boeing. Tells you all you need to know about that viewpoint.
The main thing I took away from seeing Cindy again is that it's very clear that she's doing all this from personal conviction alone. Those who claim that she's out to be a star, to get publicity, are completely, laughably off the mark. She told me that she didn't even think of planning big publicity or contacts with peace organizations for her New York stops until the 10th. She's like a conscientious objector who simply refuses to kill, out of personal conviction, and doesn't care what happens from there on - least of all whether or not there's press about it. There's no certainly no big organization behind her - just Dede Miller, bless her heart, doing the best she can to manage what happens when Cindy decides to make another move.
Cindy is a big challenge. She doesn't represent an organization or a movement that can be joined comfortably, where people can sign up and get something relatively easy to do that won't interrupt their daily routine, like making a phone call, writing a letter, or going to a meeting, march or demonstration. She's gone to a whole different level. She's gone the whole nine yards, put her whole life on the line. Like Daniel and Phlliip Berrigan pouring blood on draft files or hammering on missile silos, she's taken a big publc step from which there is no coming back. In doing that, she challenges not only the political direction of the Bush administration, but the whole comfortable routine of American culture, where we're constantly being bombarded with messages that invite us to kick back, forget the whole damn mess for a while, and enjoy a movie with friends or family. Break out the snacks. Buy some new clothes, or a new toy. This, goes the argument, is the perfection of human life - the American Way. First you peform your job. That gives you money. You spend the rest of time spending your money on the wonderful things that allow you to forget what it is you do at your job. And what's wrong with that, I'd like to know? So here we go, again!
That deeper challenge, I believe, is what keeps the Flag People following Cindy around from state to state, banging and yelling and cursing. They sense that Cindy is a threat to our whole way of life. She's gotten up from the armchair. She's turned off the TV. Somewhere along the line, she got fed up to the breaking point, fired up to the point where she decided to take on the whole damn system head on, let the chips fall where they may. Something definitely snapped. To the Flag People, that's the real treason. That's why they curse her and her followers with "Get a job!"
But that's also what draws people to her. Lots of people agree with Cindy's political viewpoints. Few are ready to laying it all on the line. The reason she's a star is simple: personal courage. It's not a pose. It's very real.
Another comparison that comes to my mind is Dorothy Day. Like Dorothy, Cindy has stepped across the line into another space, where the possibilities, risks, challenges, and rewards are very different. Like Dorothy, she's building a growing following of similarly dedicated people who sense that what she's doing is fundamentally right, and want to add their energy to hers.
Above all, Cindy challenges us to take bigger steps in our own lives. Fundamentally, she's an inspiration. Ten more like her would make a huge difference. Hundreds more would set in motion a chain reaction that would change everything. I think, in fact that that's happening already. I think we're working on thousands. There's a cumulative effect at work. The first pioneers have a very hard time of it, and then there's some kind of breakthrough. One of them becomes famous, perhaps even a legend. The story spreads, and more and more people start following the pioneers into the new, uncharted territory. A path starts getting worn, and it becomes increasingly wider and safer. Finally the journey isn't even dangerous any more. It becomes "practical." The "sensible" thing to do.
JB
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