If you'd been around when the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor, on that famous Day of Infamy - as I was - and through the years of war that followed, you'd remember how totally different was the public level of involvement, then, than in this war we're struggling to put behind us today. The country had switched direction overnight, back then, from one deeply steeped in isolationism to a nation fully dedicated to the task of winning the war that had been forced upon us.
It was such a total turnaround, on that Pearl Harbor Sunday, that Dorothy Day stood out in stark contrast when she spoke, the following day, to an assembled group at the Liberal-socialist Alliance in New York City. As Erwin Knoll put it, in a 1994 issue of The Progressive, "the day after the Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor [was] a day when even the most committed pacifist might have been forgiven for maintaining a discreet silence."
But as he further notes, "There was nothing discreet about Dorothy Day," who had shared in the founding of the Catholic Worker movement, and not only pursued peace and justice as a lifelong goal, but lived it daily in her life. She made not the least attempt to temper her convictions, though she stood starkly alone with them on that darkly shadowed day of American patriotic resolve.
Here is a portion of what she said, in the course of that talk. Think about how it resonates, as you read it, with the Middle East situation today.
"There is now all this patriotic indignation about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and Japanese expansionism in Asia. Yet not a word about American and European colonialism in this same area. We, the British, the French, and others set up spheres of influence in Asia, control national states-against the expressed will of these states-and represent imperialism in the Orient. We dictate to Japan as to where she can expand economically and politically, and we declare what policy she must observe. From our nationalistic and imperialistic point of view, we have every right to concentrate American military forces in the Philippines, confronting Japan at her front door. Were Japan to face us from Cuba, what would be our reaction? If the United States insists upon a colonialist policy in Asia, then this nation must be prepared for a militaristic backlash....
"But I waste rhetoric on international politics-the breeding grounds of war over the centuries. The balance of power and other empty slogans inspired by a false and flamboyant nationalism have bred conflict throughout 'civilized' history.
"And it has become too late in human history to tolerate wars which none can win. Nor dare we quibble about just wars.' Well did Pius X tell us that 'in any conflict both sides claim moral justification. We find the term repugnant and impossible to define. All wars are, by their very nature, evil and destructive.'
"It has become too late for civilized people to accept this evil.
"We must take a stand. We must renounce war as an instrument of policy. We must affirm that there will be no more war. Never - but never - again....
"Evil enough when the finest of our youth perished in conflict and even the causes of these conflicts were soon lost to memory. Even more horrible today when cities can go up in flames and brilliant scientific minds are searching out ultimate weapons.
"War must cease. There are no victories. The world can bear the burden no longer. Yes, we must make a stand.
"Even as I speak to you, I may be guilty of what some men call treason. But we must reject war: Yes, we must now make a stand. War is murder, rape, ruin, death; war can end our civilization. I tell you that within a decade we will have weapons capable of ending this world as we have known it.
"War is hunger, thirst, blindness, death. I call upon you to resist it. You young men should refuse to take up arms. Young women tear down the patriotic posters. And all of you - young and old - put away your flags."
Now consider how many wars have engaged us since those words were spoken, 65 years ago today. How many wars will yet tear us apart, before we can accept the responsibility that those words of Dorothy Day imposed on us?
www.irvthomas.com
Irv Thomas, ratrace escapee and cultural outsider for 35 years, editor of Black Bart Brigade during counter-culture days, hides out in Seattle. Presently putting out a sporadic pre-formatted email newsletter called Irv's Scrapbook, which can be had at no cost if you send me an email address for it.
"Love is not the starving of whole populations. Love is not the bombardment of open cities. Love is not killing......Our manifesto is the Sermon on the Mount, which means that we will try to be peacemakers." -Dorothy Day
I was born on January 27, 1954 and lived the first three years of my life in Greenwich Village, N.Y.C. in the neighborhood where Dorothy Day, Jack Kerouac and Bob Dylan may also have passed through.
People I admire most:
Brigid of Ireland: who had a fire in her belly for the poor and oppressed.
Terese of Liseux, who did little things with great love.
The eccentric Frankie of Assisi: who talked to birds and mooned his father and a Bishop in the same moment.
Thomas Merton, Mystic, Benedictine Monk and outspoken critic against Vietnam
The Berrigan Brothers: "If enough Christians followed the gospel, they could bring any state to its knees." - Father Philip Francis Berrigan
The Jesuit John Dear who has been arrested over 75 times for Peace activism and against USA's WMD Programs.
The radical Matthew Fox, the former Roman and now Episcopal priest who wrote a new 95 thesis:
A NEW REFORMATION
The very right, Reverend Naim Ateek, of Jerusalem for his writings and insight on LIBERATION Theology.
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr, and anyone who has ever stood up for human rights, for justice and for peace.
But mostly I admire and aspire to be like Dorothy Day, who a century ago agitated church, state and the MSM most eloquently through her periodical The Catholic Worker, which persists today.
It is the Spirit and Presence of Dorothy Day and the Persistent Widow demanding JUSTICE that inform and guide WAWA:
http://www.wearewideawake.org
And it is their Spirit and Presence that i sense everywhere i journey through the Occupied Palestinian Territories-
of 1941 is a myth. Nothing much happened in the souls of the US people on that day. But of course, when boys went to war and jobs appeared in abundance the ' resolve' myth was designed and fortified.
It would be a service to the US public to explain properly at that time why that war was happening and what in truth was the US role. Maybe Mrs. Day would not have to make her speech then. But in all fairness, she was only a follower: in 1915 in Russia in the middle of anti- German fervor Marina Tzvetaeva, a famous Russian poet wrote a poem declaring her everlasting love of Germany. Of course, Marina was more close to the truth, the Germany she knew was not the Germany of 1941 which she hated ( and expressed that hate) but the spirit is the same.
by
Mark Sashine (50 articles, 19 quicklinks, 244 diaries, 3453 comments)
on Sunday, December 10, 2006 at 9:49:00 AM
that there are numerous reminscences and testimonies from the credible sources, primarily from European writers in exile and also by the prominent US writers like Irvin Shaw, for instance that there was no such thing as an 'immediate turn'. I can also mention William Saroyan, who wrote a very- very antiwar novel 'Adventures of Wesley Jackson.' In short, the US people according to those sources behaved like everyone else- with certain grim stoicism. Eventually, the industry actually benefited from war and many people benefited from that.. BTW, the black people were surely not that much enthusiastic at all for the obvious reasons.
This is not to denigrate the spirit of the US people. But the tendency to somehow present the US people as a nation which forgot its vices in 1941 and 'changed in one day' is exagarrated as far as I see it. The US as a nation matured during the war, that is true, but it did not happen in one day. Some strange excesses like exile of the Japanese - Americans and, as I have read recently the persecution of German Shepherd Dogs( I am not kidding) show that it took some time for the US nation to come to its senses. And with all respect, segregation in the army does not seem to characterise a nation as 'patriotic'.
I assume my further comment that Mrs Day was not the first to express the anti-war views are understandable. Again, this is not to denigrate Mrs. Day, her act was commendable. But isolation was wrong. It could lead to the destruction of the US. And it could not lead to peace at that time.
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Mark Sashine (50 articles, 19 quicklinks, 244 diaries, 3453 comments)
on Sunday, December 10, 2006 at 1:07:35 PM
Thank you for bringing in that broader dimension. Having been a 14-year old San Francisco boy, at the time, my perspective was necessarily confined. But it is accurate for the west coast, I can assure you. From every local evidence this country was galvanized around that war. It set a high standard, for such things, in 'this kid's' mind. Even the ranks of formal conscientious objectors, during those four years, were very small by subsequent standards. My guess is that each observer relates not only from personal experience, but also from the particular point they are trying to convey (and I don't claim any exemption on that score!). Be such as it may, however, the point of my portrayal, above, was to frame the statement of Dorothy Day.
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Irvthom (7 articles, 2 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 83 comments)
on Sunday, December 10, 2006 at 3:18:00 PM
Thank you for your thoughts and reflections. As an admirer of Dorothy Day and her many social justice and peace efforts throughout her life, I cannot help but wonder what Dorothy Day could do today, with modern technology and the internet. Also wonder if anyone could have squashed her attempts for peace back then.... maybe the political forces would not be as powerful today if her words had reached the world back then.
Debby Bodkin, Founder
www.catholics4justice.com
by
Debby Bodkin (43 articles, 0 quicklinks, 17 diaries, 47 comments)
on Sunday, December 10, 2006 at 12:00:42 PM
That is what our nuclear war fighting elite continue to tell us, though they have provided ample underground shelters for themselves.
Dorothy Day was far ahead of her time and understood deeply what has yet to be understood by many when she said: "I tell you that within a decade we will have weapons capable of ending this world as we have known it."
The plan all along has been to use these weapons to immolate the mass of the human race.
The Depression was but a tool of the dominant classes to make hungry the mass of the American population, so that they more easily will become human predators.
Militarism is but a shabby fraud to sell uniforms and military hardware.
We exist only because of the intervention into our world by these still unknown high level powers.
Our Despot and Tyrant classes, have pulled the nuclear trigger on us.
In 1938 Einstein talked with Oskar Klein about the methods to tap into the power of the Cosmos, known as the Kaluza Klein theorem.
Einstein was unsure at that time if the theory was or was not correct, though he told Klein it made no difference because the power elite had decided that they did not want to develop the technology in this area, unlimited heat and electrical energy, because the strategy was to continue on with war, keeping the population engaged in a resource base struggle.
The strategy until this day has never been changed, we are still slated for a full blown nuclear holocaust and to be exterminated with the use of nuclear weapons.
The "ET" have given our genocidal cannibal leaders a time out of sorts, and sent them to their room to reconsider their plans to genocide humanity.
Our Fiend Fraud leaders have decided that come hell or high water, they are going to go ahead with our extermination.
The US Airforce base, Malmstrom, nuclear missile launch facility in Montana is again making news with the "ET" mutilating cows and dropping them near the missile facility, that is scheduled to get a full blown nuclear war underway.
The "ET" know that the fraudulent Mainstream Media will never reveal that "ET" is shooting software blocks into the nuclear missile launch mechanisms.
"ET" have hobbled our nuclear war fighting criminal elite, for nearly 3 generations of nuclear war fighting criminal elite families.
The question remains; how long will it be before the mass of the people awaken to what exactly our nuclear war fighting criminal elite have done to us, and what more they plan to do to us.
Dorothy Day told what lay ahead if we followed the course of Militarism, in 1942. In April of 1947 the decision was made to exterminate us all with the use of nuclear weapons.
Thank you "ET" for preventing our immolation at the hands of our nuclear war fighting genocidal cannibal elite.
We, the 6 billion members of the human race, remain threatened by a group of nuclear war fighting nuclear armed genocidal Fiends that number in the range of about 200,000
They understand what is going to happen when you all wake up to these grim realities, that is why "They" are trying to get nuclear weapons flying before then.
.
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Patrick (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 401 comments)
on Sunday, December 10, 2006 at 5:20:24 PM
The Jews in Europe took much the same view of war that Dorothy took. But it didn't prevent Hitler from killing
millions of them. What prevented millions more from suffering at the hands of Hitler were those who fought rather than to submit to his barbarity.
Dreams are beautiful but they don't come true unless somebody is willing to make them so.
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." Plato
"What if they gave a war and nobody came? Why then the war would come to you." Bertolt Brecht
by
Rodgers (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments)
on Monday, December 11, 2006 at 8:34:45 AM
8 comments
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