From their mission statement: "Peaceful Tomorrows is an organization founded by family members of those killed on September 11th who have united to turn our grief into action for peace. By developing and advocating nonviolent options and actions in the pursuit of justice, we hope to break the cycles of violence engendered by war and terrorism."
One such family member is Jeremy Glick. His father, Barry, was a Port Authority worker who died at the World Trade Center. Not content with letting others speak for him or paint him with the broad brushes of patriotism and revenge, Glick co-authored a book, "Another World is Possible," and in 2003, appeared as a guest on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor." The show's host, Bill O'Reilly was particularly irate about Glick signing an anti-war advertisement that included this passage: "We too watched with shock the horrific events of September 11 ... we too mourned the thousands of innocent dead and shook our heads at the terrible scenes of carnage - even as we recalled similar scenes in Baghdad, Panama City, and a generation ago, Vietnam."
O'Reilly told Glick he was surprised he'd sign an ad that "equates the United States with the terrorists." O'Reilly added: "I was offended by that."
As Glick continued on his point about the U.S. funding and arming Islamic extremists in Afghanistan at the time of the Soviet invasion, O'Reilly fell back on boilerplate ripostes like, "You are mouthing a far left position that is a marginal position in this society, which you're entitled to." The host added: "I'm sure your beliefs are sincere, but what upsets me is I don't think your father would be approving of this."
Here is some what followed:
GLICK: Well, actually, my father thought that Bush's presidency was illegitimate.
O'REILLY: Maybe he did, but ...
GLICK: I also didn't think that Bush ...
O'REILLY: ... I don't think he'd be equating this country as a terrorist nation as you are.
GLICK: Well, I wasn't saying that it was necessarily like that.
O'REILLY: Yes, you are. You signed ...
GLICK: What I'm saying is ...
O'REILLY: ... this, and that absolutely said that.
GLICK: ... is that in - six months before the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan, starting in the Carter administration and continuing and escalating while Bush's father was head of the CIA, we recruited a hundred thousand radical mujahadeens to combat a democratic government in Afghanistan, the Turaki government.
O'REILLY: All right. I don't want to ...
GLICK: Maybe ...
O'REILLY: I don't want to debate world politics with you.
GLICK: Well, why not? This is about world politics.
O'REILLY: Because, No. 1, I don't really care what you think.
Eventually, O'Reilly told Glick: "Keep your mouth shut when you sit here exploiting those people," "You have a warped view of this world and a warped view of this country," "Man, I hope your mom isn't watching this," and finally "Shut up," before finally turning to the show's engineer and demanding: "Cut his mic."
In less than 15 minutes, the façade of national unity behind military aggression was shattered forever. By promoting goals such as "educating and raising the consciousness of the public on issues of war, peace, and the underlying causes of terrorism" as well as calling attention to "threats to civil liberties, human rights, and other freedoms in the U.S. as a consequence of war," Jeremy Glick, Peaceful Tomorrows, and others who lost loved ones on September 11, are exercising their freedom of speech and expression when it is most needed.
Sounds like a good movie plot to me...
Mickey Z. is the author of several books, most recently "50 American Revolutions You're Not Supposed to Know" (Disinformation Books). He can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.
