Letter from Prison

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday March 10, 2003 08:55 by Damien Moran - Catholic Worker pitstop_ploughshares at hotmail dot com

All life is sacred - even that of our enemies!

Tears of despair roll down my cheeks - helpless I lie in relative comfort of my prison cell... powerlessly empathising with the sufferinfg children of Haiti whom I walk in the midst of this time two years ago: orphaned, malnourished, poverty-stricken, doomed to lead lives wiping the dust off cars - symbolic of perpetuating that heart-breaking stare - personifying a cry of mercy. The sugar cane I shared, money and clothes distributed, words of compassion uttered, simple acts of mery enacted,listening ears provided to stories never heeded - they all semm in vain, being so minimal; so little could I offer; a mere teasing link to that star-spangled banner dream which the white man reoresents!

Superpower vetoes in the name of political expedience - virtual economic sanctions restrict the fulfilment of electoral promises: "Peace in the mind. Peace in the stomach" The sons and daughters of Haiti are the brothers and sisters of Iraq.

All life is sacred - even that of our enemies!

Alas, this is how my heart attempts to connect with the suffering of Iraq and her diverse, beautiful nnocent peoples.

A UNICEF endorsed Harvard medical study found "approximately 47,000 excess deaths occured among children under 5 years of age during the first months of 1991", in Iraq. Irish hands,indeed, the very hands of humanity shall be
further blood-stained if we remain passive to this pending genocide!

Pray for peace. Resist non-violently. Wage words of love and healing to counter euphemisms: collateral damage (civilian casualties), serious
consequences/war (genocide/slaughter).

Please - do do not be enraptured by the surreal graphics of media moguls' propagation. "War is Terror is war!" Take the destruction of life personally - become a voice for the voiceless. Work for justice. Seek truth. Reconcile wth your own pain and violent tendencies (i.e. while in a traffic jam or waiting at a bar around closing time!). Be calm. Disturb your routine.
Reclaim your rights. No longer worship today's golden calf: inaminate objects belonging to and enforcing a technology of death require transformation into that which cultivates, sows the seeds of peacemaking, and promotes the dignity of all human life.

To be proverbially Catholic Worker-ish: "Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable".

Thankfully St. Patrick's Day is soon - We could do with someone to banish the serpents from our doorstep.

And how about Mr. Hussein? Certainly a murderous dictator - beyond doubt! Iraq better off if he retired - you betcha! Even better if he was summoned to the International Criminal Court - pity the U.S. didn't sign up!

Can we facilitate the Iraqi people to bring about change? Well remember Solidarity in Poland and the Berlin Wall. And the fall of the Marcos regime. All testimony to mass nonviolent resistance. The choice is between "nonviolence and non-existence" - Martin Luther King
Jr. The former/propose and do so now.

Just wondering if we'll send a minister to Baghdad for St. Patrick's weekend?
A token appreciation for cheap oil during our '70's energy crisis and the honour of feeding SAaddam's army as he massacred the Iranians with
U.S./U.K./French/Russian weapons of mass destruction during the '80's.

The U.S. has already received the traditional bowl of shamrocks our government delivers every March 17th. During the initial 6 weeks of this year, over 23,000 U.S. troops have passed
through Shannon Airport en route to military bases in Kuwait and Qatar. How many of these troops will be directly engaged in forthcoming genocide? By allowing munitions to pass through we are already complicit in the deaths of the innocent civillians they kill.

It looks increasingly inevitable that war will begin by the thrird week of March.
Intensive aerial bombardments will imprecisely target urban centres form 30,000 feet.
Infrastructure quintessential for the facilitation and maintenance of public
health services and need will be paralysed as they were in 1991. Truth being the first victim of war, selective communications to global media will spread the gospel according to Bush: swift victory, Iraqi's liberated, regime change affected, oil reserves protected, middle-east stabilisation Chapter 1!

Don't be gullible to the kids waving little American flags, flowers on tanks, kisses on soldiers etc. The truth will gradually surface. On the ground the suffering will increase.
But by that stafe Chapter 2 will already be grabbing the headlines. Keep a close eye on the newly formed ultra-right wing Israeli government. Tehran or Anakara's opportunism towards Kurdish instability. Shiite insurrections in the south to prevent another Sunni Muslim regime (though it will have a pro-U.S./U.K. mask, similar to the Iranian Shah pre-1979, overthrown by a Shiite Ayatolla Khomeini.

History is being made. What shall we tell our grandkids/youth of tomorrow on the pro-active role we played? With a humble and hopeful conclusion, my prayer continues to be for world
justice and peace... "If they come for the innocent without stepping over your body, cursed be your religion and your life" - Dorothy Day

In peaceful solidarity
Damien Moran
(Dublin Catholic Worker/ Limerick Prison)