Abused By Illusions

One of my professors mentioned to me that there was going to be an antiwar demonstration at West Town Mall in Knoxville, Tennessee on Saturday, March 19th. I told him that I hadn't heard about it. He said that apparently no one else had either. Let me add that I'm not the typical antiwar protester or what I remembered one to be. I'm an eight year veteran of the United States Air Force in which I served in the Security Police, now called Security Forces. In that time I had some experience with antiwar protesters both in Belgium and in Montana. At the time I was on a riot control squad and not an antiwar protester. My memory of antiwar protesters from that time was of a much younger group than the one I found this Saturday morning. In all fairness, I was much younger back then myself.

The first thing that struck me as strange is that there was not more young people there. It would seem, that with daily reports of the incredible strain that this new concept of permanent war is placing on the "all-volunteer military," that more young folks might take the threat of a coming draft more seriously. Perhaps President Bush's "No Child Left Behind Act" has resulted in a generation of super patriotic youth? I am unsure.

A second observation, the one that made me keep expecting Rod Serling to run out of the hedges, was how almost everyone wanted to know if I was with the police, or the FBI, CIA, etc due to the fact that I was taking pictures. Why would the authorities walk right up to you and ask to take your picture when they have telephoto, zoom lenses etc, not to mention satellites that wouldn't require their presence at all. After all, what crime are we talking about? Aren't we talking about the fundamental rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of speech? These are indeed strange days and getting stranger everyday.

To end on a happy note. A gentleman on a flute accompanied by a man on a drum were happy to let me to take a picture to include their face. A nun, wearing a t-shirt that read Sisters for Justice, was also happy to let me photograph her and her sign. She beamed a smile that personified the love and understanding of one another that we must all find if peace and justice is ever to be a reality. These last two groups restored my faith that indeed cosmic geometry is being helped along by active grassroots activism right here in Knoxville, Tennessee.

C.I. Abramson

P.S. Pictures from Saturday's March can be seen below. Also the Knoxville march
was included as a news item on on the 20 March edition of What Really
Happened.
I would also invite anyone who hasn't ever read Retired Major General Smedley
Darlington Butler's essay entitled WAR IS A RACKET. It is as true today as when it was written in the 1930's.

check out www.etnpronet.org  

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