We Condemn | We Endorse
Publius
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WE CONDEMN killing innocent civilians for political ends. We accept no condition to this statement. Though oppression and atrocity call for action, spilling the blood of hapless commuters can never constitute an acceptable response. London: 7/7/05. Madrid: 3/11/04. Victim and perpetrator become one when a cycle of violence begins. Ethically speaking, they become indistinguishable. Semantic tricks cannot sanitize murder—“collateral damage” spills the same color blood as “terrorism” does. Baghdad: 3/21/03. Afghanistan: 10/7/01. On a quiet Tuesday morning a dozen men betrayed trust in our common humanity. They were armed with nothing but the sinister combination of box cutters and fundamentalism. Nearly four years later, a handful of rigid ideologues and extremists on both sides of the “War on Terror” continue to hold the world in the grip of fear. Power is consolidated. Tolerance and liberty erode. New York: 9/11/01. To respond to violence with violence is not only spiritually and ethically demeaning, it is also misguided from a purely strategic perspective. Empathy for the plight of the Palestinian people is diminished because detonating bombs in buses and discotheques undermines the legitimacy of their cause. Tel Aviv: 6/01/01. 1,001 in Israel.3,023 in Palestine. 2,752 in the U.S. 20,000 in Afghanistan. 100,000 in Iraq. 191 in Spain. 56 in the U.K. These numbers define and divide suffering. They are numerical fodder for politicians, extremists, ideologues, and war mongers. But if you add them up, 127,023 become one shared tragedy, united in reminding those who live to cherish a just peace, tolerance, and respect for human decency— a basic premise that, like the silent majority everywhere, WE ENDORSE. —Publius Publius is the pen name of the editors. |
