On the peace line, Charlottesville

We had some interesting experiences on the peace vigil in town today. Much of the national media has been making a huge deal out of the killing of Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi. (Not so much mention of the woman and child reportedly killed in the building along with him… )
But of course, George W. Bush has also shown us his very public gloating over the killing of his foe. As one friend said to me: “You’d think they’d just won the Battle of El Alamein”…
So anyway, before I got out onto the street-corner with the peace signs today, I was wondering what kind of response we’d get from the passing (vehicle-borne) citizenry. And indeed, very unusually for our vigil these days days, today we did get two or three passing drivers who had evidently been hyped up by the media coverage and were eager to yell epithets at us and taunt us.
One of these guys– and yes, they are all men– was a well-known taunter from ways back who’s been notably quiet recently. Today, he rolled down his window and pushed his upper body half out of it so he could yell at us: “We got your buddy today! And you’re next!”
Poor guy. His face was contorted with anger. It seemed like he’d been saving up his bile for a long time and was just so very happy to have a chance to yell at us once again.
Zarqawi– “our guy”? That is so very sad and misinformed. (Not that this particular taunter was ever in a mood to come and actually talk to us about our views and affiliations. One time, maybe 18 months ago, he did get the guy who drives him home from work to stop a little way further down the street, and then he stomped back to our group and started berating a younger woman there… His buddy gently pulled him away.)
And as for his threat that: “You’re next!” Well, that has to come from a sick, delusional mind.
At one level, I am interested in this whole question of the psychological roots of violence– especially when, as seems so often to be the case, the violence is all bound up with a feeling of self-righteous anger. The urge to punish, pure and simple, is a huge leitmotif in the American psyche– whether it is “bringing justice to” Zarqawi by killing him outright (along with other individuals, including a child), or whether it’s capital punishment here at home.
This evening our state was due to be executing a borderline mentally retarded man called Percy Walton… The case went through many last-minute appeals and stops and starts until finally, just over an hour before the scheduled execution time, the Governor gave Walton a six-month stay of execution while his mental capacities are further examined by the state.
You see, here in Virginia, the second killingest state per capita in the entire union, you have to be sane enough to be “fit” to be executed in order to actually be executed. You could say, “a person would be insane to choose to be that sane!” Or you could say that the whole darn’ system is insane… But the root idea there is that the state requires that the executed person be in a position to fully comprehend what is about to happen to him, otherwise it’s not a “just” execution. Cruel and unusual punishment? I’ll say! Also, think about Percy Walton’s mental life this evening just a bit. If his cognitive functioning was sufficient that he understood what was scheduled to happen to him at 9 p.m. this evening, imagine what all his last 24 hours of dread were like… But then, the Governor gives him the six-month stay of execution; and somewhere along the way there state psychiatrists will come in and examine him. If at that point they find he is indeed “sane enough to be executed” then he has to undergo that entire lead-up-to-execution dread one time over again, in addition to the pain of the execution itself. Oh, ain’t “justice” a wonderful thing…
I digress. (Though not entirely.)
So there we were on the street corner this afternoon. Yes, we had two or three instances of clear hostility from drivers-by. But we also had a raucous cacophony of supportive horn-tooting in response to our peace signs! It seemed like the loudest ever. There were some extremely insistent honkers out there today… Including many trolley- and bus-drivers and once again a large city police vehicle.
My faith in the citizenry of our little corner of central Virginia was completely upheld. Bush may have had his few hours of gloating in the sun today. But based on the honking I heard on our street corner, the killing of Zarqawi has done little or nothing to persuade Americans that this war is headed in any kind of a desirable direction.
Bring the troops home.

7 thoughts on “On the peace line, Charlottesville”

  1. Lovely post, Helena. The Bush spin falls short of its goal because, basically, people in the US are done with this war. They acquiesced and cheered, but nothing in their experience, even 9/11, convinced them it was vital to their wellbeing, so now most folks can become comfortable with the idea of an end. I am sure Bush’s gloating will be short, though it may take some terribly visible atrocity in Iraq to draw people’s attention back to that suffering country.
    How many people did the US kill in Iraq trying to get rid of one minor, grandstanding bandit?

  3. I think actually Virginia may be the second killingest state in the country in absolute terms (second to Texas, of course)… while in per-capita terms it may still be– as it was for a long time– the #1 killingest state… I don’t have tinme to check now. Sorry. But if anyone else cd provide the figures (and the source), that wd be great.

  4. “At one level, I am interested in this whole question of the psychological roots of violence– especially when, as seems so often to be the case, the violence is all bound up with a feeling of self-righteous anger.”
    Just speaking about myself, I finally realized one day that my wishing violence on someone else actually came from wishing they UNDERSTOOD how their actions cause so much pain and grief in other people’s life – including mine. I was wishing them violence so they would UNDERSTAND. And, really, on a very deep level, I do not wish them violence. I just wish they would wake up and UNDERSTAND other people’s suffering. That got me completely past wishing violence on anybody, anywhere.
    I still wish Bush will be sent to jail for a long, long time…..however. Maybe we could make him watch al Jazeera’s coverage of the innocents hurt and killed in the war for 12 hours a day for the rest of his life?
    Don’t know how this relates to the guy yelling since your protesting war does not cause pain and grief in someone else’s life.

  5. With your peaceful move your troops killing Iraq right now can you stope the killing of the innocent Iraqis? When this will stops then……..
    أهالي الرمادي يقولون ان القوات الامريكية تطالبهم باخلاء المدينة
    بغداد (رويترز) – قال سكان نازحون من مدينة الرمادي الغربية اليوم السبت ان القوات الامريكية تحاصر مدينتهم وطالبت الاسر التي تسكن المدينة باخلائها مما اشاع جوا من الرعب بين الاهالي من احتمال شن القوات الامريكية هجوما واسع النطاق على المدينة.
    http://www2.swissinfo.org/sar/swissinfo.html?siteSect=121&sid=6799524&cKey=1149947423000
    It’s another Fallujah soon in Al-Ramady City…

  6. I see I am late commenting to your essay on the vigil, Helena … sorry about that. But I have to tell you that at my own vigil on the West Coast last Thursday night we had exactly the same responses you did. I had heard about Zarqawi’s death earlier that morning, but didn’t really give it much thought to tell you the truth. To me, Zarqawi has always been a rather marginal figure in the whole Iraq mess … one who has been hyped by the US government to be the root of all the problems in the country, a view I frankly reject.
    But, boy, there are sure plenty of folks in this country who have swallowed the hype hook, line and sinker. At the very beginning of the vigil when an elderly woman and I were the only ones out there, a 60ish fellow veered his car over toward us, belching obscenities. His entire body was shaking with rage. His right arm and middle finger were extended as far as they could go without him completely losing control of the vehicle. And after a couple of references to effing traitors and effing commies, he literally screamed, “WE GOT ZARQAWI, YOU BIIIIIIIIITCHES!!!” My friend and I have been through this so many times we just smiled and gave him the peace sign, then shook our heads and laughed after he drove off.
    But later, another male driver stopped dead in traffic across from us, leaned out the window, and pointedly said, “WE GOT ZARQAWI” in the tone of voice people usually use for the biggest of put-downs! We all just smiled and flashed him peace signs.
    Ah, but there’s more. You aren’t gonna believe this, but another 60ish male driver pulled up right in front of us, slowed waaaaaay down, and pulled out a little sign that he brandished in front of us: “ABU AL ZARQAWI, THE ISLAMO FACSIST PIG IS DEAD! OSAMA IS NEXT!” And yes, he really did mis-spell “fascist”! Is this crazy, or what? This “event” had such an effect on this man that he went to the trouble to put a sign together in an effort to taunt us???
    This is delusion to a degree I cannot begin to fathom …

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