The same day it has been nominated for the Best Documentary (Feature) Academy Award, I went to Dukes Theatre to see Bowling For Columbine, Michael Moore's exploration of American gun isses.
I was going to write this fantastic post but I really don't have the words. I will tell you that at least three times I wanted to vomit, that at least three times I wanted to shout obscenities very loudly at the screen, that at least three times I was veering on the edge of tears and that throughout I felt a great sense of shame, despair and depression.
This must stop. I don't ever want to see two young men, one paralysed and one with a bullet lodged an inch from his heart, have to wait in the foyer of the K Mart HQ for hours to get answers. I don't ever want to see the devastation caused by guns. Not ever.
I've always had a sensitivity towards this particular issue for one very simple reason: I am a John Lennon fan. To me the gun is the reason for my hero's death. To me, the gun is the slayer of the seemingly immortal. The gun is what killed those five and six year old children in Dunblane, what killed those kids at Columbine, in Flint, in..... Do I really need to go on.
Something occurred to me while Michael Moore made a point about the American Culture of Fear as propagated by the government and the news media. I never thought that I of all people would say this: "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." Yodakins was right. I may despise what Star Wars did to Hollywood, but it is right.
Lay down your fear, lay down your hate and most importantly, lay down your guns. You do not need an uzi or a semi-automatic to hunt deer. It is not your Constitutional right to kill people. Right now, I'm trying to get my head around the situation in N. Ireland (there was a riot the other day in Omagh, site of a horrendous bombing a few years ago). All I can see is hate and fear and loathing and I want it to stop RIGHT NOW.
John Lennon, was amongst other things, a man who desired peace. He said that we can get it if we want it. If we all stand up and say NO, it will happen. If everyone in Belfast turned to the paramilitaries and said 'fuck off' it would happen. If everyone in America turned around and told Georgieboy to Stop, it would happen. If we want peace, it can happen. We just have to say the word. We can get it if we want it. John Lennon knew that. In some ways, he died for it. I don't want anymore people to die for it. To quote someone rather more intellectually desirable than Yoda: "How many times must the cannonballs fly before they're forever banned?" Bob Dylan knew it forty sodding years ago. John knew it thirty four years ago when he begged for peace and planted acorns and did interviews in a bag. "Yoko and I are quite willing to be the world's clowns, if by doing it we do some good."
What are you willing to do for peace? What am I willing to do besides write this? I don't know. It also got me to thinking about this whole war with Iraq thing. If we were given a real reason other than some dodgy intelligence and the plagiarism of a decade old university student's work, I might just support this war. But I don't support someone else's vendetta, someone else's desire for oil and the desire to get even richer. Give me a reason why more people should die.
Go to war if you want George. You can even take your lapdog Tony with you. But I'll tell you this right now and for free:
Not In My Fucking Name.
I hope the blood washes off your hands with ease, George.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
