Comedians Bomb*

The other night I went to a lecture by Albie Sachs, former Constitutional Court Justice of South Africa. Humor and Law the general topic. 

In 1988, Justice Sachs lost sight in one eye and his right arm mangled in a car bomb attack. He later survived as one of the authors of the Constitution of South Africa and spent 15 years on the Court. The talk was lighthearted and announced it would be cut short because he and others wanted to see Obama's State of the Union speech. 

He began by relating waking up in dark place, voices explaining the extent of his injuries, his reaction of self-depreciating jokes and elation of surviving. He explained this feeling in a South African way upon being released from care to his two Comrades in the ANC, one enjoyed the description and bravery, the other maintained a long face. His son was burned in an earlier bomb attack.

One questioner asked the Justice if anything could legally be considered too far beyond tastes. He told a joke of a Muslim man, by the beauty looking our his small window on a plane in flight, moved to prayer in Arabic and being joined by all the other passengers mumbling prayers, as well.

I sat in this hall with a man that helped bomb the Pentagon, according to his memoirs. His comrades blew themselves up in a Brownstone in New York. Who can remember the gentleman's name studying late in the UW Madison Math Library his fateful night? I bet Bill and Bern know. 

… and we are devoting our precious time to O-Bomb-a who hasn't stop bombing Iraqis, Palestinian, Afgani, Pakistani, Yemenese, and anywhere and anyone else the Commander in Chief wants to bomb, even US soil and citizens. 

The sacrifice of the innocents continues. I feel like getting bombed. 

Aren't we all victims of bombings?

Anyone want to stop it? Soon?

March 18, 2010 - 7th Anniversary of Iraq Invasion - Federal Plaza - 5:30pm - March to Bughouse Sq down Michigan - 6:30pm

Chicago, IL

Remember Brian Willson*

Japanese Internment Camp, Tule Lake, CA 1945

At 8:15 this morning, did you feel just a little remorse? guilt? shame?

Does August 6th have any historical meaning in your life? Or is it just another day of wage slavery drudgery? Nose to the grindstone and all that crap.

Thirty or forty thousand human beings were instantly vaporized and more than a hundred thousand more died in the next few days - hideously and painfully - on this morning in 1945.

A very small atomic bomb, by today's standards, did them in. Dropped from a plane with Grand Old Flag on its fuselage manned by soulless crew of true blue American military servicemen.

Are American civilians responsible for such actions? Darn tootin' we are. Just like all the atrocities committed in our name to this day all over the world.

What are you doing about it? Laughing at my post and how incredibly naive and over sentimental it is? I would suspect the mean spirited American spirit would show through at this moment. Serious subjects are to be ridiculed in this country. People with a conscious are to be considered weirdos. Lining up behind the bully is what we do.

Maybe you might bring it up in conversation today and test those around you on their perspective. Who knows, you may prove me wrong and get a response of compassion and empathy. Or an expression of fear that "they" are lurking to bomb this country. "They" will, you know, because "they" can. We were "they" to them.

We could work to abolish this type of weaponry and that would be the moral thing to do. Now I'm a Pollyanna, not conversant in worldly affairs. Not able to discuss the nuances of political science or nuclear fission. Tilting at windmills, the genie is out of the bottle, the destroyer of worlds is unleashed and unstoppable. We, the future incinerated, don't have a voice. Is that the tone prevalent in this country today? We agree with the decision in 1945 and shouldn't be surprised when it happens here.

Your friend, coworkers and family will tell you when you bring the subject up today.