Marcos, Your thoughts??...
Thinkpiece
Return to Walden
By Edna Yaghi*
10 January 2002
In the year 1845, Henry David Thoreau moved to a crude hut on the shores of Walden Pond, located in Concord, Massachusetts, which is 18 miles west of Boston. Thoreau lived alone at Walden from 1845 to 1847 and then with Ralph Waldo Emerson from 1847 to 1848.
During his sojourn at this small tranquil pond, Thoreau supported himself by doing odd jobs such as carpentry, gardening and land surveying. He spent the major portion of his time devoted to the study of nature, meditating and reading Greek, Latin, French and English Literature. He delighted in having long conversations with his neighbours.
Thoreau is best remembered as a writer, philosopher and naturalist. One of his most famous essays was the one he wrote in 1849, "Civil Disobedience".
In 1846 Thoreau chose to go to jail rather than support the Mexican War (1846-48) by paying his poll tax. In his essay, Thoreau discussed passive resistance. The Mexican War ended with the US taking half of Mexico. Northern Abolitionists blamed the war on the desire of the Southern planters and Northern merchants to enlarge slave territory and Thoreau refused to pay a tax for something he did not believe in and thought unjust.
Even in the middle of the 19th century, Thoreau thought that the American government was losing its integrity and that it really was not serving the interests of its citizens, but rather the interests of those with the most power. He also felt that no man should resign his conscience to the legislators and that every man should first stand up for what he believes in rather than be a subject to an authority that might be abusive and corrupt.
Yet, the American government has gone from bad to worse. It is now a government that does not serve the needs of its people at all but rather serves the state of Israel. America is now run by the Zionist entity. The multimedia is controlled by Zionists and every bit of news is manipulated and distorted in ways that will best serve the Israeli war state. The American people are fed a constant stream of lies about what their government is doing. Few people are really aware that, in 1948, the Jews took away most of the land from the original inhabitants who happened to be the Palestinian people. The Jews had no legal, moral, religious or historical right to do this. Nearly a million Palestinians were driven out of their homes and off their land so that Jews from all over the world could invade the country of another people.
There is no way that this theft, pillage, plunder and murder of the Palestinian people can be justified. And there is no reason on earth why Israel must continue to occupy what is left of Palestine. It is not just a question of occupation. It is the idea that Israel is a war state bent on the destruction of the Palestinian people. Israel is supplied with billions of dollars every year by American taxpayers. American people pay money that could better service themselves and their country rather than to kill, maim and desecrate what is Palestinian.
If Thoreau were here today, he would ask his fellow Americans the reasons for their financial support of a country that does not serve the interests of the American people. Quite the contrary, Israel is the greatest enemy of the United States.
After American planes have blasted away a great deal of Afghan landscape and relentlessly bombarded the Afghan people, their most wanted man, Osama Ben Laden, is still nowhere to be found. The cleverest American president that ever governed the US, George W. Bush, stated that he wants Ben Laden dead or alive and that he really doesn't care which. It sounds more like a scene taken from an old Eastwood western rather than a president talking about capturing the person he holds responsible for the 11 September attacks. What seems to concern Bush the most is giving people a tour of his ranch.
But Bush's war on terrorism will only create more hate and more enemies for America. And just where will this war against terror end? How many innocent lives are yet to be taken and how many other people who chance to survive will suffer the consequences of America's evil foreign policy. And whose purposes are being served? Certainly, once again, killing innocent people does not serve the interests of any but the wicked. Naturally, since Israel is a war state and intent on expansion, any strikes against Arab and Muslim people will be to its advantage. More than a million and a half Iraqis have died since the Gulf War and ensuing sanctions. Bombing Iraq once again is not serving the interests of the American people but keeping an enemy of Israel at bay.
Suddenly the world has been informed that freedom fighters are terrorists. There would be no human bombers if the Palestinian people were treated justly and given their freedom and a state of their own. Since when have people fighting for the freedom of their country been known as terrorists? This means then that the French Resistance against Hitler was made up of terrorists. This means then that the American settlers who fought off British tyranny and occupation were also terrorists. This means that Gandhi was a terrorist and so was Nelson Mandela.
Any people under occupation have the right to resist that occupation. What most people fail to realize also is that, thanks to America, Israel has at its fingertips the latest weapons, planes, helicopters and guns that Israeli soldiers use against the civilian Palestinian population. Few people understand that the Palestinians are not only under a most brutal occupation, but are under siege and constant attack and are defenceless as well.
There seems to be no more Thoreaus in America. There are no Americans who refuse to pay taxes that support unjust causes and are against the freedom of others. Certainly, there can be no integrity in the bombing of Afghan people. Surely, there is no justice in the massacre of Iraqis. How can Israeli brutality and cruel occupation of the Palestinians ever be considered moral and right? No one is willing to go to jail in defiance of the havoc and carnage that the American foreign policy continues to wreak every day.
America should stop meddling in the affairs of the innocent around the world and should stop its blind support of the cruellest occupation in modern history. The mass murderer Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon should not be given the red carpet treatment by Bush because he has a proven track record of killing Arabs and Muslims. And Palestinian President Yasser Arafat should not be ignored and branded as non-relevant simply because he is Palestinian and interested in a genuine peace between the Israelis and the Palestinian people.
Events around the world are based on chain reactions. Violence breeds violence. It is in the interests of the American people to support and endorse freedom and the inalienable rights of all people and to take drastic steps to end the Israeli occupation of the American psyche, the American media and the American congress.
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* Edna Yaghi is an American freelance writer specializing in social and political affairs in the Middle East.
© Edna Yaghi
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