The Anti-War App?

“This is a hard decision. This is a hard decision particularly for a president like the one we’ve got right now who professes a belief and who has demonstrated such a belief in multilateral action and to the United States being a leader among nations. Not a leader despite nations, but a leader among nations. Who believes in international action. This is a hard decision.

“Fortunately there’s an App for that. It’s an old one, but it still works great…”

– Rachel Maddow

You know, ever since 9/11 I’ve had this raging debate going on in my head over what to do about the terrifying threat posed by middle eastern extremists. And over the years, as the craziness has gotten worse and worse, my growing outrage has provided more and more ammunition for the side of my internal debate arguing for extreme action. And then came news appearing to confirm the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime against its own people. Well my friends, that pretty much made the case for the side in my head arguing for “radical” intervention…

But then I read Moe’s reblog of George Packer’s Two Minds on Syria article from The New Yorker last night, an “internal debate” of sorts that was far more detailed, thoughtful, and rational than the by now totally emotion-driven one going on in my head.

And then, as if “divinely inspired” to provide me with even more of a push back to reason, Rachel Maddow opened last night’s show with this…

And, after seeing that and deciding I wanted to post it, the ensuing search “just happened” to lead me to this one I had missed from the night before…

Now while I can’t say that either report actually quelled the Arlo Guthrie style Kill, Kill, Kill chant raging on so loudly in my head, they did at least give me enough of a pause to pull my finger back from the button…

But you know, the thing that did finally help me to figure out, once again, what the true target of my “urge for justice” should be was what Rachel Maddow said later on in last night’s show. She reminded us all that today is the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March On Washington, and that, as a part of the big celebration of that event, the organizers of today’s festivities plan to ring bells at the precise moment, 3PM ET, when Martin Luther King Jr. said the words “Let freedom ring” in his historic I Have A Dream speech.

And that’s what reminded me of the part of that speech that has always resonated within my heart the most. The part where Dr. King said…

“I have a dream that one day this Nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed…”

You see, to me, just about every one of the problems we face – everything from fundamental rights issues to the lack of respect we get from the world at large – stem from our own failure to live up to the promises we made to ourselves, and to the world, back, at the moment this country was first conceived, when we declared ourselves to be better than the history that had spawned us.

Far beyond the Anti-War “app-like” appropriateness of its “Separation of Powers” components that Rachel Maddow pointed to, the U.S. Constitution was and is, to my mind at least, the very “road map to peace” we claim to have been searching for all along.

And it occurred to me, once again, that the best thing we can do to become that “stabilizing influence” over world events we say we want to be, is to prove to the world, once and for all, that the crap we keep preaching to them actually works for us here at home!

And let’s face it my friends, the alternatives are not very pretty at all…

I want ice water.

More from the Major Rants volume