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Ref. : Local Newsbriefs
Ref. : Letters to the editor
06.24 Mr. Holder, You Must Hold Torturers Accountable
06.29 Thinking about Climate
06.26 False Health-Scare Ad on CNN
06.25 Louella Learns the Limits of Medicare
06.23 The Simple Answer to America’s Health Care Crisis: Medicare for All
06.23 Tell ABC: Include Single-Payer in Healthcare Debate
06.23 Serving the Medical-Industrial Complex
06.22 Thinking about Recoveries
06.20 Obama's Health Care Waterloo
06.15 Obama, Like Clinton Before Him, is Blowing the Chance for Real Health Care Reform
06.11 Two Key Health-Care Numbers
06.10 Big Breakthroughs for Single Payer Health Care
06.10 Readying Americans for Dangerous, Mandatory Vaccinations
06.29 WP's Connolly Back, on Health Reform
06.17 Hypocrisy and Hope: Western Coverage, Iranian Courage
06.15 Excusing Outrages of the Right
06.11 Tying Obama to Bush's Budget Mess
06.30 Obama's Torture Hypocrisy
06.30 Court Circular: Annals of Imperial Continuity
06.29 Obama, They Want You to Fail
06.26 Who to Trust on a Truth Commission?
06.26 Tarnished Shields: The Morally Bankrupt 'Family Values' Republican Leadership
06.25 America's "Bases of Empire"
06.24 Twelve Angry White People: Jury Nullification in a Pennsylvania Coal Town
06.24 Touring Empire's Ruins
06.23 Employers are Undermining the Economic Stimulus Program
06.19 Criminalizing Dissent: Obama Pot Calls Iranian Kettle Black
06.17 Afghanistan's Operation Phoenix
06.16 Are You Ready for War with a Demonized Iran?
06.13 Where's the Anger as the Wheels Come Off Obama's and the Democrats' Recovery Program?
06.10 Waiving the Rules for Old Glory
06.10 Obama's Era of Openness Is Closed
07.03 Reviewing Marjorie Cohn and Kathleen Gilberd's "Rules of Disengagement"
07.01 Iraq: A Bitter Strategic Failure
06.25 It's All Good, Again: 'Uptick' in the American-Made Tides of Violence in Iraq
06.22 Obama Opposes Plame-gate Release
06.21 Dexter's Legions: The "Good" Killers of the "Good" War
06.18 Extending the Tradition: Proudly Taking American Torture Into the Future
06.15 New UN Report Denounces America's Human Rights Record
06.14 Fear Rules
07.01 Michael Hudson's "Super Imperialism:" The Economic Strategy of Imperial America
06.23 Obama's Financial Reform Proposal - A Stealth Scheme for Global Monetary Control
06.10 Cyberscares About Cyberwars Equal Cybermoney
07.01 Pirates of the Mediterranean
06.29 Color Revolutions, Old and New
06.25 Iran Divided & the 'October Suprise'
06.23 Astringent Corrective: AbuKhalil on Iran's Turmoil
06.20 Are the Iranian Protests Another US Orchestrated “Color Revolution?”
06.20 Through a Glass Darkly: Sifting Myth and Fact on Iran
06.19 Iran's Election and US - Iranian Elections
06.16 The Ir-Af-Pak War: Obama Looses the Manhunters
06.12 Israeli War Crimes Against Children During Operation Cast Lead
COMMENTARY:
Time to Run for Change, America
Back to reality: on July 25th the International Herald Tribune ran a piece titled "Teens march across America in lonely opposition to war." The article talked about nineteen-year-old Ashley Casale and eighteen-year-old Michael Israel, who started their 3,000-mile walk from San Francisco to Washington to show their opposition to the war in Iraq and express their hope that others would join them.
The pair did pick up a third marcher, nineteen-year-old Tom Garrett, but the masses were absent. What happened to them? What happened to all those Americans opposing the war?
If we follow the old saying of "two's company, three's a crowd," it is evident that we have an anti-war movement growing on the ankles of these courageous young men. Granted that—taking into account the US population numbers of 302,465,868 people, according to the US census Bureau—three people is a tiny representation for opposition to the war, at least there are three.
After all, it was U.S president Lyndon B. Johnson who said, "Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time."
Who knows? Forrest's mum did say that "life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you gonna get." Maybe peace-loving people will understand the need for this run to continue, and just like Jennie yelled out to Forrest, "Run Forrest run!," we will all shout to Ashley, Michael and Tom, "Run guys run!" Maybe then, funding will flow in order for this run to continue. Maybe people will take to the streets and go from coast to coast until they're out of breath. And then, with the war stopped, just like Forrest did, they will proclaim: "We're pretty tired... we think we'll go home now."
Forrest's run across the country took three and a half years. Maybe a run to stop this war will take a lot longer, but then again, running is good for our health, and running for a good cause must be promoted.
Who knows, maybe this is America's chance to embark on an epic journey of healthy change, and they will prompt foreign runners to join their race. After all, many people around the world are waiting to see signs of change, to rally behind the American cause. Three runners marching for peace, is inspiring, but is simply not enough to stop the war.
Hopefully those Americans looking for something bigger than a weekend rally will follow the footsteps of their three fellow patriots. When pro-justice and pro-peace groups chant in unison "Run America run!," America will run and run and run. It will run so much and so hard that the braces will brake from its legs and it will never have to wear them again.
Pablo Ouziel is an activist and a freelance writer based in Spain. His work has appeared in many progressive media including Znet, Palestine Chronicle, Thomas Paine’s Corner and Atlantic Free Press.
Republication or redistribution of Baltimore Chronicle content is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent.
This story was published on August 10, 2007.
