This is the January 18, ‘07 edition in a once-a-week series of posters (warning: some of them have fairly graphic images of death and destruction) that Washington state based activist and college student Thomas Hays has been producing since June 2004. The numbers reflect the relatively conservative death toll being reported by Iraq Body Count. In April this year, Hays started including the numbers from the Lancet Report as well.
Hays said about the posters
“The idea (for the posters) came about when I was watching the news with some older people, Vietnam War-era people, and we were saying the images on television (today) were about children running up to tanks. It wasn’t about … war. In Vietnam, you’d see people getting blown up on the news. We started brainstorming ways to get the real images out to the kids being recruited for the military, and we came up with posters.”
The posters have stirred up controversy and anger among some who have seen them as being anti-American or anti-troops. They have caused Hays some trouble with the city of Seattle as the posters have been glued to telephone poles all over the city by anti-war activists during the last 3 years. It does seem like a fairly volatile, simple way of getting one’s point across.
Julie Clawson posted the following over at Onehandclapping a couple days ago, and has kindly given us permission to repost here. I thought her insights on “perspective taking” were … painfully on the money. Thank you Julie!
A recent study being released states that military veterans are more than twice as likely to be in prison for sex crimes than are people without military experience. While veterans are less likely to be incarcerated in the first place, about a quarter of those sentences are for sex crimes against women and children. The article then claims that researchers are at a loss to understand why.
As soon as I read about these findings, I was reminded of the conversation of an Afghani woman I overhead where she discussed the American military’s behavior in Afghanistan (read my blog post about it here). Another incident of cruel and senseless violence inflicted on a child.
And they really wonder why this is an issue? Read the rest of this news item »
Take a stand in whatever way you can.
That’s the message I left with after hearing Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof speak at the University of Oregon’s three day symposium Witnessing Genocide: Representation and Responsibility. Mr. Kristof gave the final keynote address of the symposium, “Covering the First Genocide of the 21st Century: Reporting From Darfur.”
I know, I know. Three days of talking about Genocide? The very idea makes a person want to run far away to avoid an overwhelming feeling of complete helplessness. I’ll admit that did keep me from attending the whole event, but the chance to hear Mr. Kristof in person overrode my flight instinct. So the four of us (Rachel and I along with our spouses) found some of the last seats in the room – boy I’d forgotten how small and uncomfortable classroom desk/chair combos are – to hear from this witness to genocide.
Much of what Mr. Kristof said will not surprise anyone who makes the effort to follow news about this atrocity taking place in Sudan, Africa. I won’t go into all the details he covered, but instead focus more on his thoughts about response and steps toward resolution.
Read the rest of this news item »
On the Virginia Tech and institutionalized violence thread, Janice commented:
“Also wanted to say that while I agree more and more with a stance of non-violence and peaceful resolutions, its also hard to say that if I was put in harms way that I wouldn’t lash out to protect myself or my family or my belongings. If I was walking the street and someone grabbed my purse, I’d probably take a swing and try to keep a hold of my bag. If my child was in danger, I’d do the same. I wholeheartedly agree that nonviolence makes enormous sense, I really do. I just wonder…
Does following Jesus demand I give up that kind of attempt to protect myself or my family or my belongings? Jesus may have died on a cross for a high goal….does that mean I give up mine over a handbag?”
What do you all think?