The luxury and curse of pacifism
The war in Iraq continues without letup or even an endgame in sight. Saddam Hussein has been executed and the world is a marginally better place for it. But a recent reference to Jeanette Rankin started me thinking about pacifism and pacifists in general.
To refresh your memory, Jeantte Rankin was born in Missoula, Montana, in 1880. In 1916, she became the first woman to be elected to congress, and was only one of 49 representatives to vote against America's entry into WWI. Her apologists say she declined to run again in 1918, but in fact, she failed to receive her party's nomination and really had no other choice. An avowed pacifist and isolationist, in 1940, she again ran for congress and was elected, whereupon, in 1941, she became the only representative to vote against America's entry into WWII. To no one's surprise, she again was uninvited to participate further in Montana's political life.
Some would call her a hero, and some would call her a coward. As she is a distant relative of mine on my mother's side, I prefer not to choose either term.
But one thing does seem obvious. It is easy to be a pacifist when one has nothing personal to lose. High Ideals seem more lofty than they should when the person holding them doesn't have to put their money where their mouth is, and so it is with my distant cousin, and frankly, all of her ilk.
Even today, more than a century later, there are hoards of anti-war types afield that have put nothing on the table other than their mouths. The arch-typical bearded hippies of the sixties gave nothing to this country other than a disdain for bathing, while their opinions, and the rights to hold and express those opinions, were bought and paid for with the blood of others.
I suspect I will revisit this topic again.
To refresh your memory, Jeantte Rankin was born in Missoula, Montana, in 1880. In 1916, she became the first woman to be elected to congress, and was only one of 49 representatives to vote against America's entry into WWI. Her apologists say she declined to run again in 1918, but in fact, she failed to receive her party's nomination and really had no other choice. An avowed pacifist and isolationist, in 1940, she again ran for congress and was elected, whereupon, in 1941, she became the only representative to vote against America's entry into WWII. To no one's surprise, she again was uninvited to participate further in Montana's political life.
Some would call her a hero, and some would call her a coward. As she is a distant relative of mine on my mother's side, I prefer not to choose either term.
But one thing does seem obvious. It is easy to be a pacifist when one has nothing personal to lose. High Ideals seem more lofty than they should when the person holding them doesn't have to put their money where their mouth is, and so it is with my distant cousin, and frankly, all of her ilk.
Even today, more than a century later, there are hoards of anti-war types afield that have put nothing on the table other than their mouths. The arch-typical bearded hippies of the sixties gave nothing to this country other than a disdain for bathing, while their opinions, and the rights to hold and express those opinions, were bought and paid for with the blood of others.
I suspect I will revisit this topic again.
posted by screaminginside at 5:55 PM
