Stephen Vincent wrote:
> Re Hiroshima:
>
> Yesterday I was thinking of a provocative act. To make white cloth envelopes
> with stencils of pictures and names of the Iraqi civilian dead. These would
> be temporarily, and periodically placed over the grave stones of soldiers in
> American, Australian and United States' military cemeteries.
>
> There would be huge, righteous outcry/outrage from certain, predicatable
> public sectors. But the act would level the dead and/or 'living' fields. In
> fact, I would call it an homage to the "living dead."
>
> It might also speaking to the living, albeit amputated outrage that I
> suspect many of us feel about this war, as well as a few other disastrous
> incursions in the 20th and 21st century.
>
The first image that comes to mind is of spray-painting swastikas on
graves in Jewish cemeteries. The second image is of an Abu Ghraib of
the dead. The idea of violating any human being's grave is revolting
and anti-human/humanist, secular or otherwise. I have a real problem
with "bringing the war home" when that vacuous slogan from the Sixties
extends to invading the resting places of people who have died in
combat, whether or not you or anyone likes the war. Even Americans,
oddly enough, deserve the amnesty of the grave.
Ken
--------------------
Ken Wolman rainermaria.typepad.com
There's a lot of wisdom here among the employees,
Some of us have street smarts and some have Ph.Ds.
We're all bored and tired but we've all learned ways to cope
Some of us drink after work, the rest of us smoke dope.
--Austin Lounge Lizards, "Industrial Strength Tranquilizers"
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