My faithful iCal has reminded me that at 2pm today, Sunday 16th of March, the Palm Sunday Peace Rally will take place starting from the State Library in Melbourne. A good time to pull out the new “make coffee, not war” T-shirt from the little coffee shop that could. Oh, and apparently Martin Martini and the Bone Palace Orchestra are playing.
Oil War 2 has now been going for five years. This is too long and we need to stop it now. Anyone who would like to join me or is already going please let me know. I have a banner in my storage unit with “coexist” painted on it but I’ll need an extra pair of hands to help carry the other end.
I’ve been going to Palm Sunday marches since I was a child. My mother took me. During Oil War 1, I went to Canberra to protest and lay down on the driveway leading up to the Lodge with white facepaint, along with other skeletons. I’ve protested Aidex and other arms exhibitions. Sometimes it seems like our actions mean little and the world continues; the killing continues. But if we give up, then they win. Our numbness, our complacency, is acceding to murder. Thou shalt not be a bystander.
This isn’t just about Iraq, or it shouldn’t be. It’s also about Darfur and Israel/Palestine and Pakistan and Al Qaeda extremists. This is a call once again for world peace. Against all odds.
To quote some of the old slogans on the toilet walls at North Sydney Girls’ High:
Fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity.
What if they held a war and nobody came?
and more importantly, to quote an old Jewish call to personal responsibility, “If not me, who? If not now, when?”