I don't need your war...

(please click the links for basic info on each topic)

Current news is filled with stories about Occupy Wall Street and its various supporting Occupations around the globe, and how people are becoming seriously injured in first world countries simply by standing up for their rights in a passive, nonviolent way. 

Of course, I wasn't there and can only go by news accounts.


One of the most recent stories from a California university detailed a group of university students being pepper sprayed and jabbed with batons by police during their nonviolent protest. A Google search will turn up many results about this interview and this very topic.

Students being pepper-sprayed, 2011

The university chancellor has granted interviews and the university is taking action, according to various news sources, including this one.


In Canada and the United States, our rights (Charter and Constitutional, respectively) are legally secured because we live in democratic countries. Or, they are supposed to be.


We have the right to free speech. Can't we criticize our governments without fearing for our safety?


I thought we could.


That's supposed to be a benefit of living in a place where we are free - where our ancestors spilled their blood so we could be free to think, to speak, to live.

* * *

In high school, when I was 15 years old, I had to write a position paper for English class and I had no idea what to write about. My English teacher sent me off to my Social teacher because I was interested in free speech and music. That was his forte.


My Social teacher discussed that with me because he cared about it, too. In particular, he told me about the Vietnam War, Kent State and the Tiananmen Square protests. He told me all about antiestablishmentarianism and Woodstock. 

(PS: If I had the internet and Google back in the 90s, I don't know if I ever would have left the house... I would have always been 'researching').

The 1970 Kent State Massacre really stuck with me - I can't get that one out of my head, and it's been about 20 years since I first heard about it. It was brutal. People were killed on a university campus just for standing up for their beliefs in America. 

Kent State, 1970

We don't live in a third world country - we are in North America! Things shouldn't be / don't have to be like this!

And yes, that was 1970... but people, it's still happening. How long before 'shooting someone with pepper spray' turns into 'shooting someone with bullets'? If you were standing up for your rights, wouldn't you want support, and wouldn't you want the pepper spray and bullets to be holstered?


My teacher and I talked about people fighting for their rights and how important it is to stand up for what you want and what you believe in, no matter what the cost... if you truly believe in it and you want it badly enough. I believed him. I still do.

Tiananmen Square, 1989

My grandfather fought in WW2 and I knew he had been deeply affected by it. He didn't like to talk about it, ever. It was traumatic. That was my only reference point for war.

RIP 1917-1999

Because our grandparents had gone to fight for our rights, it didn't seem like we could be forced to do these things anymore. Canada didn't have the draft like the US. I couldn't (and still can't) imagine what a generation of people felt like when they were forced to go to war, for something they didn't believe in, for something they didn't have any control over, for something they didn't want to do. How do you fight for something you don't want?


I listened to a lot of CCR growing up. "Fortunate Son" (LOVE this song!) sums up how I feel about a lot of those issues between the privileged and those who have to work harder for what they want. It's a great protest song for the 60's but still applicable yet today. We're not all 'fortunate sons.'


Some folks are born made to wave the flag
Ooh, they're red, white and blue
And when the band plays "Hail to the chief"
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no senator's son, son
It ain't me, it ain't me; I ain't no fortunate one, no

Yeah!
Some folks are born silver spoon in hand
Lord, don't they help themselves, oh
But when the taxman comes to the door
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yes

It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no millionaire's son, no
It ain't me, it ain't me; I ain't no fortunate one, no

Some folks inherit star spangled eyes
Ooh, they send you down to war, Lord
And when you ask them, "How much should we give?"
Ooh, they only answer More! more! more! yoh

It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no military son, son
It ain't me, it ain't me; I ain't no fortunate one, one
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate one, no no no
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate son, no no no


We are still protesting, today. It's 40+ years later and we're still fighting the same fight. 


People are 'fighting' because they want to. It's nonviolent 'fighting' because these people seem to believe that talking can help. Isn't that what mature adults do? I'm not saying anything new here. There are too many layers, too deep, too entangled, to figure this out in a few minutes in a blog. 


Learning history is supposed to help us to not make the same mistakes.

Flower Power, 1967

We haven't really changed that much, have we?


Guns N Roses' "Civil War"
(LOVE this!)


"What we've got here is failure to communicate.
Some men you just can't reach...
So, you get what we had here last week,
which is the way he wants it!
Well, he gets it!
N' I don't like it any more than you men." *

Look at your young men fighting
Look at your women crying
Look at your young men dying
The way they've always done before

Look at the hate we're breeding
Look at the fear we're feeding
Look at the lives we're leading
The way we've always done before

My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of God and our human rights
And all these things are swept aside
By bloody hands time can't deny
And are washed away by your genocide
And history hides the lies of our civil wars

D'you wear a black armband
When they shot the man
Who said "Peace could last forever"
And in my first memories
They shot Kennedy
I went numb when I learned to see
So I never fell for Vietnam
We got the wall of D.C. to remind us all
That you can't trust freedom
When it's not in your hands
When everybody's fightin'
For their promised land

And I don't need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
I don't need your civil war

Look at the shoes your filling
Look at the blood we're spilling
Look at the world we're killing
The way we've always done before
Look in the doubt we've wallowed
Look at the leaders we've followed
Look at the lies we've swallowed
And I don't want to hear no more

My hands are tied
For all I've seen has changed my mind
But still the wars go on as the years go by
With no love of God or human rights
'Cause all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars

"We practice selective annihilation of mayors
And government officials
For example to create a vacuum
Then we fill that vacuum
As popular war advances
Peace is closer" **

I don't need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
And I don't need your civil war
I don't need your civil war
I don't need your civil war
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
I don't need your civil war
I don't need one more war

Life may not be fair, but it can be better.