The Book Thief

I just finished The Book Thief for the second time, sitting on the back porch with tears running down my face. Once again I am absolutely stunned by the terrible beauty of this book. How anyone could read it, and still believe that war belongs in this world, is beyond me. Narrated by Death, it tells the story of a young German girl, Liesel Meminger, sent to live with foster parents in a suburb of Munich at the outset of WWII. The Book Thief is about the power of words to bring about both evil and good in the world, and how ultimately, decency and love can transcend the daily brutality of war.

The Book Thief makes me wonder -- Do ideas and words ever just find an author for themselves? I don't mean to discredit Markus Zusak in any way. I am in awe of his writing. It's only that The Book Thief stands out from all but a handful of books that I have read, and gives the impression of a story that demanded to be told in just the way that Zusak told it. (If that makes any sense.)

At any rate, if you have not read The Book Thief, please do. Yes, it is sad and brutal at times. It makes the reader step up and look into the abyss of war. And then, in spite of everything, it sings. A beautiful, beautiful book.

Obsessing

I am obsessing just a little on the Bill Ayers/ Weather Underground story. It is being discussed a lot since Bill Ayers has broken his silence after the election. It makes me want to read his memoir Fugitive Days and see the Weather Underground documentary.

One reason that it interests me so much, is that this is my childhood history. Madison, Wisconsin -- where I grew up and still live -- was one of the "hotbeds" of anti-war activism, along with Berkley, et al. I lived about a mile off of the university campus and during riots, vestiges of teargas clouds would waft through our neighborhood. My parents, who were a doctor and a nurse, would go down to help patch students up after a meleé.

One of the decisive events that turned the anti-war movement around actually occurred here in 1970: 4 young men who identified with the Weather Underground, detonated a car bomb outside of a university building that housed the controversial Army Math Research Center. Like the WU, they wanted to destroy only the property and thought that by doing it in the middle of the night there would be no people present. Unfortunately, there was a graduate student working in his lab, Robert Fassnacht, a man with a wife and young children, who died in the blast.

Of the 4 men, 3 of them were eventually apprehended and served time in prison. One of them, Leo Burt, has never been caught. He is still on the FBI's "most wanted" list. The oldest of the 4, Karl Armstrong, was identified as the "ringleader." At the time he was arrested, he professed to be largely unrepentant for his act and cited the context of the war on Viet Nam. As you might imagine, this did not sit well with many people, even those sympathetic to the cause. (I have friends who are friends with Fassnacht's widow, and I understand that she has not been able to forgive Armstrong and the others. Karl Armstrong has expressed remorse as time has passed.)

Daily Kos has a post up today discussing Ayers and the tactics of the WU. He also is adamant about looking at the context. While I consider myself to be a pacifist and absolutely do not condone any violence as a means to an end, I understand what he is saying. Karl Armstrong says that he became a revolutionary when his head hit the ground while being beaten by Chicago cops outside the Democratic National Convention in 1968. (My nephew said something similar when, at the age of 17, he was arrested at the WTO/IMF protests in Washington, DC. While he was in custody, a federal marshal told him that he would "mess him up so bad, his mom wouldn't recognize him." Nice.)

In the late sixties there were groups of people in the US who felt that war was being waged against them, and evidence shows that it was not far from the truth. And then consider that many of these people were in their late teens or early twenties ... it's the whole frontal lobe development thing!

I am nearly 50 and a practicing Quaker; as I said before, I do not condone what was done. But I certainly understand it in its context. (Believe it or not, I understand what Timothy McVeigh did, in its context. In fact, I have to condemn violence in all forms, because the actions of a Timothy McVeigh seem to be the logical conclusion of the "destroy property, not people" actions of a group like the Weather Underground.)

One of my all time favorite documentary films is The War At Home. It is about the anti-Viet Nam war movement as it unfolded in my hometown (though it easily could have been made in any number of places.) If any of this interests you, I'm sure that the film is available through Netflix.

Oy, too much thinking for a Sunday morning when I really need to be doing some laundry.

Peace, friends.

FUTK

Tonight I belatedly got around to watching Shut Up & Sing, a 2006 film that documents the three years after Dixie Chick Natalie Maines' infamous comment in London in 2003. I watched the first half of the movie with my heart in my mouth: so many celebrities spoke out initially and then backed down in fear of losing their careers, their commercial sponsors, etc.

Natalie never backed down. It was inspiring to watch her meet the animosity with dignity and grace. She stood up, not only to her critics, but to well-meaning friends and associates who all just wanted her to shut up and sing.

It was also very moving to see the unified front that the band presented to the world. Whatever private emotions any of them entertained late at night, they were there for each other with a remarkable amount of love and respect.

I have to say, the film made me very sad, a mixture of grief over all that we have lost and shame for what has been done in our names, both here and abroad. It exposes the incredible ugliness that, in my mind, marks the last 7 1/2 years in this country. The stupidity and small-minded downright mean-ness of people took my breath away. There were threats on their lives, for God's sake!

I was reminded of so many people who should have known better, who felt that we had to stand behind "our president" in those early days following 9/11 and leading up to the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.

The film ends on a great note, with the Dixie Chicks back in London, playing to a sold out arena, and Natalie Maines stands on the stage and says, "I am embarrassed that the president of the United States is from Texas." That's when I wanted to stand up and cheer.

I recommend this film. It was made by Barbara Kopple, who also made the acclaimed Harlan County USA.

When Will We Ever Learn?

Quaker Dave, the Quaker Agitator, wrote an excellent post this week about why progressives should not advocate for reinstatement of military conscription, and why instead, we should all be out there actively opposing the next war (and the next and the next ...) I hope you will go and read it.

War is not only immoral and ineffective, it is stupid. Its main function is to line the pockets of profiteers. We don't need to become apologists for any war. Better to keep all young people safe.