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Have you ever been watching something on television or reading something on the Internet and it riled you so much that you flipped the bird at the screen? Get a load of this piece by the Washington Post’s Lloyd Grove about Senator Max Baucus’ wife, Wanda, posting a "Peace is Patriotic" sign in the window of her home. The sign itself doesn't get to me nearly as much as her justification for it. Read this and see if you get the same reaction I had:
"Is that so unusual -- being for peace? I thought we all wanted peace," Wanda Baucus, the senator's wife of 20 years, told us yesterday. She said it was she, not her husband, who put up the sign.Sniff, sniff—I guess you’re right, Wanda. Saddam really cares. He really does. I guess he had those people shot for voicing their political views because he was concerned for them. And when his son Uday put people in plastic- making industrial machinery, he could really hear their screams and feel their pain!
"I want the people in Iraq to have peace -- the people whose lives are in turmoil because of the war, the children, their mothers, the farmers, the grandmothers and even the camels that are out grazing," said the 54-year-old Baucus, an anthropologist who has taught at Harvard as well as a painter who regularly visits the south of France.
While Isaac, her bichon frise, barked in the background, Baucus confided that she has been watching television with growing distress and having trouble sleeping -- though she's not worried about the prospect of terrorism in the United States. "I never think about it," she said.
"I don't think we have any business being in a preemptive war against Iraq," she said. "Anytime you drop bombs, there are going to be a lot of innocent people hurt. A billion Muslims all over the world are in pain to see their brothers losing their homes and their families losing the stability of their civilization."
She added: "Baghdad is where the beginning of civilization occurred, literally where the wheel was invented, where the very first city was built, where writing began, and it has a very deep and profoundly beautiful history -- which we should never take lightly, no matter who the existing president is."
Even if it's Saddam? "I think he is very proud of the history of his country. I think it's we Americans who don't know the facts about what anthropologists call 'the cradle of civilization.' When we watch the bombing on television, we really don't seem to understand or appreciate that some of these places are sacred. . . . I disagree with those who say that Saddam Hussein doesn't think about this. He cares about these places and their people."
She continued: "I don't think American lives are threatened by him. There is no evidence of weapons of mass destruction and we have no right to make a preemptive strike on another country and try to assassinate its leader. We have no right legally or morally. We are way out of line."
And y’know, I don’t worry very much about terrorism either while I’m working on the 19th floor of a builiding that serves as the home office of a Fortune 100 company in the middle of downtown Dallas. Nope. And I’m sure you don’t either, living on a nice spread in Montana. How is downtown Missoula? Is it still quiet? Have the terrorists run amok there yet? Haven’t heard much from the Unabomber lately.
Very touching, yes. Very touching, Wanda. You and I have a lot in common, since we both love art. Now I’ve been to Italy, where the Renaissance really took off. And I must say that many in that country, especially the younger folks, expressed pleasure and some degree of gratitude for the U.S.’s involvement in WWII. You see, there was this guy named Mussolini, and he believed in random executions and bilking his people of all they possessed. And we helped get rid of him. It took a few brave Italians to put a few bullets in his chest, but they did it once we got involved. And now, anyone in the world can go see Duccios in Firenza and the “Good Government” murals in Siena and the Roman ruins in Rome and the medieval churches in Assisi or the torture museum in San Gimignano because it’s a free capital-driven country there. A culture is only vital and viable if there is a thriving culture there to sustain it.
Ooo, I’d love to see the ziggurats of Ur or the lamasus of ancient Assyria! That sounds like fun, Wanda! Boy, I would’ve gone some time ago if it weren’t for that little thing called the Iran-Iraq War. Then Iraq’s leader, like, invaded a sovereign country and then gassed some of his own people. Yeah, I kind of thought twice about getting that visa to visit some of those old ruins that I’m sure were so well-kept and well-managed. I’m sure Saddam really cares about that stuff and is probably an amateur archaeologist himself. I’m sure he’s doing a lot of digging right this minute!
Yes...Mmm-hmm (I’m smiling politely). Yes, no right legally or morally. Mmm-hmm. Way out of line...mmm-hmm. I see. Wanda...you can’t see me right now, but, I’m flipping you the bird. The bird has got the arrows of war in one set of talons, and an olive branch in the other.
