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EBBTIDE STAFF Listening to the congressional debates concerning expanded presidential war powers and military action on Iraq, Shoreline Community College Instructor, Sean Rody recalled a student from his composition class shortly after "Desert Storm." Rody's student had been a tank commander in the Gulf and quit the military despite a desire to make "a career out of soldiering." During the War, the student recalled he was able to destroy any Iraqi tank and its crew long before it was able to move into range and threaten him and his comrades. This student's experiences left him feeling less a soldier defending his country and more a murdering invader. Photographs of those he had killed possess the student. He shared them with Rody. The pictures display images of corpses barely recognizable as human form, of soldiers injured, burned and maimed. These were photographs of mutilated bodies, of people whose lives he had taken. Rody can only imagine the life this student lives. In an e-mail dated Oct. 9 Rody says, "The events of September 11 should show us how serious war is. It is the people not the political leaders that die and suffer in war. I cannot sit idle by as, yet again, people are going to be killed and made to suffer. The Gulf War was a sickening video game on CNN showing images of the mutilated bodies of our so-called enemy over and over again. Americans should understand the horrors of war and the devastation that ensues." Rody wanted to do something. To that end he began organizing a 'Peace Rally' on SCC's campus. He drafted an e-mail regarding the inhumanity of war to 13 faculty members and students, getting the ball rolling. Permits have been granted for peaceable assembly in the PUB building at 12:30 Friday, Oct. 18. There is a possibility for an open forum for discussion of the expanded presidential war powers or other topics relevant to the issue. "We're approaching this up to the last minute, we could be at war with Iraq by Friday," Says Rody. Rody motions to an Allen Ginsberg writing hanging in his office. Titled "After the Big Parade" the piece was written in reference to the Heroes Welcome Parade in Manhattan after the Gulf War in March, 1992. "This was one of my inspirations for getting involved," Rody says. The last two lines of the poem present an eerie premonition: "Have they forgotten the Corridors of Death that gave such victory? Will 200 thousand more desert deaths across the world be cause for the next rejoicing?" For information on the Peace Rally contact Sean Rody at srody@ctc.edu or 546-6983. © 2002 Shoreline Community College™ |