Wailing for Peace

Posted on March 16, 2003 in March16Vigil Peace

The great French actor Antonin Artaud once gave a solo performance in which he stood on the stage and screamed. Anais Nin witnessed it. She recorded that most of the audience did not appreciate the wail. She found it profound.

There are some moments when language fails and all we can do is scream: when the dentist drills too soon for the novacaine to numb us; when we find ourselves falling to our deaths; when the torturer slaps the soles of our feet with a bamboo cane; when the man who seized the presidency orders the slaughter of thousands for a personal grudge and We the People can’t stop him from doing so.

Vigils are conducted in silence. People pass and unless they walk up to one of the participants, they have no idea what is happening. They can be moving spectacles, but they often do not attract attention as people drive on to their restaurants, to their work, to their homes. Silence is not taken as a sign of panic. It is taken as a sign that all is well, that life shall go on. You think of the death of world peace and then you move on.

What if all those who attended these candlelight vigils stepped out of their houses at a designated hour and screamed? Alert would be sounded: world peace is in peril! The sound of thousands screaming in Washington could not fail to be heard inside the White House. Bush might turn away from the sight of thousands of candles, but he would have to sequester himself in a bunker to avoid hearing the wail. If he did go down into the silence, it would show the world and, more importantly, America, just the kind of unfeeling and uncaring man that he was.

I suspect he laughs off the candlelight vigils, but a scream would put the chill to him.

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We have lit a candle in our window, a purple one for mourning.