Lies, Damn Lies, and IRC

Posted on April 8, 2003 in IRC/Chat War

A friend who thinks differently from me on the war asked on IRC:

[22:34] <Citizen X> was it you in #travel the other day talking about lighting fireworks when americans die? i was told it was you

[22:35] <EmperorNorton> Excuse me?


[22:35] <EmperorNorton> Who is spreading that rumor?


[22:37] <Citizen X> well, i was in travel the other day and gorkypark was in there and some nicks i don’t remember and couldn’t recognize were talking about lighting fireworks when American soldiers die…and since this has become a pattern when gorky is in the room i said something about that i guessed americans aren’t welcome in the room anymore and left…..then…


[22:37] <EmperorNorton> Well, that’s Gorky Park. He gets like that. I’ve rammed him for that, too.


[22:38] <Citizen X> anyway, i didn’t ask or care who it was but yesterday Citizen Z said that you were the one who was saying that stuff when i left


[22:38] <Citizen X> he also said that after i left he said something to you and you put him on ignore

I made this declaration: I never stated that I lit fireworks when Americans die. I want our boys home, not in Iraq. Whoever is spreading that rumor is not to be trusted. If you want my perspective on the war (I DO oppose it), then you may read my blog. There you may find my real position. NO ONE should be dying in Iraq. SOMEONE is trying very hard to discredit me because they are too damn ashamed to face up to the fact that this war is evil and that by supporting it they are putting the lives of Americans and Iraqis in jeopardy. That’s my stand. I light candles as a guide to bring them home.

What do I blame this on? On addictions to media which has people jumping at the latest rumors when they are aired by television; to a systematic brainwashing which holds that anyone who opposes the war in Iraq must love terrorism and must want our boys dead. I have stated here that I do not support what our “boys” are doing in Iraq. I have stated that I will not be sending them care packages. I’ve reserved my discretionary income to help the starving Iraqi children and the families of American servicemen left destitute by their parent’s absence. I have never wanted anyone — our soldiers, their soldiers, right wing pundits, Saddam Hussein, or George W. Bush — dead.

The people who make up these rumors know that the war is wrong. They know that the wishy washy middle hates what they support. But the death of a face that we know is far worse in the minds of many people than the deaths of those we don’t know for people who have been trained from an early age not to think things through. I hold that all deaths by violence, whether it be criminal, terrorist, state execution, or military, are equally to be avoided and prevented. I do not support the death penalty for any person. Putting a soldier in the field, I think, is subjecting him to the possibility of the death penalty for his profession. But then, when he was Governor of Texas, George W. Bush saw nothing wrong with capital punishment. I am sure that in his mind, shrapnel wounds are just another method of culling the herd.

They’re running scared, the wars supporters are. Very scared.