UU Society of Cleveland

March 19, 2008

Remembering

by Rev. Colin Bossen

This week marks the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies. To date almost 4,000 American soldiers have died and many thousands more have been maimed or injured. To date there is confirmation of between 82,000 and 89,000 Iraqi deaths. An estimate of the actual number dead, published in the British medical journal the Lancet, and using methodology that some have criticized, places war related deaths at between 390,000 and 940,000.

I do not want to stand up here and tell you all of the reasons why I think that the war and occupation is wrong. There are many people far more articulate than I who speak and write about the problems that the on-going occupation, and the sanctions that proceeded it, have caused both the Iraqi and the American people. I also know that there are people in our community who hold different opinions than I do on the necessity and justice of invasion and occupation. I do not wish to use my time with you to engage in what could be construed as partisan polemics. Instead I want spend my time with you to acknowledge my own grief over the war. I want to give you space to acknowledge your grief. Whether you are someone who supports the government's war efforts or oppose them I think that we can agree that war is a horrible a thing.

The violence we human beings do to each other leaves me with a broken heart. Some days I am ashamed to be human and I want to weep. I am ashamed of how we treat each other and I long for a peaceful world. I know that one will not come during my life time.

It seems that every day there are more reports of violence. Bodies are found, their hands bound and murdered execution style. Suicide bombers turn their bodies into weapons and express their own rage and hopelessness through violence. All of this news is accompanied by reports of the violence of our military and that the United States is torturing people. It makes me sick. I want to know why human beings seem incapable of living together in peace and loving our neighbors. I want to know why it is so hard for humans to solve our problems through dialogue.

There are voices that make me think that we can. They are not the voices of politicians or civic leaders. They are the voices of ordinary people trying to point to a better way. Two years ago the congregation I served in California hosted an anti-war march led by Pablo Paredes and Fernando Suarez del Solar. Pablo is a Navy war resister and Fernando is the father of the Marine Jesus Suarez del Solar who was killed in Iraq. Their led a 241 mile march for peace from Tijuana to San Francisco and when they arrived in San Francisco they organized a blood drive to benefit both Iraqis and Americans in Iraq.

This week has witnessed the Winter Solider testimonies organized by the Iraq Veterans Against the War in Silver Spring, Maryland. Winter Solider is an effort to record the human cost of war to both Iraqis and Americans alike. Throughout the week veterans have told stories of the violence that they witnessed and partook in. They have also spoken of the lasting effects of the violence both on themselves and Iraqi society. Countless lives have been ruined and many men and women have had their bodies and their psyches permanently scarred. I hope that our society will listen to the voices of these veterans. In doing so, I hope that the United States will remember its veterans. We need to remember that whether we support the war or are opposed to it the human cost of using violence to solve our problems is always high.

People like Pablo Paredes and Fernando Suarez del Solar and Iraq Veterans Against the War give me hope. Their actions and dedication to building a more peaceable world suggests to me that it may be possible. Their witness reminds me that it is necessary. While I listen to them I am also inspired at the same time people in our community inspire me with their dedication and commitment to building a better world. There are many people throughout the Cleveland area and the country who have worked hard for peace and I know I am lucky to be among some of them tonight.

Still, I am sad. Today is the anniversary of the United States invasion of Iraq. I am sad because of the loss of life in the last five years. Part of the way I deal with my grief is by acknowledging that it exists. I acknowledge it by remembering the dead. Knowing that the dead were real people with real names allows me to ground my grief. They were not abstract statistics but real people who walked on this earth, had friends, breathed the air, ate food and experienced joy and sorrow. They are people who due to the violence in Iraq are gone forever.

We are here tonight to honor the dead and the injured. The world will not be the same without them. We are here tonight in the hopes that someday we, the people of this country and this world, will learn to solve our problems without violence. On that day we will live as the Hebrew prophet Micah has suggested:

...they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more;
but all shall sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,
and no one shall make them afraid...

May it be so. Amen and Blessed Be.