- Woody Harrelson on 911
implications, commentary
Actor/celebrity/activist Woody Harrelson said last year
on his Simple Organic Living bicycle tour of the west
coast that his new website http://www.voiceyourself.com to promote sustainable living
ideas, products, services, networks, projects, etc., was
his "Dharma". Below from that site is his
recent commentary on post-911 situation. http://voiceyourself.com/commentary.html
Woody's Commentary
I was flying from Dublin to LA, directly over a city
called Galdthab, Greenland (which translates to
"God's home") when the pilot came over the
intercom with the news that we would be returning to
Dublin and then explained why. The plane was silent. It
was September 11th and I knew instantly that life would
never be the same for America. It was the first
opportunity for modern Americans to experience the
reality of war on our soil, and that is exactly what all
of us experienced together, the cold, brutal,
unflinching, horror of war.
And now a fear has crept into our collective conscience.
The events of September 11th coupled with the anthrax
valentines have literally shaken many of us to the core
and friends of mine who are giants have been toppled.
I was depressed for a while but bounced back by cutting
myself off from the endless torrent of bad and worse
news.
Assurance that bin Laden was the culprit came from the
mother country and particularly from G.W.'s
brother-in-arms across the bay, Tony Blair. I was
surprised at first until I read that their information
was provided by the U.S.
- Our government is clever
and so as not to appear to be overeager warmongers they
had the (as yet undisclosed) proof come from Tony the
Tory. Always interesting to watch our leaders at work.
I suppose bin Laden was responsible, though we have many
enemies.
- We have become the world's
biggest bully and use our military might to support our
corporate agenda. What is the common thread that runs
through bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, the Shah of Iran,
Libya's Gaddafi, Panama's Noriega, the Philippine's
Marcos, and countless other fascist barbarians? All of
them were CIA trained, financed with our tax dollars and
supported by our government until it was appropriate to
turn on them.
Our government always uses the key, emotionally charged
words, "freedom", "democracy" and
'peace" as reasons for engaging our considerable
military might. But beneath the superficial agenda we
have the real agenda, "money" and every
direction our foreign policy takes us we have serious
corporate interests. If saving lives or protecting
innocent people were really our government's concern, why
would we not have moved more quickly to stop the Serbs in
Bosnia or to stop the genocide in Rwanda?
Now we are bombing the people of Afghanistan who are
unfortunate enough to sit in an area that is home to the
most plentiful oil reserves in the world and extremely
strategic to the "Seven Sisters". History is
repeating itself as these oil interests had an oil
interested President Bush fight their last oil war there
only a decade ago.
I lost a friend on September 11th and have talked to many
others who share this loss and who feel rightly that the
perpetrator of this terrible act should be brought to
justice. But is our quarrel with the people of
Afghanistan?
- No. Certainly the Taliban
sponsors and protects bin Laden and other terrorists but
our leaders knew that when they gave them 43 million
dollars in May to fight the war on non-corporate drugs.
Part of my brain hesitates to take a tangent here but
let's face it, the war on drugs is linked to the war in
Afghanistan. Both are unjust wars with many innocent
victims but the war on drugs is focused mostly on
marijuana and it's nonpsychoactive cousin, the industrial
hemp plant. As you know I am an outspoken supporter of
this crop that used to be our nations number one cash
crop and can make clothing, paper, fuel, construction
material etc.
- Industrial hemp is not
about getting high (I tried in leaner times), it is about
sustainability and getting off the dinosaur tit, halting
the destruction of the world's forests, discouraging
pesticide use and supporting the farmers of this country.
In short, it is about a return to
the natural.
We have been warned repeatedly that this will be a costly
and protracted war. In the end, we won't be one step
closer to bringing bin Laden to
justice and in fact he will gain more support from
Muslims around the world, just as Sadam Hussein now
experiences more support in Iraq, (where we left 400,000
dead and where we continued bombing until September 11th)
and just as George W. experiences 92% approval here since
we were attacked.
Already there are many civilian casualties in Afghanistan
as our billion-dollar warplanes nightly rain terror from
their skies. But I wonder, as the count of innocent dead
there reaches and surpasses five thousand, how can we
wave our flags, pump our fists in the air and not see
that our eye for an eye philosophy is blinding our
conscience, empowering the guilty and killing the
innocent. I love the people of this country but am deeply
ashamed of the actions of our government.
I am impressed with how our country can rally round the
flag when we are attacked but imagine all of us uniting
in a push toward independence and sustainability. It is
my hope, as innocent Afghani people experience the horror
of war, that we come to see our personal responsibility
in getting off the grid and in making daily choices that
support a natural, sustainable lifestyle.
- Whether it means buying
solar panels, an electric car, or non-wood paper there
are many ways to lay down our consumer dollars
consciously rather than feeding the corporate beast.
- Our government is not
looking after our best interests or those of our planet.
It's up to us, everyday.
If you would like to discuss Woody's commentary, join us
at the Bulletin Board
The authoritative history about hemp, its many uses, and
the fraud by which it was outlawed as marijuana by
competitive corporate interests, see http://www.jackherer.com and http://www.chrisconrad.com
For "supply side" economics and little-known
financial factors behind the US DrugWar which are keeping
it going, funding oppression in America and wars around
the world, see http://www.copvcia.com -- http://www.narconews.com -- http://www.solari.com -- http://www.cia-drugs.org
suppressed New-Energy Technologies to replace nuclear and
fossil fuel power http://groups.yahoo.com/group/new-energy-solutions -- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/doe-cnes-1998 -- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/strategic-plan