Years ago I wrote an essay called “Matriot,” a word I made up to differentiate my feelings from the word patriot which was being bandied about at another time of war. It wasn't widely read then, although my sister sent it to Howard Zinn who responded with, "Thank you for that fine statement." In that essay, I wrote about feeling strongly about my country, but not necessarily enough to go kill other people.
And now, once more, another war, another country. So far it hasn’t involved sending Americans to their deaths, but I mourn the killing and fatalities of the people being invaded with force and violence. And, it probably will involve the US in no time, because Putin is a sociopath and we have leaders in our country who support him, yet shrivel from responsibility. Leaders who are safe behind their divisive tweets and fear-mongering statements and, quite frankly, unpatriotic support of an autocrat who clearly has every intention of using whatever means necessary to get his way. Including killing people.
“Killing is no fun anymore”...I’ve always attributed that quote to Kurt Vonnegut from a short article I clipped out of the newspaper many years ago. I wish I could find it, but I think it was from an interview he gave or a new book that came out. The essence of it--even 40 years ago--was that the world had become so much smaller, that it’s much harder to go to war and kill people. Even then he meant that we know who the “others” are now. They look like our neighbors and our friends. We read about them in the papers (back then) and see them in movies and on television. And now they’re on the Internet and we see their homes, their meals and their lives.
That makes the world even smaller. In the next town over, a town half the size of my own, a woman recently posted on Facebook, “Mom is alive!” Most of the rest of her posts are in Ukrainian, but you can get the gist of them: Mothers and children and brothers and sons are being bombed and attacked and killed. I’ve seen posts for donations of children’s shirts and bath towels and shoes, but how does that save a life? Donated clothes are only for those who aren’t dead.
We are a global community and sitting back and checking updates on Twitter just doesn’t seem to be the appropriate response for a global citizen. We can literally watch a war in real time on our phones or computers—it’s not CGI, it’s not “fake” news. When are we going to DO something? And I don’t even know what that could be, but it has to be more than collecting clothing donations and renting AirBnbs in Mariupol.
That’s why I needed a new word—a word to describe my allegiance to country, but my immovable stance against killing and war. Recently my friend Robin dug out her years-old pendant that reads: “War is not healthy for children and other living things.” It is a timeless and simple message. Is it possible? There will always be a tyrannical despot somewhere in the world—or here in the US—to exert his or her power by killing others. A paradigm shift would be necessary to make autocrats and dictators slink away and disappear. But if enough matriots get together, maybe we could be the change we wish to see in the world.
I guess we keep trying.
(PS The original “Matriot” essay is linked above…or here. )
Thank you for this.
Whenever war breaks out, something that has happened a number of times in my life, I feel a little more helpless and a lot more vulnerable. I’ve marched, donated and written, the things I can do. So, not much.
It is soul killing to witness the destruction and death in real time. The question for me is, will we collectively evolve enough to survive?
❤️