Comfort Zones

Today was bitterly cold as I walked from the Charing Cross Tube Station to Parliament Square in London. I was heading there with my traveling companion, Julie, to go and visit Brian Haw after several exhausting, but productive days in England and Scotland.

Brian is a peace activist and exceptionally compassionate man who has been camping out and vigiling in Parliament Square since June 2, 2001. He was so enraged by the sanctions of the United Nations against Iraq that were supported by the US and his government that he felt like it was the only thing to do.

While I was vigiling and camping out in Crawford by George Bush's ranch because of my outrage at the continued and unnecessary killing of Iraqis, Americans and coalition troops, Brian sent me a letter. Part of it reads:

We stand beside you as family, and you can be sure of our love no matter what. Now let's help the rest to understand, sort the mess in the quickest possible time. I don t want another day, another child to come home in a body bag, nor do you. Well, let's get through to the rest of our folks pretty damn quick. Amen?!

Your brother Brian, in Jesus name xxx

This portion and the rest of the letter so touched me that I knew if I ever visited England, I would have to go and see Brian. I was shocked when I found out that Brian had been arrested early Saturday morning.

This past year, the British Parliament passed a very restrictive law called: The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. The act restricts freedom of speech and freedom of assembly around Parliament and No. 10 Downing Street. Citizens who break this law can be arrested and often are for breaking it.

A young woman went in front of the Parliament building and read the names of the 97 British Iraq war dead. She was arrested.

An old man started yelling at Jack Straw for his complicity in war crimes. He was arrested.

Brian Haw, who has been camping in front of Parliament for over 4 years was arrested very early the other morning. Brian is allowed to be there because the law was passed after his vigil started, but he was arrested for encouraging "new people" to join his vigil. These new people, naturally, agree that the war is a tragic mistake and our troops need to come home.

These prohibitions and many more on freedom of speech and dissent seem eerily familiar to me. I have been hauled in twice for exercising my First Amendment freedoms in America. I have tried to petition my government on dozens of occasions to redress the wrong that George Bush and the other neocon monsters have inflicted on the world and my family. I have spent a lot of money, sacrificed so much, and have traveled far and wide to do so. No one in the government is listening. No one pays any attention.

I was speaking to a large crowd of hundreds of peace activists in London at an International Peace Conference and I challenged them to take back the freedoms that our governments are taking away from us. Just as thousands of people traveled from all over the world to join us at Camp Casey over the summer, I wondered why hundreds of people didn't go to Parliament and scream out the names of the slaughtered British war heroes after the young woman was arrested for doing the same. Parliament's complicity and support of the war crimes in Iraq have contributed to the killing of the troops and innocent Iraqis. The MP's and Tony Blair should be faced with their acts of murder on a daily basis.

Why, when Brian was arrested the other day, didn't hundreds of people go down to Parliament Square and pitch their tents alongside Brian's?

Why do we as Americans sit complacently by and watch our government use chemical weapons in Iraq? George Bush says that Saddam Hussein is "a bad man" because he used chemical weapons against his own people. What does that make George Bush and the leader of the War Department? I think that makes them bad men. Why do we allow it to continue?

Why do we as Americans turn the channel when we see that our government is transporting alleged criminals and torturing them in European airspace?

Why do we turn our backs on the innocent children who are killed everyday in the name of liberating a people and spreading "freedom and democracy?"

Why do we let the war criminals rape and pillage our treasury and rob precious human treasure from our communities and families?

Brian Haw, who is a father of 7, left his comfort zone of his home and family to save the children of the world. He states his reasons so eloquently on his website: http://www.parliament-square.org.uk/index.htm