{"id":106200,"date":"2018-02-12T12:00:19","date_gmt":"2018-02-12T12:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=106200"},"modified":"2018-02-08T09:46:01","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T09:46:01","slug":"portraits-peacemakers-warmongers-and-people-between","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/02\/portraits-peacemakers-warmongers-and-people-between\/","title":{"rendered":"Portraits: Peacemakers, Warmongers and People Between"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Krieger (2017), PORTRAITS: Peacemakers, Warmongers and People Between<\/em>, Santa Barbara, California: Nuclear Age Peace Foundation<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is the sixth collection of poems by David Krieger, an American peace leader and poet who has lived through and been impacted by the events since the Second World War. This unique collection of 70 poems is not just about well known figures but also ordinary folks, the People Between.<\/p>\n

The poems are poignant and powerful, reminding us of personalities from the poet’s humanist perspective that probe the state of global affairs while questioning those who end as its leaders. David Krieger’s pen has irony, it reveals both hurt and sorrow as well as hope and compassion for the world we live in and its frailties.<\/p>\n

The first and last poems of the book, ‘To Be Human’ and ‘The One-Hearted’, describe\u00a0\u00a0 the book\u2019s overarching spirit:<\/p>\n

“To be human is to recognize the cultural perspectives that bind us to tribe, sect, religion, or nation, and to rise above them….<\/em><\/p>\n

To be human is to breathe with the rhythm of life. It is to stand in awe of who we are and where we live. It is to see the Earth with the eyes of an astronaut.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The final poem, ‘The One Hearted’ demonstrates the same optimism:<\/p>\n

“They are warriors of hope, navigating<\/em>
\noceans and crossing continents.<\/em>
\nTheir message is simple: Now<\/em>
\nis the time for peace. It always has been.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Portraiture in writing involves etching personality in a moment giving us insight into the subject of observation. It’s their action in such a moment in Krieger\u2019s collection which defines his protagonist as peacemaker or warmonger. Krieger is a story teller. Most poems are about the courage of a nonviolence activist where the protagonist like Gandhi\u2019s Satyagraha <\/em>adherent defies the oppressor standing fiercely to face up to the evil.<\/p>\n

On Bishop Romero’s assassination (p.10), Krieger writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the politicians and the generals<\/em>
\nknow what they do<\/em>
\nwhen they give their orders<\/em>
\nto murder at the altar.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He speaks of the Bishop:<\/p>\n

\u201cBishop Romero saw this clearly,<\/em>
\nLay down your arms, he said.<\/em>
\nThis, the day before his assassination.<\/em>
\nthe day before they shot him at the altar,<\/em>
\nGod, forgive them, they only follow orders<\/em>
\nThey know not what they do.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Norman Morrison’s self-immolation as a protest in front of the Pentagon (p.44):<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it happened, the wife of the YMCA director said,<\/em>
\n“I can understand a heathen doing that but not a Christian”.<\/em>
\nFew Americans remember his name, but in Vietnam<\/em>
\nchildren still sing songs about his courage.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On Rosa Park’s bus seat protest in his poem, \u2018A Day Like Any Other Day\u2019 (p.37):<\/p>\n

\u201cBy not moving, you began a movement,<\/em>
\nlike a cat stretching, then suddenly alert.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cindy Sheehan’s waiting answer from U.S. President Bush about her soldier son’s death in a war of no meaning, the Iraq war where “my son died for nothing” , In \u2018I Refuse\u2019 (p.41) dedicated to activist Camila Mejio, the voices of resistance unite in solidarity refusing to be silenced, refusing to suspend their conscience or giving up their humanity.<\/p>\n

The poems can be grouped along the lines of post- Second World War American military adventures — Vietnam War, Iraq War, Israel-Palestine War, and Nuclear Weaponization.\u00a0 These include astute observations about warmongers. On Robert McNamara’s mea culpa<\/em> in 1995 about the body count in Vietnam War (p.8), Krieger writes: “You broke the code of silence. Your silence was a death sentence to young Americans – to young men who believed in America.” In the same vein, in his portrait of \u00a0US Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney from Bush era he notes (p.32):<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a dangerous, deceitful face<\/em>
\nthe face of a man with too many secrets.<\/em><\/p>\n

….<\/em><\/p>\n

It is the face not of a sniper,<\/em>
\nbut of one who orders snipers into action.<\/em>
\nIt is a face hidden behind a mask, <\/em>
\nthe face of one who savors lynchings<\/em>
\nIt is the face of one who hides in dark bunkers<\/em>
\nand shuns the brightness of the sun<\/em>
\nIt is a frightened face, dull and without color,<\/em>
\nthe face of one consumed by power.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In his poem on \u2018Bombing Gaza: A pilot speaks\u2019: (p.43)<\/p>\n

\u201cThey tell me I am brave, but<\/em>
\nhow brave can it be to drop bombs<\/em>
\non a crowded city? I am a cog, only that,<\/em>
\na cog in a fancy machine of death.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Krieger does not hide his bitterness about those responsible for building and dropping\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Atomic Bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in August 1945, forcing upon the humanity the unwanted Nuclear Weapons Age we live in. \u00a0In \u2018An Evening with Edward Teller\u2019 , he derides the “father of the H-bomb\u2019:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wore such claims like a crown,<\/em>
\nlike a cloak of death, like a priest kneeling<\/em>
\nat the altar of the temple of doom.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

—<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was difficult to grasp that<\/em>
\nhe must have been born an innocent child, and only<\/em>
\nslowly, step by step, became what he became.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another priest at the altar of the temple of doom, the Atom Bomb builder Robert Oppenheimer expresses this more cataclysmically in a poem, “On Becoming Death” (p.19), citing from The Bhagavad Gita: “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”<\/em> \u00a0Standing in front of a US President, Oppenheimer had spoken of having “blood on my hands”. To which Truman responds: \u201cBlood? What Blood?\u201d When Oppenheimer leaves, Truman orders his White House officials, “Don’t ever let him in here again.”<\/p>\n

Krieger can be humorous.\u00a0 “Greeting Bush in Baghdad” is about the Iraqi journalist Muntader Al-Zaidi’s “farewell kiss” to Bush in the form of his shoes\u00a0 hurled at the visiting President at a press conference. Al-Zaidi muses that his left shoe hurled at the U.S. President is for his “lost and smirking face” and the right shoe for a “face of no remorse” of caused death and destruction of his country.<\/p>\n

There are many poems in the collection especially those of remembrance written as an elegy for a friend, colleague, child, old man, and a dead soldier, written with fine sensitively and subtlety. My favourite is a short poem, \u2018Standing with Pablo\u2019 (p.40). \u00a0It\u2019s about the poet\u2019s admiration for his three Pablos: Picasso, Neruda, and Peredes. The first painted Guernica, the second wrote poems of love and dignity, and the third, Pablo Peredes whom we know little about, refused to fight war in Iraq.\u00a0 Unlike the other two, the little known Peredes, \u201crefused to kill or be killed\u201d.<\/p>\n

Krieger\u2019s poetry is direct, honest, and without pretense. It depicts the social reality surrounding us, invoking our shared humanity to bring about imminent peace needed globally. – An important collection.<\/p>\n

David Krieger (2017),\u00a0 PORTRAITS: Peacemakers, Warmongers and People Between<\/em>, Santa Barbara, California: Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, pp.83 . <\/strong>The book can be ordered from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Santa Barbara, California, USA. Website: www.wagingpeace.org<\/a>\u00a0 and email: wagingpeace@napf.org<\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

___________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>David Krieger is founder and president of the <\/em>Nuclear Age Peace Foundation<\/em>, and a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment<\/a>. <\/em>Among several of his wide-spanning leadership endeavors in global peacebuilding, he is a founder and a member of the Global Council of Abolition 2000, councilor on the World Future Council, and is the chair of the Executive Committee of the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility. Dr. Krieger is the author of many books and studies of peace in the Nuclear Age. He has written or edited more than 20 books and hundreds of articles and book chapters. He is a recipient of several awards and honors, including the OMNI Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology Peace Writing Award for Poetry (2010)<\/em>. He<\/em> has a new collection of poems entitled <\/em>Wake Up.\u00a0 For more visit the <\/em>Nuclear Age Peace Foundation website: www.wagingpeace.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Bill (Balwant) Bhaneja\u00a0is a former Canadian diplomat. He <\/em>produces\u00a0the Nonkilling Arts Research Committee (NKARC)\u00a0Newsletter for the Center for Global Nonkilling.\u00a0A writer and peace activist, his recent books include:\u00a0<\/em>Quest for Gandhi: A Nonkilling Journey (2010)<\/em> and<\/em> Troubled Pilgrimage: Passage to Pakistan (2013). He is Vice-chair of Center for Global Nonkilling, Honolulu-Hawai\u2019i (www.nonkilling.org<\/a>)<\/em>. He lives in Ottawa, Canada.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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