War in the Locker Room - God, Iraq Split Americans
Pacific News Service, Commentary, Olivia Crawford, Posted: Mar 31, 2003
The war in Iraq may mark the start of widening political and cultural differences between Americans. PNS contributor Olivia Crawford watches as distrust and silence creep in between women at a formally vibrant shower room in a gym in Northern California.
Every day I go to a local pool for a noontime swim. Shower room conversations are a great part of the experience. Women there talk about everything; shampoo, sex, scars, aging parents, breast cancer, travel, dreams, kids on drugs. And politics.
Today I am talking with two women, angry and anguished about the massacre we fear soon will happen in Iraq, when another stops putting on her makeup and says she has to "stand up for her president." The other women leave.
"He is a godly man. If we didn't have the bible, we'd never know what's right and wrong," the woman says. "We'd be living in chaos. Anything we believed in would just be something we made up in our heads."
What about other Christians who oppose the war? I ask. Like the Pope, or the National Council of Churches?
"They don't believe in the bible the way we do."
Is your God different from their God?
"We'll listen to them, but we know what's right."
And Bush knows what's right?
"He's a good man, good in his core. When you look at him don't you see that?"
Can't say I do.
"He prays. He's a godly man. His father is a good man. His mother's a nice person. If I found out he was doing something bad, I think I'd fall apart."
Look at his life, I say. A rich boy who got everything handed to him: a place at Yale, a baseball team, an oil company, a presidency. He made millions from Harkin Oil, and there are serious concerns that bookkeeping there was as creative as Enron's. How about an investigation into his business dealings, and Cheney's? The way the Republicans did with the Clintons and Whitewater.
"Clinton was a disgrace. The things he did while in office!"
OK, but I think that the team behind Bush is really running the show. He's a very useful figurehead for them.
"I suppose you're one of the ones who think he wasn't elected."
Yes.
(She gives an exasperated shrug.)
What about the documents that were written at the Pentagon in the early '90s, by Wolfowitz, Cheney and all, about taking over the Middle East for geopolitical reasons? It's a blueprint for what's happening now. And what about Cheney refusing to divulge whom he talked to when he was planning our country's energy policy?
"He doesn't have to."
Congress didn't think so; they know Enron was there. They tried to subpoena the meeting notes, but then 9/11 happened and somehow the issue disappeared.
"They bombed us! The President is trying to protect us from that ever happening again. He's like a protective father to me."
9/11 was horrific, but don't you think there'll be more terrorists created if we slaughter thousands of people in Iraq?
"Nobody wants to go to war. The president doesn't want to go to war. It hurts me to think of people being killed. But there is evil in the world! The president knows that, that's why he's doing what he has to do."
It's really hard to have a discussion with someone whose arguments are faith-based.
"Faith-based! You know what really bugs me? Because we don't agree with everybody else, people think we're dumb."
I don't think you're dumb. I think your mind isn't open, and that you haven't done all your homework.
"I am open to talking with you. I'm here talking with you. What would I do if I didn't believe in the Bible? Everything would fall apart! We have to know what's right and what's wrong."
That's what fundamentalist Moslems would say too.
"It's different. In their faith they're always reaching outwards. I have received. The lord is within me. And they don't believe in the Bible."
They believe that only they know what's right and wrong. They don't listen to any other point of view.
"I'm listening to you. I always enjoy talking with you. I like swimming here. I just hope you won't mark me! I won't mark you!"
Mark you? What on earth does that mean?
"Not talk to me. Shun me." She is almost in tears.
Of course we'll talk. I have a sister who shares your beliefs, and we love each other. But it scares and saddens me to know that if I were to "rule the world," there would be room for her and others to believe what they wanted, and if she and her church were in charge, there would be no room for me.
"Oh, I'm so glad we can keep talking. We have to keep talking and listening to each other. We're all God's children. He would want that."
Next day in the shower room, women come and go, some of them stopping to talk. One says she read that a local man and a woman have cashed in their savings and are on their way to Iraq to help protect Iraqis. A woman putting on her bra says she wishes she had the courage to put her life on the line like that. Someone says angrily that we should recall the president, like bad meat. Her friend nudges her and points to a woman with her head down, tying her shoes. Eyes scan the room, taking note of reactions, and of newcomers.
"Be careful what you say. Be careful what you do," admonished Ashcroft right after 9/11.
Is this how the rot starts? Is this how the poison begins to spread? Who is that woman with her back to us, who seems to be scrutinizing the lock on her locker? Why did that young woman walk out with her long hair wet, not drying it as usual? A whiff of fear drifts through our sunny shower room along with the fragrance of apricot shampoo.
That's how it is in sunny Sonoma, in springtime, as slaughter begins.
Crawford (OliviaCrawford@aol.com) has written for award-winning documentaries and writes screenplays. She was born in Ireland and co-founded the National Theatre Company of Papua New Guinea.
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