Traveling around the world these past months has given me an education about American history that majoring in the subject at UCLA never did. I have witnessed first hand what
This rampant, arrogant, and care-less US militarism has nowhere been
more evident than here in South Korea, especially in the village of
Daechuri, near Pyong-taek City. The loathing for George Bush, America, Americans, irresponsible capitalism, corporatism, imperialism and militarism is a planetary phenomenon, but above what the US is doing to the wretched countries of Iraq and Afghanistan, I have never been more ashamed of the US government than when I visited the village of Daechuri with 17 other American peace and social justice activists and a campesino from Colombia.
Miles before our bus reached the village on the evening of November
20th, we were stopped by approximately 200 South Korean riot-police who were decked out in their full riot regalia with bullet proof shields. We were traveling with Father Moon, an elderly Buddhist priest who has been an advocate for the villagers for a few years now. Father Moon got out of the bus and negotiated with the police captain for what seemed hours in the near freezing cold, but was only about 20 minutes. Finally, in what the villagers said was an unprecedented move, they allowed us entry into the village (after we passed another heavily guarded checkpoint). Villagers must present ID to get into their own village and visitors are rarely allowed to go in. Why? Because the
The
soldiers stationed there. The only problem is (not for the governments)
that the
mostly rice paddies, are in the way of the juggernaut of US military
expansion. The people of Daechuri have been cut-off from their farmlands by razor wire, guard towers, and armed foot patrols. Over two-thirds of the residents have the small village, but that leaves about one-third of them there to stand against the mightiest Army and the greediest government in world history.
In the ’80’s, Ronald Reagan famously said: “tear it down!” regarding the Berlin Wall. There are many more walls on Earth that separate people rom their farmlands, families, jobs and country that need to be torn own, but so-called civilized nations are building more walls and
fortifications to contain and control free human movement and expression nd curb populations that are just trying to live their lives in the raditional ways that they always have.
After our tour bus pulled up into the village, we were ushered into a
large warehouse where the villagers were holding their 811th nightly
candlelight vigil in protest of the
and heard their stories. We heard stories of May 4th, when 20,000 Korean olice descended on the village with heavy-hands and strong arm tactics hat allowed the barbed wire fences to be constructed, thereby effectively cutting the farmers off from tens of thousands of dollars worth of un-harvested rice. We heard stories from village elders who lived through Japanese imperialism and occupation to the
Daechuri has become “ground zero” in the struggle against violent
military extremism. We Americans can no longer sit idly by and turn
ignorant blind eyes to what Georgie Bushie does around the globe. The
people of such places as Daechuri, Shannon, Pearl Harbor and
our brothers and sisters whom we are allowing our governments to oppress and suppress.
In all my life, I have never witnessed such courage, strength, and
determination. 150 people are standing firm and will not be moved no
matter how many acres of their familial land is seized, how many of
their homes are bulldozed or how close the razor wire gets to their
homes. They have decorated every fence with bright and cheery paintings of hope for the future and they have erected monuments and memorials to what they have already lost. Their determination and courage should be inspiration to all people around the world who also struggle for basic human rights.
This week, 18 Americans chose to give up their family holiday
celebrations to come to
On the day after Thanksgiving when most Americans were watching
football, trampling each other in Wal-Mart in a frantic feeding frenzy
to get the newest cheap toys that are made off of the backs of virtual slave labor all over the world and/or spend most of the day circling parking lots at malls across the country to find a coveted parking space, four women from our delegation, myself, Medea Benjamin (founder of Global Exchange and Code Pink), my sister, Dede Miller (co-founder of GSFP) and my assistant, Tiffany Burns, walked across about 2 acres (up to our armpits) of ruined rice crops toward the “dmz” between the village and Camp Humphreys to hang a sign that said: “Arms not Farms” on the nasty looking razor wire, despite the warnings of the Korean guards who were waving their arms and screaming something at us from behind two rows of the barbed wire.
The people of Daechuri have very little to be Thankful for. Our soldiers
in the field and innocent people in Bush-torn countries have very little
to be Thankful for. For me, on the third Thanksgiving I have had to bear since Casey was killed, I can’t think of anything else that I would
rather have done than help the people of Daechuri struggle against the very same thing that took Casey’s life. The villagers honored us with a “Gold Star Families for Peace/Code Pink” Peace House that had been abandoned by an owner that took the cash settlement to leave. The villagers that remain don’t want the government’s blood money; they just want to keep their lands and homes.
The villagers who walk the narrow streets of Daechuri, bowed by
lifetimes of carrying heavy burdens and children on their backs, are now carrying burdens placed there by American imperial gluttony, and I, as an American want to help them carry this burden, as many kind people all over the world have tried to help me carry mine.
Not only is the expansion of
Daechuri, but it will have the effect of further de-stabilizing a region
already on pins and needles due parially to
With the complete destruction of Daechuri scheduled by the end of this year, our efforts may be too little, too late for the ill-fated visitors
who are going through long-distance BushCo callousness, but we can
prevent other villages, towns, countries from experiencing the same fate with the exposure of what is happening here. We are in this together. Making the sacrifices of the villagers count for justice is as important as making
inter-connected and they are the responsibility of us all.
What can we do stateside to help these people? We can lobby our
congressional reps to hold hearings into the tragedy of Daechuri. We can donate money to help the villagers get fuel for heating their homes during the bitter Korean winter and to obtain food, since they can’t access their fields for harvest. We can turn off our TVs and educate ourselves on US, corporatism, imperialism and militarism by reading suchbooks as: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins, or Hegemony or Survival by Noam Chomsky. We can do with less, especially in the season of over-the-top consumerism and waste. We can support organizations financially who work for peace and justice in lieu of a seemingly obscene over-abundance of presents or decorations.
I hope when Americans play golf on the golf course that will be
constructed over the rice fields that sustained and gave sustenance to the villagers for generations, they stop and reflect for even a brief
moment that an entire village was destroyed and hundreds of people were displaced for their recreation.
Golf! A village was obliterated for golf. If this is the “American way”
then we obviously need a new way, as speedily as possible.
Mail your tax deductible donation for the villagers of Daechuri to:
Gold Star Families for Peace
2010
Earmark the donation for the villagers.
Cindy Sheehan is author of several books, including Peace Mom (Atria
Books) and Dear President Bush by City Lights Books
(www.citylights.com).