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Yemen’s Ministry of Education, based in Sanaa, estimates that the Saudi-led coalition (which includes the U.S.) has destroyed at least 3,000 schools and partially damaged 1,300 others. Yemen once boasted 9,517 primary schools and 2,811 high schools. Today, the inability to pay teachers and staff combined with the systematic destruction of Yemen’s civilian infrastructure may lead to the shutdown of the country’s remaining schools. |
My friend Ken Jones again reporting during his two-week fast and vigil on the streets of Asheville trying to expand consciousness and concern about the war in Yemen.
I am standing on the corner
with my sign and up comes a beautiful young man with sparkling eyes and a bright
smile. He is holding pamphlets about Lord Krishna and is working the downtown
area to pass the peace to the crowds of tourists.
“So what is going on with
Yemen?” he asks. I don’t know a thing about it.”
I start with my usual spiel, citing the genocide facts: 57,000 killed so far from the war, 85,000 children under five years of age starved to death, 14 million at risk of famine (in a country of 28 million, that’s half the population), the largest cholera epidemic in the world. Especially horrific was the bombing of a school bus that killed 40 kids. The UN calls it the worst humanitarian crisis on earth.
“But why is
all this happening?” he asks, showing real concern. This is the first time in my
vigil that someone has truly wanted to learn about all this and I pause in
gratitude.
I try to keep it simple. I say
there is a kind of complicated civil war going on between tribal rebels and an
illegitimate government and that the “internationally recognized” government is
basically a puppet of Saudi Arabia. There is a colonial relationship between
rich Saudi Arabia and poor Yemen that goes back to the time of the Ottoman
Empire. There is also oil and a pipeline at stake, religious differences between
Shia and Sunni Muslims are exploited, and the manufactured pretext of an evil
and and expansionist Iran is given as a public rationale.
I say that the U.S. is the
force behind the Saudi bombings, supplying weapons, logistical support and
intelligence. That this is our war, we keep it going, and we urgently need to
end it.
All the while, my friend in
Krishna is nodding his head and making the kindest eye contact. He quietly
comments, “The world is a place of suffering and we have to seek a spiritual
solution. Mine is the love of Krishna.” He tells me it makes him happy that I am
here with my message and that my presence exudes light in more ways than one. He
thanks me for my explanation. Then off he goes, with no proselytizing, just a
loving smile. I feel blessed.
As he continued with his
calling, I thought about the healing power of spiritual consciousness. I
understand the importance of finding the Great Spirit within ourselves and in
the world at large. And also living a life of love and compassion for others.
But I also believe that we all need to move beyond our own personal salvation to
work on healing the world. We can’t be satisfied with just being happy, we have
to care enough for others to work for their happiness as well.
For me, that means political
action, in the streets, on the side of the oppressed and the victims of racism,
capitalism, militarism, and environmental destruction. Yes, it’s hard to keep a
balance between the pain that comes from knowing and caring about all the
world’s injustices and my own emotional well-being. But I can’t not look and I
can’t not care. Can’t be silent or just go about my own privileged
business.
Someone passing by last night
asked me, “Why Yemen? Why not all the wars?”
“Right on,” I said. “Yemen is
just one among many. But such a terrible one. And so ignored.”
And I thought of the story
about the child tossing a beached starfish back into the ocean. An adult comes
by and says, “Why are you wasting your energy on that? You can’t save all the
starfish in the world.”And the child says, “Yes, but I
saved that one.”
Jesus said we have to be like
children to enter the kingdom of heaven. Amen.
~ Ken Jones
Asheville, North Carolina