The Port of Olympia is again being used to be complicit with the Iraq war, with occupation and oppression. The USNS Brittin is offloading equipment for the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) after it's tour in Iraq. We are challenging the presence, not wanting to be complicit in this war.
We look at the USNS Brittin. It is bigger than the Titanic. According to The Olympian the Titanic was 882 feet in length and the Brittin is 950. The Titanic displaced 58,587 US tons, the Brittin displaces 69,517 US tons. The ship dwarfs the Port of Olympia in fat gray bulk. Cindy Corrie (Rachel Corrie's mother) told me that she was celebrating her 60th birthday at lunch in a Port restaurant with her husband (Craig) when the ship arrived yesterday, escorted by several tug boats and Coast Guard gun boats. She said it about came into the restaurant, catching everyone's attention! We were protesting the ships mission when our conversation occurred.
"Catching our attention," that is the point, I think. I remember my mother telling me as a boy that the Titanic was considered "unsinkable" when it was built. Humans had overcome nature, and God. It sank on its first voyage.
For me, the Brittin represents waste, illusion, death. The waste of resources for the war in Iraq, war making itself. The death of troops and the Iraqi people. The illusion that this "superpower" can dominate the world by naked power. The illusion that humans can waste the earth's resources and not pay the consequences. Or, should I say the illusion that some humans can live and thrive by wasting the earth's resources?
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2 comments:
For whatever reason, on March 7, 1951 on a barren hillside in far off Korea, a family lost a beloved son, brother, cousin, and for me, an uncle. The official citation of his heroic action doesn't nearly tell the man's story, but it does say something about the very human impulse to sacrifice oneself for the sake of others:
http://www.msc.navy.mil/inventory/citations/brittin.htm
SSgt Brittin was a veteran of WWII and had been under fire before. He was sent out to lead a squad of raw young recruits. When they were imperiled by what is described as "withering fire", he did the only thing he could to protect them from death. No honors, no naming ceremony's of schools, streets, bases or magnificent ships can repay the sacrifice or replace the man. Hate the war, but show respect to the soldier. There but for fortune...
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