The Beauty and Power of James Carroll: For many years, James Carroll has been writing about war and peace, love and anger, people and life, religion and spirituality. There is a truth that emanates from his writing that goes right to the heart, both literally and emotionally. His most profound words come when their needed the most. People wonder, can there be a way to find peace? Is there hope? James Carroll, in the Boston Globe Op-Ed, “Discourse in the Middle East,” February 26, 2007, writing about Jerusalem, asked the most important question of all, or as he called it, the primal question, “Can we believe in the human future?” The question gets right to the source of life. Carroll puts it into simple terms and talks about hope. He wrote hope is “an act of peace.” He was referring to when war comes, people need hope to survive. We need to survive for the future. So, if we are in a war, Carroll states, “…when life and death define the boundaries, to give up hope is not an option.” “Hope is a political act. Hope is a choice.” Carroll related the difficulties of peaceful relations in Jerusalem between the three major religious groups, Jews, Muslims, and Christians by stating, “One person’s true belief is another person’s fundamentalism. Tolerance is proclaimed a religious virtue, but can it tolerate the intolerant?” The inference is that it has to be done. He wrote, “Incompatible narratives do in fact unfold side by side. Arabs and Jews do intermingle.” A Palestinian leader was quoted as saying, “There is no choice but partnership.” And a Jewish leader spoke of “the coalition of civilizations.” Carroll’s brilliance is in seeing that people can find ways to work together and his writing expresses his view without forcing it upon people. He makes people think! It gives me hope. It makes me believe in unity. It makes me want to work hard for that unity, in a peaceful way. In a very profound article, Carroll wrote about dignitaries working hard to accomplish their goals and then later repudiating their own work. The article was superior! At the end, Carroll declared “How much better it would be, though, if such wisdom came to them when they could act upon it.” He referred to Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger, General George Lee Butler, Robert McNamara, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. All these men were involved with war, or nuclear weapons, or the military complex and all came to want “to undo them.” How can that lesson be taught to current leaders? What genius Carroll has to relate this for others. (“Retirement Syndrome” February 5, 2007) Writing about war exhibits reality in a vivid light. When a person makes a mistake in life, he or she must admit the mistake. A day before US elections, Carroll brought up the possibility of the war in Iraq being lost. In “What it will take to end war,” November 6, 2006, the concept of a country admitting a mistake was addressed. “What would the United States do if it realized that from the very beginning, their honor was lost, let alone having to accept defeat?” What did Carroll want the readers to think? Was he asking people to look at the real truth? To Carroll, the war in Iraq was wrong right from the beginning and he wasn’t afraid to state what he thought would come of it. On March 12, 2002, in “America as Sparta” he asked, “Beware the Ides of March? No. Beware the ‘war on terrorism,’ and the Nuclear Posture Review! Beware the Bush administration’s exploitation of our grief, anger, and fear. We must urgently reconsider the course we have set out upon this year before it leads us into a dead end of our own making…. Then survivors will ask, When did America become Sparta? And the answer will come; It was now.” (The sentence is underlined and bold because this author believes it is prophetic.) On Christmas Day, 12/25/01, in “Red Christmas,” alluding to the US, Carroll wrote, “our new status as the only surviving “superpower” carries a temptation to triumphalism that is increasingly dangerous. The story of the Jewish child set against that first “imperium” should make us ask whether this observance of His birth itself inadvertently manifests the imperium we are becoming?” Is James Carroll a prophet? Or is James Carroll the conscience of the people? He stated it correctly in an article 11/27/01, entitled, “This war is not just.” He stated there were three elements the U.S. has as shortcomings, “Ignorance, narrow context, and wrongly defined use of force.” He wanted people to think ahead and ask, will a larger anger occur from the larger use of force that we have unleashed? Was it even against the enemy? Did it deter the enemy? Or was it against an impoverished “substitute” nation just as an outlet for the military to espouse their power? More importantly, Carroll attempts to have people everywhere in the world look at the world and relate to it personally. In, “Lost children of the Mideast conflict,” March 19, 2002, Carroll describes one of the American supporters, whose family member had died September 11th and was upset, yet still was hoping for a peaceful solution. “When people who have made the ultimate sacrifice can commit themselves, out of profound loss and grief, to reconciliation and peace, those of us who care about the region have no right to lose hope.” The article states there is a group called ‘The Families’ Forum’, “a cross-conflict group consisting of about 200 Israelis (“The Parents’ Circle”) and 150 Palestinians (“The Movement for Change”) who have the overriding experience in common of having lost a child to the violence. And by seeing the violence through the lens of that loss, they see it differently.” James Carroll must be thanked for humanizing the hardships of living with emotions. He should also be honored for being truthful and helping people to be introspective, about themselves and the United States. While writing about Hurricane Katrina, in “Katrina’s Truths,” September 5, 2005, Carroll describes how Katrina, “pulled a curtain back on a huge population of desperately impoverished people,” how Katrina exposed that the government was powerless to help such people,” and related how Katrina allows people to relate it to war. “This is what war looks like, and the harsh reality is that the United States has been the source of exactly such devastation elsewhere.” Sometimes, Carroll cynically states his opinion of futileness. “The American political system, meanwhile, remains in moral lockdown, with Democrats every bit as feckless as Republicans, leaving the urgent public debate about the war to the heartbroken parents of dead GIs.” But, he rebounds with the offer of hope. “Change for the better begins by reckoning with the worst, which Katrina helped us do.” Best of all is the attempt of James Carroll to make people feel as if they can contribute to the whole. “Today, the biennial American political season also begins, aiming at next year's elections. The issues are as clear as water in the streets, as blood in the gutters. Even as candidates seek to avoid those issues, citizens must force them. The role of government. Taxation not as a bane, but as the ground of commonwealth. The overdue end of poverty in America. The cry for peace. Peace.” James Carroll calls for action too. He inspires and motivates people, especially when he ends an article. As evidenced in “A year of living dangerously,” December 28, 2004, the ending gives direction. “The point of the New Year, traditionally, is to leave such brooding behind, but this broadly felt emotional weight is a warning that great things are at stake in America's argument with itself. Equally, it is a summons to resolution -- New Year's resolution -- to do nothing less, at last, than say no to the war in a way that will be heard.” There are many that use fear to influence others. When there is a sense of urgency, what kind of method other than fear could be used? James Carroll uses metaphors. In “The 29th Day for America?,” January 14, 2003, Carroll wrote, “The lesson for the political season just underway comes from the lilies of the pond, water lilies. It is an old French riddle.” “At first there is only one lily pad in the pond, but the next day it doubles, and thereafter each of its descendants doubles. The pond completely fills up with lily pads in 30 days. When is the pond exactly half full? Answer: on the 29th day.” Carroll’s insinuation is that there is not much time to waste. He was relating the world’s belligerence and violence, human coarseness, and ecological disasters to the need to go in the opposite direction. “On the 29th day, the pond is half-choked to death, but it seems OK. Surely we have another 29 days to fix the problem.” In conclusion, “On the 29th day, things may not seem so bad - but are we more than "one interval away from the end?" It is because James Carroll concentrates on war and peace that I admire him. His views are of world peace, unity and humanitarian giving. His skillful analysis of current events puts these views into a light for others to appreciate. My hope is for nonviolence and reason to be the pre-eminent means to world unity, and James Carroll to continue to challenge people. My favorite Op-Ed, September 9, 2003, “…and honoring the victims,” Carroll wrote his most inspirational words. “Sept. 11 is an anniversary of the future, a day enshrining the worst of human impulses -- and the best. A day, therefore, that puts the choice before us. How are we going to live now? We are on the earth for the briefest of interludes. Thinking in particular of all those who died in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, let us honor them by building the earth, instead of destroying it. Let us make peace, instead of war.” |
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February 11, 2008 Date updated January 15, 2008 List of Updates |