On "The Rally to Stop Iran"

The last few Sundays as I read the NYTimes, I stumbled over an almost full page ad for the "Rally To Stop Iran." It is to take place tomorrow, Monday September 22nd, rain or shine. Its put on by the 'National Coalition to Stop Iran Now'. I don't know who these people are, but I feel moved to say a few things in response to this ad, and to those supporting this rally. 

In this ad they accuse the government of Ahmadinejad of widespread torture. Let us not forget Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, and widespread accounts of abuse, torture, sodomy, homicide, and water-boarding. The ad states that "barbaric sentences are handed down", and uses for those examples stoning to death, amputation, and flogging. Let us not forget the 521 Americans executed since 2000 under the death penalty. Is there a difference in the terror felt by one about to be stoned to death and one about to have a lethal chemical injected into his vein, or be wrought with electrical current until his heart stops? The ad reports that Ahmadinejad's government "arrests journalists, scholars, women's righ activists, and minority groups." Recently, at an anti-RNC rally, Amy Goodman, a renowned investigative journalist and host of Democracy Now, was aggressively arrested and charged with rioting, along with the producers of the show, even though news gathering (not a rowdy disruptive event) is constitutionally protected. You can watch the arrest live on youtube. The ad goes on to say that Iran is "ready to rule the world." From where I am sitting, it seems that the leaders of my country already think that they "rule the world."

Albert Einstein said, brilliantly, that "problems cannot be solved by the same level of consciousness that created them." This finger pointing, this calling of names (i.e. terrorist), this threat of sanctions and imminent military action, is fighting fire with fire. If you wish to put out a fire, you have to stop throwing fuel on top of it. It's not rocket science. You have to get beyond the ego (which, by the way, is responsible for this quagmire of an international crisis that we are in), and sit down and come up with solutions, viable solutions. How can we look Iran in the eye and ask them to stop enriching uranium and processing plutonium, when we are moving forward in partnership and approval of India's nuclear program? Am I the only one who doesn't get this? India's nuclear program will be entirely civilian in nature, and Iran's is intended to destroy us. India is our ally, Iran our archenemy. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and so is the definition of the word terrorist.

Rumi said "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing or rightdoing there is a field, I'll meet you there." This is not a place that can be had with the intellect. To get there, we have to evolve there. Unless those making our policies are willing to reach the humanity in each other, are willing to sit down around the round table and come to real solutions, this problem cannot be solved. This is not us against them. We are all in this together.