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4/1/1999 Thursday Watching: CNN for the latest news on the three captured servicemen. Weather: A rainy, dreary day. Blossoms: A few magnolias starting to open on Princeton Pike, lots of hyacinths and daffodils everywhere; one early cherry tree near campus starting to bloom. Leaf Watch: Most of the trees are still bare, but a small stand of beeches near Tab's office is showing tiny new leaves. From a distance they look like they are draped in sheer green silk scarves. Baking: Cottage cheese-flax seed bread. It's in the oven right now and smells delicious. |
FacesI don't remember much about the Gulf War, though it was only, what? eight years ago? I remember scattered television images, the war as broadcast on CNN: ghostly lights of the night bombings, tanks in the desert, Schwartzkopf in uniform. And the yellow ribbons tied to porches and trees which sprang up all over our neighborhood like some strange winter-blooming flowers. And a few protest marches here in the U.S.I'm trying to understand the situation in Kosovo, but I keep coming up against the incomprehensible: Ethnic and religious hatreds perpetuated generation after generation for hundreds of years. It's disheartening to realize what human beings can do to each other in the name of God and country. Tab and I disagree. He thinks the U.S. should not be playing Policeman of the World; I understand his viewpoint, but I think if we don't, who will? Can we turn away while innocents are massacred? Whenever I'm tempted to believe we should stay out of it, I think of Hitler and the millions who were butchered while the world's superpowers sat by idly. And now the situation, which until today has been a kind of glorified video game, has taken on a human face with the capture of the U.S. servicemen. Of course, it always wore a human face--the supercilious face of Milosevic, the resolute face of a Serbian soldier, the weary face of an Albanian refugee--but now the faces are American and they are on our TV screens. And they are bruised and battered faces, very young American faces. Even those of us here in the U.S. who support the bombings are going to have trouble forgetting those faces.
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