James Carroll
I was fortunate enough to hear James Carroll address a gathering of peace activists last week. I knew him mostly frm his memoir - he grew up as the son of the director of the CIA, bcame a priest, left the priesthood, married, and now writes about the way our government has misused its intelligence community, amoungst other things.
Listening to his perfect command of historical data one could not help but be impressed, yet what was even more impressive was the analysis he brought to the situation. In our age of sound bites and quick answers he was not afraid to go into lengthy discussions of complex issues, in the process bringing real illumination to events, politics, and the interface between them.
The most inspiring part was that he was unfailing optimistic. No whining and hand-wringing here! For instance, he pointed out that the US could have used nuclear weapons to end the Korean War, and it could have done the same with Vietnam. One nuke on Hanoi would have changed everything. But despite lobbying from many groups the White House didn’t go that way. Somewhere in even our war-mongering Pentagon/Capitol Hill alliance we shrank from that. So, what has kept us from this last, worst excess? In a word it is the scream of outrage that our political ‘leaders’ know they would face from us, their electorate.
We the people really do have more power than we think. And it’s a power for peace.
The wars the US has engaged in have mostly been about asserting ourselves against tiny nations so that we look like a world power, and that keeps many Americans feeling good about being American. Horrible as those conflicts have proved they’ve actually been mostly about posturing. Our leaders dare not go further.
I left feeling so much better about what I could do to bring more peace into the world.
Carroll is an inspiring speaker. He’s also careful just to present his opinion – he’s not a rabble rouser. In that way he is, perhaps, a genuine Magician figure. He knows that he values peace, the spirit, and decency. He sees his task on earth as being a person who gives the rest of us the necessary, thoughtful, guidance that leads to more hope and so helps us as we work towards these goals. As he does so he grows more peace wherever he goes. Magic.
on November 1st, 2007 at 6:24 pm
James Carroll is such a great thinker. His book, The House of War, goes into detail about what has led us to our present paranoia. We really need to inform ourselves, I think, and start taking back our power. Most Americans are peace-loving people but their voices are not being heard. Thanks for writing this, Allan!
on November 3rd, 2007 at 2:38 pm
I feel as though I heard him myself. Thanks for “bringing” me there, Allan.
MLou