Be Like Mike

I watched, with tears in my eyes, as Michael Berg was interviewed over and over again yesterday, as he calmly and rationally made his case, not just for peace, but for forgiveness and acceptance and pacifism. I watched as he pleaded for the cycle of revenge to stop. I cringed as reporters asked him the same stupid questions over and over.

And, I was absolutely floored at the power of the government to control the media. Early yesterday morning I saw a live interview between Mr. Berg and one of those perky cable can’t-tell-them-apart newsreaders. She went absolutely blank (not much of a stretch) when he said he felt no joy in the death of another human being, then recovered and asked again if he didn’t feel some satisfaction that his son’s murderer had been killed. Mr. Berg began to say something along the lines of “the only event which would bring me any joy would be if impeachment proceedings were begun against Bush today,” when he was quickly and abruptly cut off. I never saw that comment again. Amazing.

And then I hung my head in shame, thinking about the “uh, please, Mr. President, uh, Bush, uh if you don’t mind, we’re kind of against the war cause we’re Mennonites, but we don’t want to make a big fuss about it, oh, and, just so you won’t notice that we’re not pro-war, we’re going to support the troops” attitude of my church, the Mennonite Church, in its official “Statement on the War in Iraq.” If only we could be a little more like Mike.