RE: RAT ANTI-NATO-ART

[brad rothbart <scrdchao@nni.com>]

Lee:

If I could get you that vitriolic, I must be doing something right.

John: thanks for the reasoned response.

Wener: I feel a Camper Van Beethoven song coming on: "Send the Kosovars
Chili, send them chili."

However, I think everyone is missding something:

I'm not trying to stop any wars singlehandedly... The web site was just
shocking, in some very basic  punch -in-the-gut way.

 There I am, looking for Sobranie Cocktail cigarettes, which leads me to a
whole set of Yugoslav websites. One of them is on "Belgrade Theatre."

Figure I'll check it out- it has a link to  an art gallery in Novi Sad.
The current show at the gallery? A show of anti -NATO ( or as they refer to
it, the North American Terrorist Organization)  art.  These are artists,
folks, just like you and I.  Just reading the site I got the feeling that
NATO was somehow being conflated with all the citizens of each country.
I wanted to let them know that not all Americans agreed with our military.
Maybe build one small bridge.

But it also  brouight questions.. we have these flashy CNN/MSNBC graphics:
CRISIS IN KOSOVO. The dialectical news: Milosevic is bad, therefore we must
be good. Further, since Milosevic is bad he does only bad  things-- since
we are good we do only good things- ( except if we make a mistake, like
bombing a passenger train.)

The news sure is different from the other side of the fence: FUCK POLITICS!
STOP BOMBING MY COUNTRY!

If the bombs were falling on Seattle or Austin or LA or Iowa or Minneapolis
or  Brooklyn, I think we would all feel the same way that those artists in
Novi Sad  are feeling now.

Also, if art is supposed to be  a universal language,  shouldn't it
supersede military action? Just because their government is killing
refugees doesn't make these artists bad human beings, and the fact that our
government is killing the people who kill people in order to state that
killing people is wrong shouldn't make us RATS  bad people  either.

Don't tar me with the brush of government, ok?


If memory serves, on the Cantacts list at  RATSTAR there is a theatre
company from Belgrade. Has anyone heard from them? Are they still alive?

Finally, my  big musing for the day-- what's the difference between a
terrorist and a soldier? Is there one? Or is it " Which side are you on,
boy? Which side are you on?..."

Thoughfully,

Brad


)



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