Re: RAT ANTI-NATO-ART

[InTheLime@aol.com]

<< What England "did" To Ireland?  So you "got over it"?  I don't know
 what kind of research you conducted (did it include the last 35
 years?)>>
I'll go off list, certainly, but I'm Irish...and as you questioned my 
education and sensibility on list...I'll have to do a bit of clarification 
here first:

I'm 3rd generation Irish/American.  And I wouldn't BE American if it weren't 
for the Irish/English conflict (IRA).  I'm paying attention.  And I hate it 
too.  And I realize that in Northern Ireland there is STILL a conflict.  And 
of course it's "still going on" ...but as you conceded, it's all based on 
issues that happened many moons ago.   Unfortunately, the conflict in the 
South of the USA is still going on as well, although we pretend that the 
civil war actually hashed it all out.  

What I "got over" was the idea that I should HATE every person of British 
decent just because they are British.  That the British should be anhialated 
because they are occupying Ireland.   I released the "us/them" mentality that 
was placed in my hand by the off-hand comments of parents and grandparents.  
You see, I truly believe that until we release the us/them mentality, we are 
stuck.  I got over the idea that the fighting had to continue - that it's 
o.k. to bomb people just because they are Protestant OR Catholic.  That 
bombing a bar is o.k. as long as those inside worship differently than I do.  

Getting this to theatre (which is, I guess, the problem some folks are having 
with this strain going on here at RATLIST)...I've just finished directing two 
plays exploring the ideas of Irish/English bigotry - one in particular, A 
NIGHT IN NOVEMBER really struck home.  A Protestant man coming to terms with 
his own Catholic bigotry...an Irish man of British descent, who realizes that 
there is no "them."  I've read and researched and read some more... and what 
remains is that I found out that both sides...all of US...are not listening 
because we don't want to hear anyone else's truth but our own.  It's pure and 
simple, hatred of someone who does't think like "we think."  

I'll likely find a bomb in my email box for this, but there has been every 
intelligent effort made to make peace at home, and there are bands of people 
who would rather fight than talk (on both sides).  As soon as things mover 
towards actual peace...bam, one of them strikes home and the whole "us" and 
"them" gets embroiled with it.

If you don't talk, there is no resolution...just more killing.  And I find 
the Irish just as (sometimes more) bull-headed about talking sensibly as the 
British.  

When I was in High School in Virginia, I met descendents of American slavery 
who accused me personally of keeping them in bondage and in a state of 
poverty for the past 200 years.  And I said..."Woa now, my family's only been 
her for the past 60 years - and I'm only 16 years old!"  "But you are 
white..." said my accusers.  "And you are black."  I countered.  "And we are 
here now...us...let's live in the now"  

It's that same kind of hatred based on blind bigotry that is what I've gotten 
over.  I am Irish-American...but more importantly I am human. 

--Aileen
(P.S. continuing off list now).