by Cathy Breen on 4/12/2012
“It is not written in our hearts, it is carved in our hearts.” I awoke this morning still shaken with these words in my head.
Yesterday I was in Ramadi and Fallujah. Instead of bringing a message
of caring, of empathy for their suffering and a desire for peace, my
presence as someone from the U.S, seemed to open wounds that are
unfathomably deep.
I sat in on a lecture, given in English, to maybe fifty or more young
men and women at a college in Ramadi. They were all about 22 and 23
years of age, in their last year of a 5-year program. That means they
were about 13 or 14 years old during the U.S. led invasion and beginning
of the occupation. I was invited to speak by the president as an
“honored guest” after the lecture. To my embarrassment the professor
graciously hurried through his lecture on my account. I had everyone’s
attention. It was awkward for me, and after introducing myself, I said I
would be grateful to hear from them. There was only silence. I am sure
my words sounded empty, trite and artificial.
Then a young man in the front row only a couple of feet from me said in
a quiet voice “We have nothing to say. The last years have been only
sad ones.” Again there was silence.
Sami, my host from Najaf and part of the Muslim Peacemaker Team, stood
and shared. He told the story of how, after the U.S. bombing assaults on
Fallujah, he and others came from the Shia cities of Najaf and Karbala,
to carry out a symbolic act of cleaning up rubble and trash in the
streets of Fallujah. This gesture, he said, melted hearts and healed
some of the brokenness between Sunni and Shia. He spoke of the
delegation of peacemakers from the United States who were just in Najaf
for twelve days, of the work to build bridges and seek reconciliation.
An impassioned young woman from the middle of the lecture hall spoke
up. It was obviously not easy for her. “It is not,” she said, “about
lack of water and electricity [something I had mentioned]. You have
destroyed everything. You have destroyed our country. You have destroyed
what is inside of us! You have destroyed our ancient civilization. You
have taken our smiles from us. You have taken our dreams!”
Someone asked, “Why did you this? What did we do to you that you would do this to us?”
