Note from Wallace:
This essay from Appleseed Ike appeared very early in the history of the Neocon Surveillance site, and the Peace Criminals Project more generally.
These meditations are particularly poignant in light of further terrorist tragedies and atrocities in recent times, including Berlin.
Thank you, Ike!
***
First of all I would like to thank Wallace Runnymede for being the true brains behind all of this and I’m hoping to assist him as much as I can and anyone who wants to submit works to Neocon Surveillance email us.
We are looking for a range of voices and want to hear from all of you whether that is through submissions or feedback.
I would like to write a short anecdotal piece that captures the spirit of Neocon surveillance. Almost a year ago I was travelling to Paris to travel the country and see friends residing in France. On the train a family with young children were discussing, with a hint of fear, the Charlie Hebdo attacks which had happened at the beginning of the year.
In the political ravings that only an undergraduate can have I started scribbling in my notebook reasons why terrorist organisations have no real ‘power’ in the realm of global politics under the slightly sarcastic and over-exaggerated title “Terrorists: why do they even matter?”
After a few hours walking alone in Paris with no real aim or direction apart from getting to the train station before the last train, I walked out onto Place de la République, greeted by hordes of people paying their respects to the victims of the attacks. Hundreds of people who didn’t know each other all unified in the name of peace and respect for those we have lost.
Despite not speaking French and travelling alone that day, it was possible to feel the sense of community that was in the air in Paris, with people from countless nations all in one place. There was no aggression or hate to be seen, just love and a desire for peace.
As I sat there and absorbed the atmosphere for a while I took out my notebook and put a line through everything I had written and completed it with “they don’t when people respond like this.”
This is similar to the message that Neocon Surveillance is trying to portray, a respect for all people and our right to peace, best achieved through communication and education. For us to achieve this it is important that we promote communication between parties condemn those disrupting peace through violent and unnecessary war, or “THEM” as Wallace Runnymede would say.
Originally published on Neocon Surveillance.