Art not War

source: https://www.theannarborartfair.com/#2023artfair

This week AACAW will be hosting a booth at the Ann Arbor Art Fair to raise awareness for the lies and horrors in war, particularly the disastrous war for Ukraine. We still need volunteers to help at our booth for a 3 hour shift. Please consider volunteering for by emailing me, Michael, at michael.woon@gmail.com.

For almost a year and a half, the breakout of military conflict between Russia and Ukraine has resulted in hundreds of thousands dead, tens of millions displaced, and hundreds of billions of dollars in damages.

Those who seek war pay no cost for it. Those Western leaders who strategically sought to incorporate Ukraine into NATO, or to depose of Putin have failed on all fronts. US Taxes have been siphoned off to enrich weapons manufacturers and their political chums, all the while prolonging an unwinnable and unnecessary fight where boys from the Ukrainian and Russian sides go to die for purposes they know nothing about.

The senselessness of the past year and a half are mind-boggling.

Many who support Ukraine’s military victory are now coming to grips with the unfolding reality. They are severely defeated and the costs are higher than they could have imagined. The West has failed them and deceived them with empty military and economic promises.

“The West is leading Ukraine down the primrose path, and the end result is that Ukraine is going to get wrecked.”

-John Mearsheimer, 2015

The cry for more weapons, more military, more victories for Ukraine is an understandable one, but it is magical thinking to believe that firing more weapons magically turns back the clock, turns back the battle lines, turns back the referendums, turns back the failed negotiations, and turns back the broken promises and once-secure boundaries.

The true victory, of peace and security, still lies ahead.

The most we can do is live each day remembering the many innocent men who were thrust into battle to die, and the many innocent civilians who died from the recklessness of war. We must live each day for them in a more just fashion, a more intentional fashion, and a more determined fashion to not only ensure this never happens again, but to create more beauty in this world for those who died, even if it is a pale reflection of the full beauty they would have created, if they had been alive.

Be kind.

Speak the truth.

Be active and engaging.

“I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy… in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.”

― John Adams, Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife

Please consider helping spread the truth about this war this week by volunteering at the Ann Arbor Art Fair Booth for 3 hours this Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. You can contact me at michael.woon@gmail.com.

Let’s make art by ending war, especially this war, as soon as possible.