Something’s going on here.
I’m not the only little brother to have an uneven and often strained relationship with the next male up on the family totem pole. Over the last 35 years I’ve disagreed at least ten times as often than not with my older brother Eddie (almost everyone calls him “Ed” now; but I refuse: just another example of our contrariness.) I’ve always been the radical Leftist, he’s always been the red-necked Dixiecrat-- a Republican, as far as I could tell, in all but registration. (In Maryland it just doesn’t pay to sign up as anything but a Democrat.)
But over the last months, I’ve been surprised at his response to the ever-looming war, now brought to us in full, live, 24-hour color by the endangered Bush Administration. A little to my surprise-- and a lot to my enduring pride in him-- Eddie has vehemently and openly opposed this ill-considered, wrong-headed action from its inception. And he tells me that his conservative friends, far more Right than even he is, seem to be unanimously against the war as well.
But what to do?... What to do?...
Eddie has a wonderful wife and 5 beautiful kids. He also has an ancient farmhouse he’s refurbishing in the northern wilds of Baltimore County and a job as a programmer that just barely pays for all this. Like myself, and many of us, he’s uncomfortable “taking it to the streets” for reasons of both pragmatism and style. But he wanted to do something, and so he took his coding skill and began building a website: www.warisbad.org. The response in just the last day or two from my friends has been overwhelmingly heartening. A Filipino actor who played Cheek Eye Chin in my play An American Book of the Dead - The Game Show deconstructed Bush’s 48 hour warning speech to Saddam. It’s hilarious. An animator whom I’ve only worked with tangentially donated in his bit of vitriol for the Bush Administration. An actress whom I haven’t seen in ten years since she appeared in my independent film Hitting the Ground posted a message, too. Maybe some Everythingian will be similarly inspired, though that’s not really the point of this daylog. The point is I wanted to share the small spark of light my brother surpised me with in these darkening days.
Mother Teresa once said: “We can do no great things, only small things with great love.” My brother has inspired me; I can only hope to do the same for someone else. Perhaps “small thing” by “small thing” something great will begin to happen.