AMY GOODMAN: Did other people agree with you?
S. BRIAN WILLSON: No. At the time, nobody did. My superiors laughed at me. I said the rules of engagement require us not to target—prohibit us from targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure. And they laughed. And of course I realized there is no such thing as a real law of war. It’s rhetorical. It’s written down. But once you’re in a war zone, there is virtually no rules or laws. And I just—that was a great—I mean, it was illuminating to me. I mean, I probably had to go through that experience to really get it, to really get that my conditioning had really dehumanized me, and I now needed to embark on a process that I call being a recovering white male, which is a lifetime process of learning about my empathy and my deep interest in mutual respect and cooperation, and not to shoot people and to harm people, even if I don’t agree with them. It’s called nonviolence.
This interview is awesome. This guy is a really smart, courageous, heroic individual. After serving in the vietnam war, he started to question the powers that be. In a nonviolent protest against US involvement in military action against Nicaragua, he lost both his legs as a result of being run over by a Munitions Train. The interview is mostly about his life, but he talks about OWS more towards the end, and the archetypes of compassion. I'm into it.
