The Power of Citizenship:
A Night with Scott Ritter

On Monday, March 31, former United Nations weapons inspector and outspoken critic of the Iraq War, Scott Ritter, spoke to a standing-room-only audience in the Bentley Auditorium. The mood of the evening shifted from enthusiastic bouts of laughter and clapping, to silence, frustration, and, at times, conflict.

“This will not be a lecture. I am not going to sit up here and give you a monologue,” Ritter said. “what I will do is initiate a conversation. That is the most important thing we can accomplish here tonight.”

The tall, wide-shouldered, long-jawed Ritter spoke with conviction and animation about the importance of an active citizenry, the sanctity of the United States Constitution, and the influence of mainstream media in a time of war.

The former United Nations official spoke extensively about the role of the media in creating popular support for the Iraq War, and offered more active participation by the citizenry as the only solution. “If you take a look at where we are today on some of these key issues that face us, like Iraq and potential conflict with Iran,” Ritter said, “for the most part these problems occurred because there was no national dialogue... Instead, the government dictated through the vehicle of an all-too compliant media ... and all of this was all-too-readily consumed by we, the people of the United States.”

Speaking about his experience as an on-air analyst for Fox News, CNN, and ABC, Ritter explained the various ways in which the media exploited the truth in the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and in coverage of the war today. However, pointing fingers at the media isn’t enough, he argued. “We bought into Iraq...because it was pounded into us by the media. But, that’s not really the answer. We bought into it because of our collective ignorance of the world we live in.”

 

Media is a business, Ritter reminded the audience. Using the metaphor of a mother bird regurgitating food into her babies’ mouths, he illustrated his belief that the media is simply giving the people what they want: a single source or entertainment news. “When the little bird goes tweet tweet, the media gives us what we want. We need to start tweeting for something different, a higher quality of food,” asserted Ritter, urging us to “become our own civilian intelligence officers.”

If we are unsatisfied with the current state of affairs, Ritter argued, we as consumers of media products and citizens of a representative democracy need to make our opinions and demands known in order for the system to function properly.

Ritter repeatedly invoked the United States Constitution, designating it as the sole definer of the country and its people. “It says we the people of the United States of America,” he noted, “ and that’s what I’m talking about: we collectively, we collectively have failed because we didn’t engage in a national dialogue about critical issues, issues of life and death. There is no issue that has greater life and death importance than the issue of war.”

Eliciting a sense of conviction, responsibility, and hope in the face of disaster was a common theme that carried over into the question and answer forum, which lasted as long as Ritter’s talk. Members of the audience used this time not only to ask questions, but to share their own experiences and reactions to the Iraq War.

At the end of his talk, Ritter challenged the audience to “wake America up.” In response, many of the questions posed challenges to Ritter himself. The first question of the evening came from a student who believed that the problem was not a lack of awareness, but a lack of action. “We have been talking for so long,” he said, “but what do we do?”

He then asserted that both the election system and the Constitution were broken, questioning their role in solving today’s problems. “The Constitution is not broken,” Ritter replied. “We are broken.”

“I am not broken!” the student exclaimed. As Ritter asserted that the system simply “does not function ideally,” the student walked out of the auditorium.

Another audience member wondered if a military draft would help to end the war by making everyone responsible for the war. Ritter responded that “there is no shortcut to citizenship,” and insisted that we “read the Constitution, live the Constitution, and breathe the Constitution,” because a good citizen would take responsibility for every single American serving in the military.

A general sense of helplessness was conveyed by the audience that evening , but perhaps not hopelessness. A genuine desire to act, to bring an end to the war, emanated from the crowd, which seemed to simply be overcome by the omnipresence of the powers that be. Most questions dealt with how, not why: How do we organize? How will our message be heard? How exactly do we engage in battle with the pro-war movement, and how do we pull out of Iraq?

Looking to the successes of past movements like the labor movement, and movement leaders like Saul Alinsky, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr., Ritter suggested, is a good place to start - along with utilizing the rights that the Constitution gives us to challenge the government to live up its own promises.

The future actions of those in attendance on that Monday evening will stand testament to its success. As Ritter said, “For this event to have any meaning at all you’ve got to leave here energized to say we’re not going to make the same mistakes we made in the past.”

Perhaps this initiation of a dialogue about the Iraq War will inspire future community discussions in which hope will overcome helplessness.

 

(The accompanying photo of Scott Ritter is courtesy of www.inminds.co.uk)