Gaza--it's still here.

Perhaps we in America have the privilege to contain wars. We have a luxury in perceiving Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, any of them--from a distant place and separating ourselves from what happens "over there." Sure, our "boys" are involved but we really aren't. Moreover, even though the Iraq "war" for example is not finished, we don't have to think about it daily, we don't have to feel frightened or threatened by it, and we certainly do not have to weigh its costs, effects, or consequences as we would have to were it to have transpired on our land.

Over here, war is a continuing, daily event. It's not even an event anymore, it's just life. And certainly the effects are ongoing, real and very immediate. I was watching this piece today and I thought about how on tv it seems distant, like a documentary about something far away in space and time. But it's not really far away because the occupation, the violence, the suffering, the war, the grief--none of it has ended.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UChWtlMGBJ0&feature=player_embedded


Yesterday I went to a demonstration against the Palestinian Authority who has decided not to support the UN Goldstone Report on Gaza. I've never felt such hopelessness here. I'm not sure what we are fighting for anymore. I'm not sure how much longer I can raise my voice when there are so few voices shouting from within these walls and outside of them. Then I saw a man wearing a black shirt and I started screaming louder. It said: "Remember Gaza."