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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/day03062009.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/day03062009.html<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000">March 6-8 ,
2009<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>The Mad Activist
Writes to Gaza <br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">
Line in the Sand
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By SUSIE DAY
<br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2>Dear People of Gaza,<br><br>
I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize for doing absolutely
nothing in the last few months to stop your suffering.<br><br>
Although I cannot feel your pain, I have seen it on the news. I've read
that 1.5 million of you civilians endured weeks of being fired on and
bombed with American-made weapons, and that 22,000 of your buildings now
lie in ruins, 80% of your crops are gone, and much of your food, water,
medicine, and electricity remain shut off and blockaded. <br><br>
I would love to help you, being as how I am a politically attuned person,
living in a country whose primary Enlightenment Value is "Liberty
and Justice for All." However, what with the flu going around this
winter, my immune system is shot, and I think I've got a virus. So I must
send my regrets. <br><br>
Let us hope, as the killing of over 1,300 of your men, women, and
children fades from the news, that the lobbing of occasional rockets into
Israel will stop, so we can reflect on the three Israelis who died in
this conflict, and their ten soldiers at least four of whom tragically
succumbed to friendly fire.<br><br>
Well, I'm off to my doctor appointment. Meantime with the knowledge
that Hamas got you into all this I send you healing
vibrations.<br><br>
Dear Gazans,<br><br>
I hate doctors. You guys are so lucky that you have so few left. This
dude had the nerve to tell me my whole problem is
"psychosomatic." I'm outraged! Well. OK. Maybe he's right. I
mean, who am I to stand up to the American Medical Association?<br><br>
OK notice, People of Gaza how fast I just caved? There's a Message
here: Each of us likes to feel that she or he is a moral powerhouse of
courage, perspicacity, and will! In fact, we rarely are.<br><br>
From the co-ed who scrubs the floor of the men's room with a toothbrush
so she can enter a sorority; to the boy who joins the gang-bang to prove
he's not queer; to the occupying soldier who strip-searches
"towel-heads" to demonstrate patriotism we do stupid,
sometimes unspeakable things to avoid being kicked out of a group of
people we love and/or respect. I ought to know; I've been kicked out of
just about every group there is.<br><br>
So you see, my desire to take a risk as an individual is microscopic,
compared to my need to feel that I am acceptable to those I love. And so,
People of Gaza, deepest sympathy, but your lives are as nothing, compared
to my fear of being seen as an anti-Semite.<br><br>
Dear Gaza Peeps -<br><br>
JOKE! I was kidding! HA HA! Please do not allow what I said in my last
note to fuel more of your Islamic militancy. Maybe my fear of being
called anti-Semitic is itself anti-Semitic. I can accept that. The point
is, nobody bullied me into this. My refusing to see what the Israeli
government is doing to you is more an act of devotion than a sin of
omission.<br><br>
Truth to tell, I've been seen at the occasional Midtown rally against the
Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians. But I can never bear to
stay. It's better that my friends stay my Jewish friends who resent
that their Judaism is used to justify oppressing you. I envy them for
being called "self-hating." It's much nicer than
"anti-Semitic." But there I go again with my infernal
anti-Semitism
<br><br>
Dear Palestinians:<br><br>
Haven't you been getting my messages? I'm sorry, but as a psychosomatic,
I really must decline your relentless, unvoiced pleas for help. Please
stop suffering; it's very self-centered. Don't you see who the real
victims are? Don't you see how brutally we Westerners have been battered
by news of your dying and dismemberment? Maybe if you moved to Rwanda or
Darfur or Bosnia, I could get involved. In any case, I am not accountable
to you; Western Civilization has told me I don't have to be. <br><br>
But I forget: you're not part of Western Civilization, are you? Besides
the Intifada, that's probably your greatest fault.<br><br>
I know it's hard to accept our basic precept, but try: Civilized people
can enjoy a peaceful, egalitarian Democracy only after indigenous peoples
(e.g., you) have been annihilated. Ask any Chippewa. <br><br>
Look, People of Gaza-<br><br>
Maybe if I gave you a little history lesson, you'd go away. It's like
this: for centuries, Western Civilization was infused with anti-Semitism
which remains very real today. Western Civilization, built in part on
Jewish culture, went on to kill millions of Jews, whose devastated
survivors arrived from Europe on your shores. No one ever deserved a
homeland more than they did unless it was you.<br><br>
Or perhaps you don't need a homeland. Perhaps, as others have suggested,
you don't really exist. Maybe we Westerners share a vast psychosomatic
condition, and you Palestinians are all in our heads. In that case,
People of Gaza, pity us. I'm going to go lie down, now.<br><br>
<b>Susie Day</b> can be reached at:
<a href="mailto:sday@skadden.com">sday@skadden.com</a><br><br>
© Susie Day, 2008<br><br>
<br><br>
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