“When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear” Maya Angelou

This past Monday, I was in a reasonably good mood, certainly not looking for any trouble. I wasn’t thinking about writing and feeling open to what the day would bring. I was going through the news, which I do every day, throughout the day, never getting captured by it. 

Then I saw this photograph, before I even had a chance to read why it was there. I looked at this boy and for an instant, thought of my grandson. He was so young and then I read why he was there. His name was Hassan Hamad and he was all of 19 years old. He had spent the last year videoing the carnage in Gaza and he was a fearless kid. An Israeli drone struck his home for only one reason, to silence him. He had been warned by them and threatened, all documented.

Pieces of his body were placed into a shoebox, while the world continues to be blind to the suffering of these people. Gaza’s Government Media Office (GMO) said last Sunday that 175 media workers have been killed in the embattled enclave over the past year. Words and numbers aren’t nearly as effective as actually seeing the face of war, which is ugly as hell. Images of the concentration camps waited until the war was over. I cry every time I see human-skinned skeletons, piled one on top of the other, eyes open and vacant.

I have just been looking at the face of that young boy and trying to figure out a reason why he needed to be exploded into shreds of skin. He was guilty of showing war’s carnage. In one year, over $22 Billion USD of your tax dollars have been given to Israel, so it can buy weapons from our major corporations to kill people, not special people, just people like you and me and Hassan.

I am not the one to show graphic images, because that’s not what I do. I do want to give you some numbers to think about and they are not simply numbers, each one represents a human being, not special human beings, just human beings like you and me and Hassan.

Israel has killed at least 42,000 people, including 16,756 children in Gaza alone, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, with thousands more missing, buried under the rubble. On average, every day, 115 people are killed. The silence of our leaders in this country is deafening. Israel is a monster we created and like every monster movie, they become uncontrollable. According to the Pew Research Center, less than 20% of us think a lasting peace there is even somewhat likely.

Global civility is a joke. In the palaces of the political elite, suffering is a concept to be politely discussed, time permitting.  Nothing is more urgent than profiteering, regardless of consequences. I am not naive. The fact that I may understand, has nothing to do with thinking it is right, because it is not.

On a personal level, I am deeply torn between our nature over the millennia and the possibility of something better. The above excerpt from a Maya Angelou poem called A Brave and Startling Truth, is a hope, a little flame that burns within me and flickers dangerously close to darkness.

This story does not have anger as its engine, only a deep, deep sadness. I have not singled out Gaza, because I am anti-Zionist. Israel exists as a legal state, so game over. What it is, is the most publicized example of the murder perpetrated on those people victimized by the abuse and inhumanity of power. Protestors are considered criminals, upsetting those, who turn a blind eye to the mirror of their cruelty.

It is in the news everyday, multiple times each day and the death and destruction is barely a distraction. In a way, it helps validate killing as a solution everywhere, because it is really not that big a deal, now is it? Politicians are too fucken polite and too scared to offend their bankrollers; just flip the compass and look at wherever it lands, the story is the same

While we are on the subject of Zion, why do you think England and the Allies created Israel in the first place? I’m gonna tell you. None of them wanted too many Jews knocking on their doors after the war. My people were turned away throughout the war and you can include the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave in hiding the welcome mat. We have been using them ever since, keeping an eye on our oil, but their self-importance has been a deadly by product. Here, we love taking their money, while many of the seeds have turned to weeds, strangling opposition there.

If “All the world is a stage”, thanks to Willy S, all the above is one act in a much larger story of life’s grand design, since the beginning of our time keeping here. The story of Israel and Gaza is a very old one and it has always had its place on history’s stage. Time after time, we have hurt each other and the reasons to justify our inhumanity are paper-thin shallow. Beautiful souls like Maya Angelou have always held out hope for a better world.

Our mistreatment of each other is easily matched by our mistreatment of the natural world. Funny, I just looked at the word, “natural” and I am not sure what it means. Something called The Living Planet Report has recently released a comprehensive overview of the state of the “natural” world and it reveals that global wildlife populations have shrunk by an average of 73% in the past 50 years.

Helene and Milton are a couple of natural lunatics, empowered by warming waters all over the world. Oil and gas are the culprits. They are paying the bills in the palaces of the political elites. If you let a crime go unpunished, it is a meal ticket for the corporate criminals, profiting on the their impunity.

Saturday, the 12th of October is the Day of Atonement in my birth religion and the start of 5725 in the Jewish calendar. It is their most important holiday by far. Just for the hell of it, no offense intended, I looked up the meaning of the word. “As a religious act, atonement is an effort to make up for wrongdoings so you can be in harmony with a higher power.”

The idea of being in harmony with a higher power has been my life’s work for many years. No, I am not talking about a power outside myself. I am talking about that too delicate flame that burns within. I think I do all this writing to make sure that little light never goes dark. It is your eyes that keep it alive and I am eternally grateful. I saw my grandson’s face and for a second, I lost that light. 

We have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear

We have the power, but not the will. 

LISTEN TO IT HERE:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/admin/1292459/episodes/15914300-eyes-don-t-lie