I am in Taos for the weekend, for the Fiestas de Taos,
surrounded by histories of peoples going back tens of thousands of years. I'm
eating well, staying in the great Casa Taos facility, anticipating sitting down
with one of America's greatest writers, advocate of Chicanismo--and I should be
primed to do a worthy posting today.
I'm not.
My head buzzes with bits and scenes, descriptions and words
about 50,000 children attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexican border, niños you've
read and heard about for weeks. Children that certain heartless Americans don't
want here, don't want to take in, not considered good enough to be taken care
of, like adults are supposed to treat children. Hatred, racist epithets and the
basest behavior of my species featured on headlines and newscasts, every day.
I could say or write thousands of things about that, but I can only manage a few.
Because, also buzzing in my head is the running casualty
list coming out of Israel. A number that's passing 200. 200, including
children, Palestinians who are being attacked by technologically superior armed
forces led by Israeli generals, directed by the Israeli government and
supported apparently by the majority of Israeli citizens who do have civil
rights. And paid for by my taxes.
My gov't says we support "the right of the Israelis to
defend themselves." [Last I heard, at least one Israeli had been killed
during the time that the 200 Palestinians were slaughtered.]
The Israeli's actions remind me of a conversation I once had
with a Jewish woman. She said she agreed with the Chicanos' Aztlán, the lost
location of the Aztec's original homeland in the U.S. Southwest. That for
Chicanos to gain their civil rights, their rightful place in this country, retaking
Aztlán was an honorable goal. And that that's all the Israeli's were doing in
Palestine.
If the Chicanos were to retake Aztlán like the Israeli's are
disenfranchising Palestinians, like they are dismembering the Palestinian
homelands, like they are dislocating families, like they are strafing kids on
beaches, with missiles, then the Chicanos would be guilty of crimes against
humanity, of genocide, of neo-apartheid. Yet, somehow my President says, the
Israeli's "have a right to defend themselves." I agree with him no
more than I agreed with that blinded Jewish woman.
What the Israelis, particularly the Zionists, have done and continue to do in Palestine is not about being Jewish. The "Jews" are not the problem; the Zionist apartheid is. I've noticed some Chicanos getting sloppy in the heat of their anger and disgust about this crisis. Don't get sloppy. All Anglos do not support the mistreatment of the border mestizos. Nor are all Jews responsible for what goes on within Israel. Many within both countries actively oppose their governments' inhumanitarian actions.
What the Israelis, particularly the Zionists, have done and continue to do in Palestine is not about being Jewish. The "Jews" are not the problem; the Zionist apartheid is. I've noticed some Chicanos getting sloppy in the heat of their anger and disgust about this crisis. Don't get sloppy. All Anglos do not support the mistreatment of the border mestizos. Nor are all Jews responsible for what goes on within Israel. Many within both countries actively oppose their governments' inhumanitarian actions.
There's so much more to say, but my head's too buzzed.
I'm in no mood to review a book, post some of my fiction,
share pics of my trip to Taos. Because there are children on opposite sides of
the world--around the U.S. southern border and behind concrete walls and barbed
wire in Gaza--children who are an embarrassment to my government, forming two
humanitarian crises that the American people, as a whole, are not buzzed about.
Two humanitarian crises that make it difficult for me to
enjoy myself in Taos.
I believe, that's how it should be.
Not just for me.
RudyG
Go to Border Angels if you can aid the Border children. Do what you feel you can about the children in Gaza.
8 comments:
If Palestinians would stop shooting rockets at Israel and lay down their arms, there will be peace. Then both sides can coexist, but Hamas is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. They do not want to coexist with Israel, which is why there won't be peace in this area until Palestinians change their position. As for those poor children at the border, we need to feed them, treat their health issues, and secure the border because we cannot sustain the world's poor. That's just a sad reality.
In response to the Anonymous, above: Both sides cannot coexist, under the present conditions, because one side is the colonialist-style occupier and the other side is the Palestinian occupied people. I don't know any people individually nor as a group who would want to "coexist" with their occupier. The "change in position" that the oppressed is to throw off their oppression. Always has been. Poor children should be fed and well-treated--whatever that costs.
Reading a history of 19th century Richard Burton, translator of Arabian nights. He traveled in the Middle East disguised as an Arab way before Laurence (of Arabia). The maps of Asia and the Middle East were way different back then. "Palestine" was plastered across a huge swath of land, including what is now Israel and Gaza. England had been busy for some time colonizing this and that, and let's not forget what America did with Manifest Destiny. I'm not saying this as an excuse for what's happening in the world now: in Palestine, in Russia,Iraq, Syria and elsewhere. Only that "history" makes it seem long ago, different people and a different time. Now, w/instantaneous news and cell phone feeds the brutality is up front and "living and dying" history. Colonization is so passe. It needs to stop.
I don't blame families for sending their kids out of dangerous countries: the Jews did it with their children and many countries opened their doors. The rabid response on the part of some Americans to the plight of these children is shameful. There is no easy answer to the immigration question. Obama is following the law; the kids must go through the mandated procedure to find legal relatives in this country . . . until the law is changed. Let's put some economic sanctions on Latin American countries until they deal with this problem in their own countries. I fear that suitcases of American money goes into the wrong hands. Also, we should decriminalize drugs in the U.S.
Rudy, what you say is all true. It's heartbreaking that our global civilization has not yet evolved to the point that the proverbial "red line in the sand" is the massacre or abuse/neglect of children--all children, any children, anywhere in the world. Imagine how different global society would be if not one country--not ONE anywhere on earth--allowed the maiming, terrorizing, or slaughter of children. If this red line stopped everyone dead in their tracks, caused them to stop whatever they were doing...to protect the children. Oh yes. How very, very different the world would be!
My ancestors from the southern region of New Mexico did not want to coexist either with their occupier. Eventually my people were able to find a way to coexist peacefully, in spite of a history of early persecutions. Since it appears that Israel is not going away, it would benefit both sides to find a way to live in peace and avoid bloodshed.
Thelma and Sandra, I welcome your words and sentiments. Colonialism--ours, Israel's, others'--created the present situations. They will be eventually solved by those who are being oppressed. The remainder of us are important only to the extent that we assist those oppressed.
RudyG
Thelma, you are so right about our global civilization not yet evolving. I was shocked and horrified when I first learned about honor killings, and the abuse of women which are tolerated in some of these societies. The persecution of guys is also intolerable. At least women and gay people have more rights in Israel.
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