Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 11:52:06 -0700

Hi everybody! Kiif hal kum? {How are you all?} i am good, really
excited about a trip tomorrow to a village outside Nablus where the Israeli
army has illegally enforced a curfew {collective punishment} for one week. The
parents were very concerned about the kids missing school, so today
they sent them anyway. The soldiers stormed the school and forced students
and teachers to go home. So tomorrow the soldiers will be unhappy to
arrive for their bullying, society destroying activity of denying children the
right to an education, only to find over 20 ISMers, plus media and others
blocking their access to the skool, and block it we will. i'm too close to the
end of my trip to worry about arrest now. theres no way i'm gonna watch
those troops evacuate a school at gunpoint! My Mom's a teacher, come on now!
This doesn't imply any departure from our non-violent discipline, not
at all, but one can still make a hell of a scene without violence. So, i will look forward to updating you about that. I am mostly feeling better today, stupid head cold.
We have a big demonstration planned for later this week, regarding
farmers' access thru the wall. I can't tell how many folks will come, as it is
a normal demo, no direct action, which doesn't tend to attract media.
Regardless, opposing this wall before its finished is important
business, as it will take the sane world years to unbuild it, through concessions,
negotiations, etc. I wish, for both "sides", that we could stop it
now. I personally gurantee that the Israeli Apartheid Wall will be one of the
major global political issues of the early to mid 21 century, like a Berlin
Wall kinda thing. And its being snuck in, under our noses. For us
Americans, we have the added "bonus" of paying for it. Thus, without consent or
foreknowledge we fund an entity which all but gurantees a worsening,
rather than an improvement of, our relations with the global majority. Our
funding gurantees a serious worsening of a situation which most of us would
like to de-escalate. It further cements our position as an imperialist nation
in the eyes of nations and peoples who only very recently considered us
good, honest people with a hand to lend to sufferers. That cushion is
disappearing!! Tick-Tock, TickTock, Tick Tock. What are we gonna do
about that friends? What are we gonna do in Iraq? Really, what the hell are
we gonna do in Iraq?? None of us know, so why pretend? How many among us
can genuinely believe in the US mission in Iraq, as the year draws to a
close?
Who can really feel good about it, in any sense? How long will
Bush-Cheneys' lies hold any water at all? Let me ask something else, as i know that
many folks reading this aren't activists as such, but ARE frustrated and
feel robbed or used. At what point is it morally requisite for us to oppose
an entity that operatews in our names, on our dime? At what point does
common humanity and a desire to express, live, practice, defend said common
humanity and the ideals entailed in it, at what point does it over-ride
a hearkening to patriotism as its envisaged by the far right, a general
loyalty to whoever finds themselves in the driver seat of the only
vehicle we've ever known? How long will we allow "them" to dictate the terms
of our interactions with the global majority, folks we don't know much about,
usually. Or to dictate the terms of our opposition to them? At what
point do you grab the wheel? How long will sane Americans be shouted down and
intimidated by the far-right, out of fear of being called unpatriotic?
Do we quite realize what we are getting ourselves into? Do YOU realize
that we are spearheading a series of hostilities that are dividing the entire
world into camps, rich vs. poor? Do we wanna be like that? Remember who
always prevails in folk stories!! Not the rich bully. Remember your own great
grandparents who were beaten in the streets for a 40 hour work week,
for the right to vote, to keep their kids outta factories, to oppose Jim Crow,
the Big Bosses, you name it. Our tradition is greatly flawed, but not
nearly without merit. We are straying, or being led astray, from the more
meritous aspects of our historical experience, to be sure. In Bush's world,
2003, who is the King, and who is Robin Hood? Be honest!!! Any one of us
can make a difference. i hope this didn't sound preachy, not my intent, i
don't claim to know much except that i feel true evil is being enacted in our
name, and we wouldn't accept it if we knew more.
Love and Struggle, Ben, Jenin, Palestine