Thursday, May 15, 2008

Steroid Rant on Nakba

The 60th anniversary of the Nakba and I'm on another steroid rant. Bush 43 is celebrating in Israel while Gaza does without water and power and the Palestinians in the West Bank are on virtual lock down. How can a group of people be oblivious to the plight of its neighbor? It's too painful.

As I grow weaker, my ability to feel the pain of others only becomes more painful: the Palestinians, the Lebanese, the victims of the cyclone in Burma, the earthquake in China, the genocide in Darfur, the never ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan only add to the pain. I need to learn to differentiate between personal pain and Weltschmerz.

Listening to the news, even the 'real' news (Democracy Now, Keith Olbermann, Jon Stewart), only creates exacerbation. Which leads to being back on steroids. But there is the occasional laugh along with the heartache, like when the local news anchor out of Albuquerque spoke of two troops killed by an IUD and didn't even realize her mistake.

Imagine, soldiers killed by contraceptives. Now that's an argument for the religious right.