Emergency Exit

We are the people of Gaza

2008-12-03T15:25:00.009-05:00

We live in a city by the sea and we are mostly refugees. We wake up bold and go to sleep empty, and dream of a time between yesterday and the day before. Gaza by the sea, a new home for memories of dreams trampled under army boots, but for 60 years we have called it home. Gaza by the sea, patron to exiled souls, has been struck on the brow and for that we rise and for that blow a new right is born, we are the Right to stay and the Right to return.

Rabin wished to wake up one day and find Gaza swallowed by the sea. He dreamt of peace he said, he dreamt of a tidal wave. Today we are a people persecuted, 19 months besieged, destitute, alienated. Qassams 1, 2 and 3 are our way of telling the world, open your eyes! the truth is here, our rights are here, and our struggle continues, unabated

City by the sea

We are self created, we are faceless people existing
under a sky stained with pain and smoke.
Our minds perpetual pilgrims to destroyed towns,
we crowd around street corners
of other destroyed towns
that had been newly built.
We raise our heads,
faceless people,
our fortitude willing others to bomb the ruins of our homes,
striking them to the ground.

We hum we whirr our voices unite
and rise above the barrier of sound.
Vibration pulsation explosion,
our drone gives way to torrents of fire.
Above, a fighter jet; below, a shadow sphere.
We emit a bloodcurdling scream, not born of sound,
push forth our chests,
a blast, a bang, missile shards. And we are blown apart.

We recollect our shattered limbs we recreate
our human forms, faceless people,
we reassemble, we reunite.

We walk along, we grasp at charred boughs and branches
of olive trees long since dead, dead by others.
Fingers clenched, we dig in dirt and pull out roots.
Scores, hundreds, thousands of faceless people.
We drag our young drenched in blood and sweat
through the sand into the sea
to soak, to cleanse, to heal, to drown, to die.

Our trials are many our errors are none but we have become
slaves of empathy, outcasts of dignity.
We bare no frown, we bare no smile,
we heave and sigh and erupt as the earth
that others wish be swallowed by the sea
But our strength is in numbers
We are the faceless defenders
and shall exist
A reminder of generations past for generations to come.

Wittnessing the Siege

2008-01-02T19:28:00.001-05:00

You think that you can build factual perception by reading the statistics and getting all the hard evidence, but I recently realized that a complete cognitive process relies first and foremost on visuals; seeing the picture first…literally.

I joined a camera crew and producer shooting footage for a first-person-interview on the Israeli siege on Gaza. The interviewee: Dr Eyad El Sarraj, head of the Palestinian International Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza, a coalition of organizations and individuals attempting to do just that. We met with Dr Sarraj at his office and booked him for the day. Based on his humanitarian activism with the campaign, Dr Sarraj would determine which areas were most pressing in terms of the crisis in Gaza, and therefore deserved priority over other areas when it came to the main focus of the short interview. Dr Sarraj confirmed what the producer and the rest of the crew had already suggested. When it came to crisis in Gaza, the health sector and the economic sector were at the top of the list. It was decided we would visit a couple of hospitals and a factory to catch the right footage. This is where the cameraman started shooting and didn’t stop till the end of the day.

I cringed as I walked into Al-Shifa hospital for the first time in my life. Gaza city’s biggest hospital, which provides treatment for critical cases from the north to the south of the Strip, in addition to being the primary hospital for non-critical cases, was overflowing with the ailing, the wounded and the dying. We were led to just one of over 1500 patients who are denied permission to leave Gaza despite suffering conditions that threatened to be terminal or at best, permanently debilitating. A doctor explained that the 19 year old young man with a drawn face propped up on a pillow, was at risk of having both legs amputated unless he was able to have a complicated medical procedure performed within the next few days, a procedure that is not available in Gaza. Upon further inquiry, we were informed by the young man’s mother that her son had been shot several times by Israeli soldiers. Her son is a fireman; his job was to hold a hose. I don’t believe he even used it.

A short walk to the Dialysis unit revealed ten dialysis machines gathering dust in the corridor. We were informed that the lack of spare parts, disposable items such as needles, and medicines used by dialysis patients prevented the doctors from being able to operate the machines, machines upon which the lives of many adults and children with kidney problems rely. Furthermore, 92 out of around 400 types of essential medicine used to treat other illnesses have run out from both hospitals and pharmacies in Gaza. The sick are praying for a miracle, and those who are completely unrealistic are praying that the siege will soon be lifted.

At the Children’s hospital in the “Nasser” area of Gaza city, the doctor led us straight to the infant unit, where several incubators were occupied and others lay in a corner, presumably due to lacking spare parts. We peered at the unnaturally small newborns struggling for each breath. The food crisis in Gaza has lead struggling undernourished mothers to give birth to unhealthy babies. It dawned upon me that despite the gravity of the medical crisis, the inadequacy or shortage of medical equipment bore no comparison to the lack of the most important human need of all: food.

The camera rolled on as Dr Sarraj made his way back into the car clearly distraught and deeply upset about the seemingly predestined condemnation of life manifested in the frail little bodies laying in the incubators, helpless, flawless, yet already scarred for life. Dr Sarraj cursed under his breath, scoffed at it all, a not-much-needed- reminder of the “hell” we all live in just living in Gaza.

We drove east down the broken roads of Gaza bordered with rubble and twig legged little children, passing right beneath a downed power line, possibly a result of the previous night’s violence. We made our way to a tile and brick factory that had been shut down due to the lack of cement and machine parts essential for it to function

Entering the industrial zone en rout to our third and final destination, the brazen contrast between my distant recollection of the area, a once noisy hectic bustle of trucks and machinery, and the presently abandoned padlocked stretch of warehouses shrouded in brooding silence that met my gaze and hearing, was enough to epitomize the severity of the blow to the Palestinian economic sector as a result of the Israeli siege on Gaza.

A guard ushered us through the gates and as soon as we drove in, it was obvious that when the factory owner had informed Dr Sarraj that they had closed down over a month ago, and that he had come in that day only to talk to us and allow the crew to take pictures, he wasn’t joking. Except for a puppy playing tag with its parents, the security guard, and the owner and his assistant there was not a soul or a working machine in sight on the entire premises. “It’s not only that the 40 families of the factory workers that are out of a job no longer have an income” he told us, “we manufacture bricks, strong bricks used for sidewalks and streets. Because there is no cement, we are not able to make these bricks any more” the streets of Gaza we drove through on our way to the factory, that looked more like excavation sites than streets came to mind. I thought of all the 67, 000 other factory workers and their families, also out of income. Then another shocking statistic that only then seemed to make sense. The annual per capita income in Gaza is $600. Compare that to $21,000, the annual per capita in Israel, barely a few miles away from where we were standing.

Dr Sarraj had joked that the 6 or so hours of shooting would have to be condensed to 3 minutes. 3 small minutes?! We had taken up his entire day and would take part of the next morning. He’s a busy man who not only heads the Palestinian International Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza, but he is also president of the Gaza Mental Health Program, and president of the board of the American School in Gaza. Dr Sarraj has an influential role as a Palestinian activist, political thinker and intellectual, with many things to say, many people to say them to. He was happy to give the producer and the cameraman his whole day though.

3 small minutes is the average attention span for an average person to take in a not so average situation. 3 small minuets and a day of Dr Sarraj’s life to throw at people a small part of a puzzle we desperately want them to figure out. 3 small minutes by 3 small minutes, maybe it can be done…but who’s counting? I’ve lost count already.

No End in Sight for Gaza

2007-12-18T18:55:00.000-05:00

When did it start? A question even more to the point, when does it end?

In view of the succession of events in the Gaza strip over the past year it is more and more apparent by the day that the stark truth in answering both questions evades the overt claims of both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority. While negotiations between both parties are underway the Gaza strip continues to be explicitly declared as a non-party in bilateral disputes and initiatives, while simultaneously becoming the invisible recipient of both PLO and Israeli radical measures.

Where does it start, the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza Strip? From the field, and as an active recipient, it is hard for me to describe the moral, financial, psychological and mental situation the 6-month-long-and-counting Israeli siege has done to people. As Abbas and co. plunge into final status negotiations the Gaza population, shunned and denounced, is getting by on the stock of food, clothing, medical supplies and basic necessities left over from before the siege began, and that has almost run out. Unemployment has soared to an unprecedented 40% and the 5 entrance points into the Strip have been closed, locking the 1.5 million or so individuals inside. No exceptions, not even the critically ill seeking medical attention unavailable in Gaza. Heck, the 30 who died long slow deaths being unable to travel in order to receive treatment could have definitely have used a pass, and towards the end many would have settled for a carbon monoxide mask.

Meanwhile, and with total disregard for the explosive humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Abass’ Leadership and Salam Fayads Government adamantly, devotedly, proceed with the tactful execution of the Bush Administration/Quartet/Israeli “West Bank First” enterprise. While funds flow in Ramallah, even some PLO appointed officials and government workers enclosed in the Gaza strip no longer receive salaries from Ramallah. The Gaza Strip detention district wastes away, looked upon as “collateral damage” by its own president. The brokering team prefer to call it being pragmatic.

Being pragmatic. Take livelihood, take basic human necessities and take 75% of fuel needs (the functioning of hospitals, sewers and yes, electricity, water and driving are deemed a luxury 3-4 days a week) out of the equation, you have an entity that is bound to reject the government they themselves elected, the PLO would once again regain control over Gaza. But wait there’s more, since a Hamas free government is Israel’s prerequisite for resuming peace talks, suspiciously halted six years before Hamas won the elections, Abbas is willing to collaborate with Israel and possibly launch a military attack against the Gaza Strip in the near future in order to overthrow the Hamas leadership in Gaza. Sure beats a Hamas led national unity government.

Let’s give pragmatism the benefit of the doubt and put Abu Mazin’s one sided decision to participate in the Annapolis conference to the test. Right from the opening speeches it was pretty obvious what the theme of the negotiations would, yet again, be. While President Abbas assumed his role as the advocate of peace and a viable two-state solution, Olmert didn’t fail to bring up the suffering of the Israeli people at the hands of Palestinian terrorists. Not once was there any reference to the Occupation of Palestinian lands, the Israseli atrocities against palestinians in the West bank and gaza, airstrikes in Gaza as I write that have left tens of Palestinians dead over the last few days, land confiscation, illegal detention, expulsion, economic sanctions, collective imprisonment , extra-judicial killings, apartheid walls and the list goes on. Is there hope for Gaza in the near future? Gaza, what Gaza?

And whether it’s the hundreds of thousands who go to bed cold and hungry and scared, whether it’s the university professors who can't reach their students every other day, whether it’s the countless children selling gum on the street far into the night because their fathers lost their job, everyone walks around silently enduring, knowing in their minds, but to weak and too tiered and too inconsequential to articulate, it’s a ploy. It’s a poker game and we, the people of Gaza, are the gambling chip.

Where do I start? And where does it end?
The starting point has become a non issue and the “end”, a viable final status solution, is not on the horizon of current governments diplomatic endeavours. What does matter right now is emergency relief, immediate de-escalation, freeing Gaza and its people, lifting the siege. The rest can wait.

Ramadan Mubarak...Embrace Your Hunger for More Than Just Food

2007-09-17T11:49:00.000-04:00

Today is the fifth day of the muslim lunar month of Ramadan.
"Ramadan Mubarak" (Ramadan Blessings). It's a special month, not just for Muslims, and that's why I want to share this with everyone who is interested in why we fast:

Ramadan is the Month in which we reaffirm our faith in Allah, his love for all who make a sincere ATTEMPT to be true, and the part of human nature that helps us live better lives, that helps us love, be loved, be strong, be honest with all (self included), and be happy.
Throughout this month, Muslims fast from sunrise till sunset and refrain not just from eating and drinking.
They set aside hateful actions, words and feelings, and take a CONSCIOUS decision to say only kind things and think good thoughts of others, to forgive and love every person in their lives. It's a time for family, friends, neighbors, and every other person willing to share love and warmth.
It's also a time for contemplation, connecting with Allah, the power and might that we can't see, but which is the cause of our existence, finding guidance and serenity and having faith in the bigger scheme of things. They give to the needy if they can, they show love to all of Gods creations.

They set aside distractions: whims, desires, nice things, must haves… things that sometimes sidetrack us from realizing what it all comes down to. We make sacrifices in Ramadan, we practice abstinence not only from what's hateful and destructive, but also what's self indulgent (feeding our material pleasures, our pride, our ego). Even though some indulgences are god given blessings and are an enhancement to our lives, they are not a goal in and of itself, abstinence is a reminder of the vital need to also feed the spirit and have inner strength and peace.

They set aside food and drink from sunrise till sunset.
We abstain from food to remind ourselves that we are capable of commitment and dedication, that we are strong and have inner power. Life takes courage and strength, because even though life is beautiful and the world is fair, our share of it sometimes isn't, and we need to know that if it ever starts raining and we feel powerless, when its all over, we'll still be standing, and that things have no choice eventually but to change, and there is so much more beyond our temporary discomfort , hunger or even pain.

It's a month in which we take a step back from the minds occupations that leave us struggling and digging ourselves deeper and deeper into a web of endeavors that serve only for momentary fulfillment and loss of direction, and to remind us of what we can wake up to every morning, the happiness that we thought we'd forgotten, or that was lost to us forever. It's a month that teaches us to see and appreciate the people and things that we come to take for granted.

Ramadan is about reminding, recharging, a chance at a new beginning, finding ourselves through focusing on others, giving, making a change in their lives, even if all we have to give is a kind word, seeing that change and knowing that we can. We are all humans, we are all born with a heart, mind and soul, that bring us to life, and it is one life that Ramadan wishes to help us embrace, Muslim, Christian, Jew, or other :)

So if you got this far reading, then Ramadan Mubarak!

To not have to choose your words...

2007-01-16T01:02:00.000-05:00

Falling in and out of the space that occupies the minds…of themselves and others. Self conscious, self appreciative, self aware, self-constructive, self destructive, through instinct and vision – Poets don’t lie.

And neither does the legacy of those who passed on for faith and hope. They live, faces with names, voices, and eyes that still shed tears or smile with joy. All who willingly gave their lives to us, a gift to our future, and for the land of peace, Ard el Salaam...

Home in the Sky

Perhaps they feared the dark
And feared to stay
As night fell in icy drops of purple-gray
And they

Stood, a million men on Earth in silent mass
Our last and only hope and home
Awaits a holy segregation;
As they part with mortal selves,
From lifeless temples
Shall rise a flutter of warmth
That brings all to end,
And end will rise to usher them through
The first of days, and end shall end
And all will be again
and they

Shall embrace another life in the sky
Beyond a fear of fear and death
To come
Beyond the patter of purple grey

Who shall live?
None but they.

("non but they"are immortal,, in the ultimate act of selflesness and sacrifice a matyrs soul trancends to a state of eternal presence)

Suicide bombers...running on empty

2006-12-27T17:56:00.000-05:00

The American public is mentally programmed to process information by use of labeling, classification and categorization. And so when a term that was foreign to most finds its way into the layman’s lexicon of common expressions, it eternally assumes its textbook definition, defended till the end, adopted as an indisputable truth regardless of logic and reason.

“The US government may have a double standard in its mediation between the Palestinians and the State of Israel. But what about Palestinian militants and suicide bombers who target innocent Israeli civilians?”

I get that a lot. Questions that are –unbeknown to the inquirer- politically selective and observationally lopsided. And I never know how to go about explaining. But there is no avoiding it.

To understand the psycho-behavioral motives behind suicide bombings you have to understand the implications and continuity of historical events forming the roots of the Palestinian resistance.

Pre-Israel, Palestine was a self-sufficient geographic entity, maintaining an independent existence. It was not autonomous in the customary sovereign form however, and so when the invaders first attacked there was no organized military body to combat British RAF planes and the newly formed Israeli military. Resistance of the occupation came directly from the people – a popular resistance. The masses react counteractively, instantaneously and in proportionality reflective of the opposing forces. There was no political strategy aiming at political gain. There was an uprising against an external hostile attack, based only on the impulse of self preservation triggered by a present threat, with a level of extremity indicative of the ruthlessness of the aggressor.

The uproar and self-defensiveness of the people gave birth to the leaders of the resistance that stood against an organized occupational military. Unrest began as early as 1936. Ultimately, since 1959 Palestinian leaders were simply villager and townsmen, farmers, craftsmen, who had the determination and foresight to realize that the ongoing wide-scale military aggression would only keep getting worse.

But this isn’t about a historical timeline. Sequence and specifics are irrelevant. But when the specifics become a sequence there is an underlying significance to them. And in this case, there is no shortage of evidence.

So from general to specific, we can deduct that what applies to a population is manifested through the individual, we are capable of what is inflicted upon us. The higher the violation of our humanity the more we are pushed to responding with the means at our disposal. Ground raids, surface to surface missiles, air strikes, land confiscation, land locking barriers, borders, checkpoints and military posts? Curfews, mass expulsions, legalized torture and killing of children, indefinite detention, withholding an entire countries financial resources, suffocating, murdering, violating???
And what do we have, to fend for ourselves against one of the strongest militaries backed by the world superpower military? We have our bodies, which, to defend our children and our homes, we would throw off of a thousand cliffs.

And where does it start? The plight of the Palestinians and their methods of coping with the Israeli occupying forces, sacrificing their own lives - which side initiates the aggression, which side takes it this far? The answer is simple...to be crude and tactless the IDF packs the equipment and TAKES the party right into the heart of the Palestinian territories. Talk about taking the initiative. The battleground IS Palestine towns and cities! The dead and the injured strewn on the sidewalk like garbage. I mean this gives a new meaning to HOME-base in regards to Palestinian civilian- “forces”. Then again when your adversaries are a ten year old shooting marbles, and his mother hanging the sheets out to dry…

And you wonder why, if he manages to duck the bullets that day, he grows up to be a ticking time bomb. His mother probably wasn’t as nimble, neither were a few other people on his block –most likely relatives, every day of his life, every second is washed in blood, and the droning, drumming, banging and exploding, a symphony by an artillery orchestra, becomes an audio background to his every existing moment. A reality exemplified by the last series of ground and aerial attacks on the Gaza Strip, an operation carried out by the IDF under the name of…”SUMMER RAIN”, and yes, when it rains it pours.

Who suffers?
Who forms or joins armed groups?
Who straps a bomb to themselves and seeks vengeance?
How hard is it to comprehend the obvious?
And the question that has no answer, Why? To break the Palestinians, as individuals and as a whole? Eradicate the population??

And to force an answer to my own rhetorical question, this is the goal: beat ‘em till they’re dead, and after they’re dead beat ‘em some more. If they don’t come back to life and clutch their hands around your neck so tight your eyeballs shoot out of their sockets, then be sure that vengeance will be resurrected in the form of ticking-time-bomb junior. And when that happens? You’ve purposely created an enemy, one that seeks to destroy you. When that happens you claim legality over the right to self defense and use of the most brutal forms of force. A façade of fabricated reason and legitimacy.

And they talk about peace. Israel is not looking for a counterpart to negotiate with. Israel created an opponent, formulated a prototype, produced and directed the epic of the pan-European victory over the barbaric adversarial combatants roaming the desert, nostrils flaring, teeth-gnashing, barefoot, rag on head.

GIVE me a break.

And what is wrong with public perception in the US? Everything. Views are focused on the external and for some reason beyond my understanding the media-saturated public who lack the most basic form of information processing abilities –about 90% of the population, are firm in the belief that they are qualified to make judgments and speak their mind! Don’t you think that exercising freedom of expression and exercising voluntary ignorance simultaneously cancels out the validity of your opinion? And that is why public opinion is the way it is.

Well, all I have to say is that there is a breaking point to every man and women and reasonable judgment would question the cause rather than the effect of an action that is deemed destructive and extreme. Suicide bombers: suicide martyrs, national heroes, mourning, fear, hopelessness, desperateness, pain, hunger, loss, confusion….Emergency Exit.

Framing the Victim

2006-08-13T12:43:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I think that what distinguishes us as humans is a curse rather than a blessing. We are able to plan, think, scheme, rationalize and calculate; a dangerous concoction of mental abilities that bring out the best and worst of our nature at its most intense. I also think that the US has brought out the very best and very worst in itself. The US has done very well in constructing a political and economic system that grants a high level of individual rights, freedoms and securities for its citizens. As for the rest of the world, power blinded, elitist and relentless, the US government wants to reach out and eliminate any seeds of politically and culturally independent structures in the world; thus the waging of war against an illusionary enemy represented by these structures. Terror-Islam.

The attack on the Middle East-the occupation of Iraq, the invasion of Afghanistan, Israeli presence in Palestine and Lebanon- fall right into the neoconservative expansionist agenda that equates foreign policy with cultural and political domination. As for the implementation, well Israel helps get the dirty work done. It’s the perfect strategic ally...or hired help…or whore. All for a price of course – weapons, financial support and last but not least, legitimacy. And if you are a superpower with a myriad of interests its good to go with the –cash- flow, if you get my drift.

That’s right, As if the situation is not complicated enough, the financiers and bankers who directly or indirectly, through their banks, own and finance the corporations of this country and keep the economy afloat are members of the Jewish Zionist movement. The Federal Reserve, the depository of US taxpayer dollars and the ATM of the US government is a group of private family owned banks – the family names have one thing in common. Take a guess.

Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.

But that’s not the worst of it. To go so far as to desecrate the morals and values by which thousands of millions live and hold sacred? Turning it into a political movement and claiming that it aims at destroying the very principles it, in reality, stands for? And for what? To create the illusion that the US is the protector and savior of the Muslim nations from inevitable destruction?
Islamic fascism?
Does Bush know that Islam is not a political regime and does not have a leader, locality, operation base or agenda, and that it is a conscious choice and personal belief and a religion of humanity and peace?
Islamic fascism?
Does Bush know that Hezbollah has 23 members in a parliament whose president is Christian? The fact that Hezbollah's military operations lay dormant following the liberation of Southern Lebanon, and until the recent Israeli re-occupation of the south the party had been functioning in a political context while providing much needed social services to the community, just says that Hezbollah are not fighting a holy war, but a war of freedom, a war of the people.

But whether I live by the word of man or the word of God, whether the checks and balances and the ethical structure of an individual or group come from the state or from The Book, when YOU come to ME, in my land, in my home, turning the other cheek can only get me so far.

The literal meaning of Islam is “surrendering to the will of God”. Israel and George W. Bush need to understand that that is the only power the national Islamic liberation movements of the world will submit to. So stay on your side and I stay on mine, and let’s call it quits...katush?

Humanity of the Collective

2006-08-10T08:57:00.000-04:00

I’ve always been an advocate of free speech, critical speech, loud speech. I am Palestinian, and I do not live my life by the first, fifth or fourteenth amendment. I do however, have a voice.. a loud one, come to that. But after living in the States for two years, I am tired of being audacious just because I was told that I was here to “represent”, to be a case study, and living proof of my own humanity and individuality as a Palestinian.

There is no shortage of those who realize that unlike me and an advantaged few, most Palestinians don’t get to be heard, or their voices are muffled by the incessant “noise” of both left wing and right wing media outlets in the US. These self-proclaimed advocates of the cause want to bring out the Palestinian identity, present a showcase and display it to the world. Tell your story, they say, trying all along to give a character makeover so it will look self-sacrificing, valiant, heroic, victimized – Hollywood style. People sympathize with my personal dillema of PTSD, "shellshock", scars and war stories, because they sympathise with ME the individual.

OK, I'll tell my story. It was like this for me....
Well, you'd think that with a mind as open and sophisticated as the American mind a conclusion would be drawn from my entertaining stories and opinions by means of inductive logic...but no. After the ooohs and aaahs people still fail to realise that this is not IT for ME.This is IT. Period.

To the enthusiasts I say this: Individual identity is a blend of characteristics. I am Palestinian, I am a refugee, I am Muslim, and I am a woman. But a large amount of those personal characteristics are also charactristics of the collective. And I, the person, am not the victim. My individuality is not on trial. My personal plight is not the issue, it is part of the issue...a very small part.

The victim is the collective identity to which I, as an individual, belong. The Palestinian, the Arab, the dipossesed.

How can you acknowledge all aspects of my individuality, and condemn, or at least disregard the collective from which it is drawn??

The collective mind is perhaps the clearest indicator of the confiscation of “good” by political or ideological agendas.
The collective mind has no vested interest in eliminating equality, discarding tolerance, breeding terror. All humans recognize and strive towards a higher level of morality and understanding. Humanity transcends culture, race or creed.

Tolerance? Equality? Understanding? Coexistence? Dialogue? Reform? Freedom?

You could interpret my actions as an individual as consciously disregarding the innate inclination of human conscience to be good and live in peace, manifested in the abovementioned values.
Don’t tell me that my actions as a collective purposely disregard that inherent god-given goodness and those basic human rights, for myself and my loved ones, for my people and my pride, and for any other human that happens to cross my path (or land). This is not judging a book by its cover or a person by their name. This is reducing the plight, desperation and pleas of an entire nation of people to the grunts of a drunken rampage.

Who wants a load as big as that on their collective conscience?