Yesterday, the one year anniversary of operation "Shock and Awe" in Iraq, March 20th was a great day of marching for peace all world round. According, to United for Peace and Justice, one of the major organizers in the US, there were over 300 Events in the U.S., and more than 270 other cities in more than 60 countries. Upwards of 2 million people worldwide on the streets marching for peace. I went with people from Stony Brook and other Long Island towns on aôLIRR 'Peace Train' into NYC. The day before I indulged myself, and got a 128Mb memory card for my camera, and took loads of photos. While the Long Island contingent was congregating, I was interviewed by a Newsday journalist, Tomoeh Murakami Tse.
And parts of the interview made it into her report. She did refer to me as a student of 'ecology and revolution [sic]', which is not untrue, but it is not really the name of my graduate program. I marched with a Bush puppet on my back, dressed as the Grim Reaper, with a clown's nose - which we got as we left Penn Station from someone advertising the circus in Madison Square Garden. The march went peacefully, no scuffles with police. I marched with EE friends, but then they got tired, and I continued by myself. I managed to walk all the way back to the rally spot, on 24th and Madison, in time to hear a number of speeches, including Amy Goodman and part of her interview with Aristide on his way to Jamaica. I got close enough to the stage to take some pics of the speakers and tape some speeches. I felt all high tech with the large memory card and the digital recorder.Unfortunatelyy, I didn't record some of the speakers names, so I can't identify them, including one of the speakers that most affected me. She was a poet from Brooklyn, and after she was announced I was expecting her to read a poem of hers. But she was so emotional, she couldn't find the words. She remembered how NYers were loving to one another after Sept. 11th, and how the most important task facing us is defeating Bush, to get his foreign policy out of office, for the benefir of the US and on behalf of all those that cannot vote in the US. The later really struck home. Another speaker was Jewishsh activist, who had gone to the south in 1960 working under Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee and spent 20 years there working for civil rights. She invoked heJewishsh ethical tradition that said, "Thou shall not stand idly by". The same principle took her to Israel and Palestine to protest Israel's occupation and control of Palestinian territories, which she compared to the segregation she saw in Southern US.
I walked back to Penn Station, up Broadway, with Bush still on my back, and there was so much street commerce it felt like a bazaar. Its mostly a African-American area, and there was a lot of support, but hardly any other evidence of the march. I made it back to Stony Brook at 8, exhausted. My voice wasn't as tired as usual, but my body ached.
I tried to get some rest, also because the last week had plenty of short nights. Sunday, I spent the afternoon and evening sorting the photos, writing a piece about the march for Portuguesese paper. And then a reply , to an editorial that appeared the the Stony Brook Statesman, titled "Election 2004: No Europeans allowed." This piece was a reaction to John Kerry statemant's about foreign leaders wanting Bush out of office and his refusal to disclose the names. I had seen the article on Friday and knew I had to reply, before even reading the it the whole way through. Just the title was offensive, particuarly because it came after the US reaction to the elections in Spain. In my reply I criticize his reation to Kerry, but also the reactions to the Spanish elections. Newsday was one of the newspapers that had run on its front page the insinuation that the elections were a victory for Al-qaida. But sunday in Newsday there was an article that was pretty good. The article talks mostly about al-Qaida, but also was where I finally read about were the islamic connection in the Spanish train bombings comes from. The Abu Hafs Al-Masri Brigade, claimed responsibility for the Madrid attacks in a letter published in a London newspaper on March 12. This is the same organization that claimed responsibility for the August 2003 blackout in the United States, calling it "Operation Quick Lightning in the Land of the Tyrant of this Generation." For those who attribute the blackout to technical failures, Abu Hafs is not a credible source.
I also spent more time that I thought it would take finding the correct reference to the mandate "Thou shall not stand idly by". It is in Leviticus 19:16. It turns out the this is the translation in the Jewish tradition, "Lo ta'amod al dam rey'echa : You shall not stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds" where it clearly means it is unethical not to act while there is human suffering. But while looking for the Portuguesese translation, I discovered that the Christian version of the verse is very different. In the King James Bible, the same passage says, "neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor". This is a different principle, not condemning inaction, but harmful action. The same divide between Jewish and Christian translations happens in Portuguese. From a Jewish Brazilian website I found the translation "Lo taamod al dam reecha; Não fique impassível ao ver o sangue do seu irmão derramado". Wheras Christians versions had "não conspirarás contra o sangue do teu próximo", "não atentarás contra a vida do teu próximo". Does this divide reflect a ethical divide as well?
Sunday morning I finished watching a PBS documentary on DVD about Islam. It traces the origins of the Crusades to the burning of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, by order of the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim, in 1009. According to the academics in the documentary, al-Hakim was legitimately mad. But this fed the hatred for the far more advanced muslims, on the part of the 'dark-ages' Christians in Europe. Although the church was rebuilt in glory by 1048, and Christians continued to practice in Jerusalem in peace, Pope Urban II traveled all throughout Europe and brought religion and military goals together. On July 15th 1099, the crusaders entered Jerusalem. They massacred its population, killing both muslims and christians, as they could not distinguish among them. In 1187, Saladin (Salah-al-Din ibn Ayyub), reconquered Jerusalem. He did not retaliate against Christians. Members of all faiths once again worshipped in Jerusalem.
And parts of the interview made it into her report. She did refer to me as a student of 'ecology and revolution [sic]', which is not untrue, but it is not really the name of my graduate program. I marched with a Bush puppet on my back, dressed as the Grim Reaper, with a clown's nose - which we got as we left Penn Station from someone advertising the circus in Madison Square Garden. The march went peacefully, no scuffles with police. I marched with EE friends, but then they got tired, and I continued by myself. I managed to walk all the way back to the rally spot, on 24th and Madison, in time to hear a number of speeches, including Amy Goodman and part of her interview with Aristide on his way to Jamaica. I got close enough to the stage to take some pics of the speakers and tape some speeches. I felt all high tech with the large memory card and the digital recorder.Unfortunatelyy, I didn't record some of the speakers names, so I can't identify them, including one of the speakers that most affected me. She was a poet from Brooklyn, and after she was announced I was expecting her to read a poem of hers. But she was so emotional, she couldn't find the words. She remembered how NYers were loving to one another after Sept. 11th, and how the most important task facing us is defeating Bush, to get his foreign policy out of office, for the benefir of the US and on behalf of all those that cannot vote in the US. The later really struck home. Another speaker was Jewishsh activist, who had gone to the south in 1960 working under Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee and spent 20 years there working for civil rights. She invoked heJewishsh ethical tradition that said, "Thou shall not stand idly by". The same principle took her to Israel and Palestine to protest Israel's occupation and control of Palestinian territories, which she compared to the segregation she saw in Southern US.
I walked back to Penn Station, up Broadway, with Bush still on my back, and there was so much street commerce it felt like a bazaar. Its mostly a African-American area, and there was a lot of support, but hardly any other evidence of the march. I made it back to Stony Brook at 8, exhausted. My voice wasn't as tired as usual, but my body ached.
I tried to get some rest, also because the last week had plenty of short nights. Sunday, I spent the afternoon and evening sorting the photos, writing a piece about the march for Portuguesese paper. And then a reply , to an editorial that appeared the the Stony Brook Statesman, titled "Election 2004: No Europeans allowed." This piece was a reaction to John Kerry statemant's about foreign leaders wanting Bush out of office and his refusal to disclose the names. I had seen the article on Friday and knew I had to reply, before even reading the it the whole way through. Just the title was offensive, particuarly because it came after the US reaction to the elections in Spain. In my reply I criticize his reation to Kerry, but also the reactions to the Spanish elections. Newsday was one of the newspapers that had run on its front page the insinuation that the elections were a victory for Al-qaida. But sunday in Newsday there was an article that was pretty good. The article talks mostly about al-Qaida, but also was where I finally read about were the islamic connection in the Spanish train bombings comes from. The Abu Hafs Al-Masri Brigade, claimed responsibility for the Madrid attacks in a letter published in a London newspaper on March 12. This is the same organization that claimed responsibility for the August 2003 blackout in the United States, calling it "Operation Quick Lightning in the Land of the Tyrant of this Generation." For those who attribute the blackout to technical failures, Abu Hafs is not a credible source.
I also spent more time that I thought it would take finding the correct reference to the mandate "Thou shall not stand idly by". It is in Leviticus 19:16. It turns out the this is the translation in the Jewish tradition, "Lo ta'amod al dam rey'echa : You shall not stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds" where it clearly means it is unethical not to act while there is human suffering. But while looking for the Portuguesese translation, I discovered that the Christian version of the verse is very different. In the King James Bible, the same passage says, "neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor". This is a different principle, not condemning inaction, but harmful action. The same divide between Jewish and Christian translations happens in Portuguese. From a Jewish Brazilian website I found the translation "Lo taamod al dam reecha; Não fique impassível ao ver o sangue do seu irmão derramado". Wheras Christians versions had "não conspirarás contra o sangue do teu próximo", "não atentarás contra a vida do teu próximo". Does this divide reflect a ethical divide as well?
Sunday morning I finished watching a PBS documentary on DVD about Islam. It traces the origins of the Crusades to the burning of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, by order of the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim, in 1009. According to the academics in the documentary, al-Hakim was legitimately mad. But this fed the hatred for the far more advanced muslims, on the part of the 'dark-ages' Christians in Europe. Although the church was rebuilt in glory by 1048, and Christians continued to practice in Jerusalem in peace, Pope Urban II traveled all throughout Europe and brought religion and military goals together. On July 15th 1099, the crusaders entered Jerusalem. They massacred its population, killing both muslims and christians, as they could not distinguish among them. In 1187, Saladin (Salah-al-Din ibn Ayyub), reconquered Jerusalem. He did not retaliate against Christians. Members of all faiths once again worshipped in Jerusalem.
posted by André Levy @ 9:09 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home