HAITI GAZA
by Miriam
Saturday, 16 January 2010 06:29
Haiti Gaza----thanx to Phil Weiss and Mondoweiss for the following brilliant statement!~~
"I’m moved by the American response to the Haiti disaster, by the sense of connection Americans are expressing to Haitians across traditional barriers of class, race, nation, and geography. Is this the Obama effect? Yes. Would the three network anchors have rushed across seas to Haiti under such circumstances 3 or 5 years ago? No; the U.S. is making progress, multiculturalism has won.
So what about the Palestinians? Why, a year ago, didn’t the American anchors race across seas to join them in Gaza as US-purchased munitions were used against those defenseless people? Why didn’t they provide up-close stories about the voices in the rubble and the torn-apart families? Why didn’t they tell us about the Gaza prison that was destroyed and the criminals poured back into Gaza society to terrorize people–an angle they repeat over and over in Haiti?
You say Haiti is in the Americas and this is a natural disaster without terrorists. I say Palestine might as well be part of America for the goddamn special relationship to Israel and war is a better story than a natural disaster (as my former editor Zach Stalberg said to me when he sent me off to the Dominican for a hurricane case 30 years ago, "I hate natural disasters; no villain"–in Gaza there was a villain).
Besides, how many times have these anchors gone to Iraq for some big news? This is really the problem. Gaza wasn’t big news. The slaughter of defenseless people who could not flee and who cowered in their homes praying to die as high-tech American weaponry lasered in on them, it was only big news in Europe and Asia. The Palestinians haven’t been offered the sympathy that any other suffering people command from Americans– through 62 years of dispossession, ethnic cleansing, ghettoization and discrimination. We’re going to change that.
P.S. A friend points out that the original sin was Obama’s silence on Gaza a year ago before he came into office. Thus he refused to extend his world-progressive cloak where it would have mattered.
"I’m moved by the American response to the Haiti disaster, by the sense of connection Americans are expressing to Haitians across traditional barriers of class, race, nation, and geography. Is this the Obama effect? Yes. Would the three network anchors have rushed across seas to Haiti under such circumstances 3 or 5 years ago? No; the U.S. is making progress, multiculturalism has won.
So what about the Palestinians? Why, a year ago, didn’t the American anchors race across seas to join them in Gaza as US-purchased munitions were used against those defenseless people? Why didn’t they provide up-close stories about the voices in the rubble and the torn-apart families? Why didn’t they tell us about the Gaza prison that was destroyed and the criminals poured back into Gaza society to terrorize people–an angle they repeat over and over in Haiti?
You say Haiti is in the Americas and this is a natural disaster without terrorists. I say Palestine might as well be part of America for the goddamn special relationship to Israel and war is a better story than a natural disaster (as my former editor Zach Stalberg said to me when he sent me off to the Dominican for a hurricane case 30 years ago, "I hate natural disasters; no villain"–in Gaza there was a villain).
Besides, how many times have these anchors gone to Iraq for some big news? This is really the problem. Gaza wasn’t big news. The slaughter of defenseless people who could not flee and who cowered in their homes praying to die as high-tech American weaponry lasered in on them, it was only big news in Europe and Asia. The Palestinians haven’t been offered the sympathy that any other suffering people command from Americans– through 62 years of dispossession, ethnic cleansing, ghettoization and discrimination. We’re going to change that.
P.S. A friend points out that the original sin was Obama’s silence on Gaza a year ago before he came into office. Thus he refused to extend his world-progressive cloak where it would have mattered.
|
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community. |
ARTICLE VIEWS: 998
MOST RECENT ARTICLES
|
With Valentines Day fast approaching, perhaps there need to be more consciouness raised about the tradition. This holiday, one mostly for women, puts men on the defensive. It practically FORCES men Wednesday, 01 February 2012 |
|
I spotted a forgotten hero at the memorial service for the nationally prominent San Francisco labor leader Walter Johnson recently, a true but largely unacknowledged hero of the anti-Vietnam War Wednesday, 01 February 2012 |
|
Having restored a sense of inevitability to the demolition derby known as the Republican presidential primary campaign, Vanilla Ice, a.k.a. Mitt Romney headed west from Florida with his sights set on Wednesday, 01 February 2012 |
|
Beloved Friends,I was asked if I would support and attend an all gay church and my immediate response was No! If you said no then the question became would I attend an all straight church and I said Wednesday, 01 February 2012 |
|
My perfect Sunday morning begins with a steaming bowl of café au lait while watching ‘Up with Chris Hayes’. But Sunday is also the day when ‘Down With Sandy Adams’ arrives in my Tuesday, 31 January 2012 |
|
Why does our lame governor obsess over unions? Is she that focused on political maneuvering for bigger and better things not including South Carolina? "COLUMBIA — South Carolina Republican Tuesday, 31 January 2012 |
|
How does somebody prove their loyalty to their country? Although a variety of answers can address this question, military service would definitely have to be incorporated. It is important to point Tuesday, 31 January 2012 |
