Gaza is mentioned, simply because news is news. But after the report little in my country changes on perception. Where is the creativity, the imagination to see through propaganda to actual human lives? I have often remained silent out of frustration. Why can't we see through the lies? Just as the Native American population was caricatured as the brute and barbaric threat to free movement and settlement in a land that was by all rights their own, so the Palestinians have been casted as the war-loving invaders in a land they have called home for generations.
18 dead the other day and finally they get some compassion after a week long invasion by the Israeli military. All the former deaths had the name "militant" attached so surely there is no need for sorrow. If Just War be our claim for legitimacy to the Israeli "defense", surely a warning sign must go out for the grossly indiscriminate and disproportional violence reigning down on the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Collective punishment (via aerial assault, invasion, snipers, sonic booms over Palestinian cities, etc) either intentional or non are clear signs that this ongoing campaign is not only unjust but clearly ineffective. It is a common tendencies of terrorized populations to become only increasingly militant in their desperation to combat the daily onslaught of their people. A fighter in Gaza though equally destructive to peace, must be seen as a reciprocated response to what has been the demolition of not only Palestinian lands, but also of the population itself.
We cannot be so naive as to grant the Gaza withdrawl as a peaceful concession. In a quite contrary reality it has been a means of more effectively crippling the Palestinian people with a clear front line. Without random settlements to fortify, the IDF is lessening the strain of their military positioning by drawing back to a line they can push in and out of at a whim. And no easier way to mask reckless massacres than under the guise of "militant" targeting operations.
Iraq is America's present concern and with due purpose, but the lack of any progressive voice on the issue of Palestine, and many other issues in American politics is reason to find little change resulting from the recent American elections. Perhaps I am little too left for you my reader and the rest of America. But it might be possible to see with an open mind that there is more to the world than America;that our interests are not always the best interests. And that so long as we as the dominant world power do not acknowledge the problems caused by our actions in the name of securing an unsustainable way of living, we will doom ourselves to a destiny of terror.
Might liberty and justice be something we strive for not only in our personal lives but as a community; recognizing that we as clumsly and often nearsighted people will benefit more when we acknowledge the presence of a greater community shaped for better or worse by our individual and communal action. Hope I don't come off as political. I'm just hoping for the best in us all. I have a lot to learn about how to best encourage that, but you can help me.

I see no greater cause than to bring attention to the poor, the oppressed, and to put words and action into the world on their behalf, as it is often our silence which oppresses and robs from those who could be our greatest teachers. What can I be doing? It’s an ever-present question that I can never answer with words. Life is an ongoing challenge and opportunity. It’s nothing that can be put to words honestly. But we do our best to communicate and share our existence with others. At the moment that is by expressing my deep concern for the world community as an increasingly distant and malnourished community. As few of us feed off the production of the rest of our brothers and sisters, we have come to understand that growing appetite to not only be natural but inherently good. The idea of struggling and sharing bread together has been lost in increased corners of our inhabitation. This has been lost not only in the realm of human relations, but also between our species and the others that share this world with us.
Philanthropists are praised for their goodwill, when really what less could be expected of those with so much in the sight of so much poverty. Where do I have room to voice such thoughts except in the ideal world of words? Words must always be dual in their application: personal and communal. There is great importance in recognizing the purely outrageous difference in standards of living. That is not to say that the world should be suited in glass skyscrapers and covered in business suits and Nike’s. It is to say that when we all decide to share what we have and care for our neighbors, we will all find ourselves having less materially and more that is life-giving.
Great wealth creates for its possessor possibilities to be more highly valued. While the rebels still refuse to live by this system of acknowledgment, the world is dominated by such customs. Imagine that nothing was needed to trade because trust was such that any human being had the worth to experience what was being offered…not by men but merely in the existence of the earth. That we take things to possess for our own value is proof of our broken community. It is a self-perpetuating problem, which might only be reversed by those who can reveal the truth of each person’s worth through just and impartial love. Such people might only be the stars of fairytales, but where did the fairytales come from? It might not be a consistent life, but we can find in each other those characters which inspire us to true life and love. When such individuals are brought out through encouraging communities, we realize the truth of life, and can imagine a greater world community based on non-circumstantial love. Perhaps the only goal, here in these words is to inspire those who can hear to honor that life they can find in each creature, human or other. And if not that just for myself, to see my words, and know them as a conviction of what I know should be.