Wow. On a recent trip to Berkeley for my sister's graduation in chemistry, my soul was awakened to many enlightening ideas. From Palestine to Solar power, we need to be thinking about solutions that DO NOT involve boycotts or protests. I love a good rally as much as the next guy, but there are so many things we of the "liberal," faith shoul be doing.
It all started when my friend called me from Humboldt to tell me she got a job at a solar company installing and selling panels. That's just about my dream job. This energy crisis makes me wish more and more that everyone was off the grid and providing their own energy. Which brings me to my idea of the sollutions for all the world's problems.
Lobbying, boycotts, name calling, hatred, racism, what a godess
damnable waste of time. All the money we spend on godess stickers, border patrolls, lobbying for the environment, all of this could be going into actions that can insure positive outcome. It's not enough anymore to speak our minds. It is definately not o.k. for us to generalise entire races, like Israelis, and Palestinians, to make one side or the other feel better. And boycotting an entire educational system, which includes people of all races, is definately not an intelligent idea.
There are people in this world who are making a difference. I hope by now we have all heard the story of Marla Ruszica, a small blonde Californian hippie girl who did not have powerful suits lobbying for her cause in Washington. Instead, Marla used her wits, and her charm, and very little money, to draw attention to a cause she believed in. She did not organise mass rallies, she simply pimped some alchohol, threw a lot of parties, and chronicled the troubles of the Afghani and Iraqi people she wanted to help. By virtue of her pure intentions, and good soul, people in the United States listened to her, and helped her cause. Marla died in a car bombing. In her name I write this plea.
It is time, high time, that we took the money out of Washington and placed it in the world for the greater good of all. We do not need to send money to the Palestinian government. What we need are sustainability programs that teach Palestinians to be self sufficient through technology. The Palestinian government, like the Israeli government and all other governments are frought with corruption and racism.
This is not a situation where one team is cheating in the game. Both teams are trying to fix the outcome.
The land in Palestine and Israel will eventually be divided equally and fairly. But once the land issues are settled, what are these people going to do with themselves? How can years of hatred propogated by world interests who prefer a war machine to a peaceful cooperation be remedied?
The only sollution is expanded education. Instead of boycoting proffessors, we need to open more dialogue. Instead of lobbying our own government for energy policy change, we need to give poor people the power to provide for themselves. The issue in Palestine and Israel does not occur in a moral vaccum. Those who say it's the Palestinian government's fault or the Israeli governments fault are both correct. Now that this is on the table, and the people have been ripped off for so long, manipulated by the divisive educations they all recieve, we can begin to discuss practical sollutions. There are good people in this world. Like my friend from Humboldt who wants nothing more than to promote energy efficiency in life because she know it helps. I am promoting political energy efficiency. We will not suceed by maligning people for their failures as moral human beings. We will only suceed by taking the corporate capitalisation out of necessities and leaving it to luxuries alone. Palestinian people need to eat. So do Israelis. They need cheaper energy, they need agricultural sustainability. The problem with our boycott ideaology is that it cripples those who work together. There are many Israeli and Palestinian families that co-own businesses and properties. This is something we need to seek out and embellish with support. There are hundreds of Israeli proffessors and Israeli Arab proffessors who need to be speaking to the world about their struggles, and accomplishments. We need to bolster those accomplishments. Israel has made great headway in water conservation. The entire Middle East can benefit from this technology. How can we consistently throw the babies out with the bathwater. I am talking about poor babies here in the US and abroad. In the interest of hearing ourselves voice our global concerns, are we neglecting to help those who have suceeded microcosmically in doing what we are all calling for these nations to do?
Why aren't we throwing fundraisers to buy land where trees are sacred more often? Why aren't we simply placing solar panels on the roofs of those who cannot afford electricity? Why aren't we teaching more people how to live sustainably? Why aren't we hearing the cries of the victims of the Holocaust and the Palestinian catastrophy who only want to live, eat, raise children, and make money for good things in life like travel? These people don't care where the lines are drawn, as long as they can have their rights to life, liberty, and the persuit of happiness. They generally don't really care where they live, as long as it is a good home and good place to raise their families. This mutual hatred machine has taken that away from Palestinians and Israelis. Can you imagine, both peoples, constantly forced to migrate because of their race? Who would be happy about this?
Not everyone is an evil fundamentalist fanatic or terrorist radical. We need to stop supporting the energy of negativity by paying attention to it. We need to focus on planting seeds which will grow into a harmonious future for all involved. Tom Hurndall, Rachel Corrie, Marla Ruszica and all of the other martyrs who died for the belief that these people deserve better lives at the very least would be proud to know that we are done asking the government to do the right thing, but rather, we have decided that the right thing begins with sustainability, harmony, and cooperation, and we need to expand and work very hard to help those who are working for those very goals. I am not asking to end all criticism of Palestinains or Israelis. What I am asking for is for us to be able to find the brilliance in both cultures and focus for once on expanding those jewels.
It is time, it is high time, for the divisive teachings of war mongers to be annihilated. It is time for everyone to realise that the only bogeyman is our own inaction in the face of problems. Our governments simply cannot take action on every issue we find important. By their nature, they are overbloated with beurocratic bullshit that will not soon be overcome within their halls. Only the mighty mighty people can show the world how to live together in peace. Stop bashing, get out there, bring an Israeli and a Palestinian together to work on something beneficial instead of hating on each other.
The world is depending on actions of likeminded enlightnened people. I want to show my Berkeley friend that there are two kinds of people, those who understand the need to love and cooperate and those who don't. These people on both sides of the isle come in all shapes and colors, with many differring tradiions and ideologies. They are the difference between Earthlings and nationalities. They are the difference between eduacted people and people who have never been given anything but war machine propoganda and bad experiences with other races.
We need to focus on a good experience for all.
In the words of Jimmy Hendrix, " are you experienced?"
Then please, by all means, share your good experiences, and help heal the hatred on a microcosmic level so that we can expand this to the whole world.
To all of you who have done this, like Marla, I wish you all of the blessed things that seeing a child grow up happily will offer.
For our future, for our children, the time to end the hatred is now.
When I was in Berkely, I met a woman who sold beanies. She was a cornucopia of races but overall she looked distinclty African although she claimed no such heritage. She complained that she had been beaten by other African Americans, she glorified the Jewish people who had come to her rescue and proudly displayed an Israeli flag. As a result, she was harrassed by Palestinian students to the point of fearing for her life. In the ten minutes I could give her to tell me her story, she complained about so many things regarding races. She had had so many bad experiences with racism and was decidedly becoming racist in her own way based upon the people of certain races who had treated her well versus those of other races who had hurt her.
She told me that Black people are taught to hate Jews. But that every experience she had had with a Jewish person had saved her life. She told me she hated Palestinians because she didn't feel they respected women and that is why she was attacked for her pro Israel stance. In that moment, I should have been proud of who I am, an Israeli woman who believes in peace, who has suffered constant fear for her family, who has always been kind to starngers and given everyone the benefit of the doubt.
But I was not proud. I was saddened. I was hurt that she had such a bad experience with snotty rich SFV Palestinian kids who had never been there and didn't really know how to make peace. If I had time, I would show her the Palestinian woman who gave me water when I was dying of dehydration, right from her own bottle, or the cab driver Abed who went hundred of miles out of his way to take me home to my families apartment and didn't even charge me extra. I smoked Abed out with some wonderful Lebanese hash and dreamed out loud with him of a time when, before the intifada, we could have been friends without our families hating the very idea.
I would show her the merchants in the shooks or black markets who speak of their economy being drained by hateful war. I would show her the truth about Israel and Palestine, that these two wonderful cultures are interdependant, and are both cutting of their noses to spite their faces. And then I would show her the schools, hospitals and ambulances where these people work together in peace to make a good life for their children.
There is beauty in all of us as much as there is evil.
I don't want you to take my side as an Israeli, nor condemn me as one either. But I want you to give me credit for being a human being who wants to sove this problem through cooperation, through joint cohabitation, through facts on the ground, not theories on maps.
And I wish this was the new way of the world.
