Poetic Musings on Current Events
To the Woman in the IKEA Parking Lot
You smiled at me, complimented my keffiyeh and said, “Free Palestine.”
A small interaction that meant so much.
With many of my friends supporting the genocide my small circle has grown smaller.
When people you thought were kind and decent turn out to be horrible it darkens your perspective.
The suffering of the Palestinians grows greater by the day and we contribute to it.
We do everything to ensure that it continues and the idea that America is a force for good becomes laughable.
I watch in impotent rage as the light of humanity around me slowly goes out and my faith in my fellow Americans is extinguished.
Never again has become an insane joke only to be applied to Jewish Zionists who repeat the crimes that were committed against them.
Anyone who objects to the slaughter is attacked and smeared with vile accusations.
Who would have thought that opposing genocide would be controversial?
Then you appeared in the parking lot.
I was reminded that there are others who oppose the monster and bear witness to the genocide.
There is some decency left in our country.
I couldn’t see you bundled up against the cold as you were,
But I could see you smile and it was enough.
Conversation in Rittenhouse Square
During the early days of the trump administration
I joined a protest in Rittenhouse Square, in my hometown, Philadelphia.
The Greek roots of the name of our city mean brotherly love
And the administrations policies were anything but.
We were upset about the racist, xenophobic, immigration policies being implemented.
In the crowd I ran into a friend from my church, who I respect and admire.
He was active in the civil rights movement of the sixties and knew MLK.
We talked about our concerns about the future of our country.
My concern at the time was that trump was putting our country on the road to the excesses of the Nazis.
My friend assured me that any talk of a new holocaust was premature and he was right.
Although the trump administration was bad it didn’t reach the ultimate level of the Nazis.
There were attacks on vulnerable groups, women’s rights and even an attempt to overthrow the election.
In all my life I had never seen such blatant, in your face hate from our commander in chief and I was afraid, rightly.
Ironically, it was the party that I had been a part of all my life, that brought full blown Nazism to our country. It never crossed my mind that this would be the case.
It is the current administration that is committing genocide, the greatest
sin of humanity.
Although, I don’t think my fears in that park so many years ago were entirely misplaced, he never crossed the line that the democrats have not only crossed but have obliterated.
Genocide is the ultimate evil and the Palestinians are paying the price for our naivete.
I will never again support the party of genocide.
The argument that trump will do the same thing is irrelevant.
If he is re-elected by the time he is sworn in thousands, possibly tens of thousands of more Palestinians will be dead, many more wounded and the survivors will be huddled in tents in the Egyptian desert.
Millions of Americans want to reward one of the men ultimately responsible for the horror of Gaza, with another four years.