Dear Friends,
I am writing to thank you for your thoughts and prayers throughout my thirty-day fast during the assault on Lebanon and the continuing assault on the people of Gaza, the West Bank, and, of course, Iraq. I broke the fast this past Wednesday while on a much-needed vacation up north and return ready to work. During the month many people asked if I felt hungry, and I could respond with complete honesty that, along with the rest of the world, the only thing I am really hungry for is peace and justice and an end to occupation and greed and belligerence.
Fasting during this awful month of violence allowed me to slow down and observe closely; it also offered many graces: a new appreciation for my Lebanese neighbors and activist friends in the Arab-American community, a deep sense of gratitude for my friend Patricia who kept vigil outside the White House by herself for over two weeks, the "Star of Goliath" performance by Dave Lippmann that resulted in the formation of a Detroit chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, the witness of international peace activists who traveled to Lebanon to work in solidarity with their Lebanese sisters and brothers, and the ongoing work in the Occupied Territories where nearly 200 Palestinians have been killed in the past month by the Israeli Army.
Last week on Nagasaki Day, several of us held a 24-hour vigil at the Federal Building. We lined the sidewalk with posters of children - victims of war - and displayed a large sign reading: "Our Tax Dollars are Killing the Children of Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine." Our friend, Bill W-K led us in a candlelight prayer service in the evening and friends came by thoughout the day and evening bearing water, juice and lawn chairs. The conversations with passersby were revealing and ranged from the profound to the profane. How telling that many of those who are living on the streets have a sophisticated understanding of politics that so many of the suits who work in the building lack. Those on the streets, the mothers of veterans who are being denied needed health care, and working folks who see their taxes being poured into this neo-conservative nightmare get it; those who stand to profit from Bush's "GWOT" choose not to. The low point was when three burly white men in suits walked by, stared at the children's pictures and one growled, "They're just innocent little c--ksuckers, aren't they?" The contempt, the racism, the fear that these kinds of men carry defies words.
In light of the times we are living through, fasting is such a little thing, but I guess we each do what we can. While relaxing up north last week I had the chance to really think about the good writing available on the internet and in the alternative press, the brilliant and creative organizing being done in every corner of the world, and the strong, strong desire for the kind of justice that ensures peace among so many people on this globe. The lies, the violence, the racism, the propaganda cannot be sustained. As King said, "The long arc of history bends toward justice." Just as apartheid in South Africa imploded under the weight of its own untruth, so will the dual occupations of Iraq and Palestine. The bombs dropped on Lebanon that decimated entire portions of that beautiful country also decimated the very souls of Israel and the U.S. The poison that we have provided to the people of Iraq and Lebanon in the form of depleted uranium is matched only by the poison in our own nation's heart.
My prayer is that our country will fast from the fear and greed and violence and racism that is destroying our beautiful world. There is room at the table for everyone if we would just learn to share.
Thanks again for your support!
In Solidarity,
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