This is a stunning, necessary reflection. Thank you for sharing the grizzly news about PEN's censorious response to disruption and a weak regard for an end to genocide in Gaza. That the violence and desecration flooding our phones is as bad or worse than the image of "Napalm Girl" without resulting in a meaningful end to the unrelenting slaughter of civilians is contextualized carefully. Not to mention, watching one of the oldest cities in the world being mindlessly razed with our tax dollars is great agony. This is so very difficult: finding friends, colleagues, loved ones, impervious to a call for ceasefire. I joined IfNotNowLA and find succor in this largely youthful group's determination to speak truth to power, to disrupt, and to remain clear about a moral objective. Not In Our Name.
Lovely. Thank you for writing and bearing witness and being vulnerable.
It reminds me of something I wrote in December:
"A few weeks ago on Instagram, I reposted footage from Gaza of bloodied, screaming children in a moving car, and a residential building being exploded. In response, someone reached out to me and requested that next time, I preface similar posts with a trigger warning.
Dear reader, I say this with love: I am confused why anyone who has the luxury of scrolling in their spare time feels entitled to a trigger warning right now. Perhaps you can help me find more grace about the whole thing, but the way I see it is that there is no trigger warning when it comes to war. People don’t get a warning to run for their lives, and when they do, there is often nowhere to go. I wonder if the very idea that we should be able to pick and choose when we give our attention to atrocity stems from the same sense of separation that makes us feel helpless to stop it."
"We ought to be living as if our country is sponsoring a genocide." Yes, this. I think about this all the time, how everything we do is what we would do during a genocide, because it's what we *are* doing during a genocide. Thanks for all of this, and for amplifying Randa's crucial protest.
Michelle this was so good, all I can think about lately is how to parse (the immense privilege of) my daily life with the horrors in Gaza, then how to parse that into writing, and then often I don’t, thank you for doing it.
I'm no expert in these matters, but I would guess we would need to band together with all the fringe groups calling for this kind of decentralized action and get enough consolidated cohesion so that it would have some traction and mass. There's a guy on Instagram called the Model Anarchist who is calling for everyone to remove their license plates on Nov 5 and he talks about "jury nullification" where, if enough people are on board, juries won't convict people. All seems super pie in the sky but wtf, I have very little to lose, I'd do it
I've been thinking about this as I made my tax appointment . . .I'm not an expert by I know War Resisters League has been around for a long time and done this - they link to this org that looks like it has good resources about things you can do . .. https://nwtrcc.org/
Thank you! A few people have shared that org with me since I mentioned this--must be the central hub. And actually, I just realized I haven't paid federal income tax in years haha. Turns out being a poor underachiever lines up with my moral values 😆
Powerfully written. We all need to do more than ‘just’ get on with our lives and be grateful to the journalists who record what they witness….and be aware of propaganda. And always ask ‘who benefits’
So well written, so important to the interconnected context of our world. From the river to the sea Palestine will be free.
Thank you.
Thank you for sharing this.
Thank you for writing this.
Thank you for every word 🍉
This is a stunning, necessary reflection. Thank you for sharing the grizzly news about PEN's censorious response to disruption and a weak regard for an end to genocide in Gaza. That the violence and desecration flooding our phones is as bad or worse than the image of "Napalm Girl" without resulting in a meaningful end to the unrelenting slaughter of civilians is contextualized carefully. Not to mention, watching one of the oldest cities in the world being mindlessly razed with our tax dollars is great agony. This is so very difficult: finding friends, colleagues, loved ones, impervious to a call for ceasefire. I joined IfNotNowLA and find succor in this largely youthful group's determination to speak truth to power, to disrupt, and to remain clear about a moral objective. Not In Our Name.
Thank you
Lovely. Thank you for writing and bearing witness and being vulnerable.
It reminds me of something I wrote in December:
"A few weeks ago on Instagram, I reposted footage from Gaza of bloodied, screaming children in a moving car, and a residential building being exploded. In response, someone reached out to me and requested that next time, I preface similar posts with a trigger warning.
Dear reader, I say this with love: I am confused why anyone who has the luxury of scrolling in their spare time feels entitled to a trigger warning right now. Perhaps you can help me find more grace about the whole thing, but the way I see it is that there is no trigger warning when it comes to war. People don’t get a warning to run for their lives, and when they do, there is often nowhere to go. I wonder if the very idea that we should be able to pick and choose when we give our attention to atrocity stems from the same sense of separation that makes us feel helpless to stop it."
Omg Michelle, thank you, this is what is needed right now, real talk
"We ought to be living as if our country is sponsoring a genocide." Yes, this. I think about this all the time, how everything we do is what we would do during a genocide, because it's what we *are* doing during a genocide. Thanks for all of this, and for amplifying Randa's crucial protest.
Michelle this was so good, all I can think about lately is how to parse (the immense privilege of) my daily life with the horrors in Gaza, then how to parse that into writing, and then often I don’t, thank you for doing it.
It's hard - I have been thinking of writing something for a long time too and it just finally burst. Thank you for reading + caring. xoxo
Let's stop paying taxes.
Yes. I love this. How can we make this work so that it works?
I'm no expert in these matters, but I would guess we would need to band together with all the fringe groups calling for this kind of decentralized action and get enough consolidated cohesion so that it would have some traction and mass. There's a guy on Instagram called the Model Anarchist who is calling for everyone to remove their license plates on Nov 5 and he talks about "jury nullification" where, if enough people are on board, juries won't convict people. All seems super pie in the sky but wtf, I have very little to lose, I'd do it
It feels very intimidating but so does anything concerning taxes!
haha yeah. right up there with death 😳
I've been thinking about this as I made my tax appointment . . .I'm not an expert by I know War Resisters League has been around for a long time and done this - they link to this org that looks like it has good resources about things you can do . .. https://nwtrcc.org/
Thank you so much for sharing this resource!
Thank you! A few people have shared that org with me since I mentioned this--must be the central hub. And actually, I just realized I haven't paid federal income tax in years haha. Turns out being a poor underachiever lines up with my moral values 😆
Powerfully written. We all need to do more than ‘just’ get on with our lives and be grateful to the journalists who record what they witness….and be aware of propaganda. And always ask ‘who benefits’
Thank you