I always feel a tiny bit self-indulgent when I get on about politics when really, this blog is about writing, but then I think: the best books are the ones where you can just feel the author’s passion flowing from her brain, through her fingers, the keyboard, and finally, reaching right into your own heart.
Passion is the raw material from which you can hope to mold a novel you can feel proud of, one that some people (and this is key… if you’ve managed to please everyone, it;s because you stayed in that vanilla-like place in the middle) will feel passionate about in return. I read a new review of Fashionable Late today where the reviewer alludes to my very obvious love for Cuba. That line tells me that whatever the flaws of the book, that primary fire that got me to dive into that book came across.
In the spirit of passionate blogging, I’m going to post the letter I wrote in response to an infuratiang press release I recieved from a representative of theLiberals, Canada’s current opposition party, in relation to the mess in Gaza.
It’s one of those statements that, in its efforts to remain perfectly dispassionate, ends up saying nothing at all. I would seriously rather hear someone say that Palestinians should be wiped off the face of the planet rather than the meaningless drivel that landed in my inbox today.
Here’s the PR statement, followed by my response.
I know, I know, no one will read it, no one cares to read it, and I just totaly wasted half an hour of my life that might have been better spent on a treadmill working off the post-holiday pooch, but if there’s a bat’s chance out of hell that it does get read - even if it gets tossed - then it was the least I could do.
Dear Concerned Citizen,
Thank you for your letter concerning the conflict in Gaza. Your humanitarian concerns are shared by all Canadians.
We join in the calls for a genuine and deeply shared ceasefire. This means an end to the Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians as well as an end to the air and land attack in Gaza by the Israeli Defence Forces and an immediate response to the humanitarian crisis in the region. The position of the Liberal Party reflects long standing commitments of our party and country to peace, stability, justice and human rights the Middle East
I attach below the official statement of our Party`s leader, one that reflects the spirit and position of the Liberal Party of Canada.
As always, thank you for your concerns.
Sincerely,
Hon Bob Rae
MP Toronto Centre
“I am greatly concerned by the deepening violence in Israel and the Gaza Strip and the fear and suffering on all sides that this mounting instability has caused.
The Liberal Party of Canada unequivocally condemns the rocket attacks launched by Hamas against Israeli civilians and calls for an immediate end to these attacks. We affirm Israel’s right to defend itself against such attacks, and also its right to exist in peace and security.
We regret the loss of life sustained on all sides of the conflict. We call on all parties to end these hostilities, mindful that a durable ceasefire will be necessary to prevent continued civilian casualties and lasting damage to essential civilian infrastructure.
The international community has a responsibility to ensure that the cost of conflict is not borne by the innocent and Canada must stand ready to assist and ensure that basic humanitarian assistance reaches those who need it.
Our thoughts are with those in Israel and the Gaza Strip whose lives are imperiled by the cycle of violence in the region. In the midst of this crisis, we continue to stand for a peaceful resolution. We firmly believe that the basis of this peace will be the mutual recognition by both Israelis and Palestinians of two states, living side by side in peace and security, with a full resolution of the issue of refugees and settlements, as well as secure and internationally recognized borders and boundaries.”
Enlightening, isn’t it?
This was my response:
Dear Mr. Rae,
I am 30 years old, and I am quite sure that you sir, are close to twice my age.
I raise this point because I would like to remind you that when you were my age, you had inherited a world where the rights of aggrieved non-white, non-male populations had finally been brought to the forefront of public discourse and addressed with some justice. It was a world populated with an informed, politicized citizenry, that held its leaders’ feet to the fire when those leaders did not heed the will of those people who elected them, whether those people were female, male, African, European, Latin American, or Asian.
Now that you have reflected on the world which you inherited, please take a moment to reflect on the world that you will bequeath to me.
It is a world where we are asked to weigh the loss of nearly 800 over 1,000 civilians in an illegal, internationally condemned assault, as equal to the loss of 2013 people .
If every life is precious, then the Palestinians of Gaza have suffered with 780 987 more lives in the past twelve days than the citizens of Israel’s border towns. In the past 18 months, Gazans have also had to suffer the slow torture of having their inflow of food and medicine drastically reduced, as well as their access to emergency care and basic electricity, where the children of Israel went to bed every night with their stomachs full and their homes heated. For some reason, you have not weighed this bit of suffering in your equation.
This is very similar to the path Iraqi civilians were on before the ill-fated US invasion - a decade-long, punishing embargo which left an estimated 500,000 dead children in its wake, followed by a crushing military assault.
Our neighbor to the south has now elected a president who ran on a platform to end the bloodletting in Iraq - of both Iraqi civilians and American soldiers.
US polls have also indicated that while the US congress bleats sheepishly those same tired lines you have just delivered in your letter, the American population is beginning to see Israel’s aggression for what it is - a lop-sided assault on citizens where nearly 40 Palestinians must die to avenge one Israeli death. In your government’s efforts to show yourself as impartial and fair, you have shown only, to quote Mr. Zbigniew Brzezinski in a now infamous interview, that you have but the most stunningly superficial understanding of the situation. Please do not assume that your constituency shares the same superficial level of understanding, nor that they will tolerate wilful ignorance from their elected officials. The tide is slowly turning, and fair-minded people would like it to turn fast enough to spare whatever lives can be spared when this carnage finally meets its inevitable end.
Sir, a man of your age and station, and moreover, a person who had once inherited a slightly more just, more thoughtful world, should have the decency to leave such a world behind for me.
If you want to read a proper article by someone who actually has something substantial to say and not some Sarah Palin-esque, cotton candy word concoction that means absolutely nothing, here’s one of the most popular articles in this weekend’s London Independent, which is one of the most well-read and respected newspapers in the world.
