F ³: Lamentations

I have been struggling to write for the last week or so. Part of it is probably the aimlessness of the holidays. My sleep schedule is different. My days are unscheduled. Local stories are primarily centered around holiday celebrations, food, shopping, and the like. Nothing jumps out at me. Many ideas are of the almost, but not quite variety.

I have a confession to make. The biggest block to my writing is the ongoing slaughter of civilians in Gaza. I sat down on Christmas to gather my thoughts and all I could see in my mind’s eye were frightened eyes, tears, pain, rows of little bodies. Flattened buildings where once neighbors had lived and worked. Total destruction. No mercy.

The terrorist acts by Hamas against Israeli citizens were vile and inexcusable. The response by the IDF has been unconscionable. Both of these things can be true.

Both of these things are true.

Here in the U.S. we must face the fact that funds from tax dollars are paying for weapons that the IDF is using to carry out genocide. If we say nothing we are complicit. If we speak out we run the risk of hurting those of our Jewish friends and neighbors who are grieving and enraged by the October 7th attacks. We may bring judgement upon ourselves and even censure.

To be honest, nothing we say puts us even remotely close to the pain that those involved are suffering. We have the immense privilege of being protected from harm.

I can’t find a way to justify the slaughter of children. Anyone’s children. If we are able to turn off within ourselves our natural instinct to value the young and defenseless, then we are not far from turning ourselves into the kind of monsters we fear the most.

We get used to steeling ourselves against things that are unpleasant or frightening. We shrink away from the pain and try to will it to go away. It is easy to feel a sense of being emotionally overwhelmed. Imagine what it must feel like to have lost your home, your neighborhood, your entire family.

Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow…

- - Lamentations

Comments

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents. When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday. Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018. 2018 . But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest. In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...

Separate and Unequal

Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not. It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...

Village Green/Town²

Search This Blog