December 2023 - A Dead Poet Can Not be Silenced!
Welcome back to 'Monthly Musings: A Curated Reading List'
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." ― Desmond Tutu
Celebration in the Time of Genocide
The harrowing reports of genocide in Gaza, set against the backdrop of global holiday festivities and New Year celebrations, present a deeply unsettling and heart-wrenching juxtaposition for me. I have a hard time reconciling that my tax dollars are being used to commit genocide while I live a comfortable suburban life, away from rural and urban problems in my own country. What can I do? What can we do? Except to speak out!
There are big forces that control the media narrative on the Gaza topic. But they cannot silence us. However, there are consequences for speaking out. Dr. Refaat Alareer, a Palestinian poet and intellectual paid the ultimate price for speaking out. And his last published poem made him immortal.
“IF I MUST DIE”
If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself—
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale
Palestinian Poets
Dr. Refaat Alareer
A poet, activist, and professor who was killed by an Israeli airstrike on December 7th. IF I MUST DIE is the last poem he published before his life was taken. Listen to it being recited by the renowned actor Brian Cox.
Mahmoud Darwish
He is perhaps the most famous Palestinian poet who ever lived.
"Where power will not triumph, and justice is not fugitive" from his poem Mural.
Mosab Abu Taha
Please read his article in The New Yorker (pdf) and watch his journey out of Gaza here.
“When you open my ear, touch it, gently. My mother’s voice lingers somewhere inside.” from his poem Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear.
Mourid Barghouti
He has lived most of his life in exile.
“But I ask: Oh my God, is there life before death?” - from his poem I Have No Problem.
Mohammed El-Kurd
He is The Nation’s first-ever Palestine correspondent and the author of RIFQA.
“No Moses in siege…what do you say to children for whom the Red Sea doesn’t part” - from his poem No Moses in Seige.
Hala Alyan
She is a psychiatrist and the author of two novels (SALT HOUSES and THE ARSONISTS’ CITY) and four books of poetry. Here is a poem by her that I love.
Sarah Aziza is a Brooklyn-based poet. My daughter first heard her read at a bookstore a month ago.
”but it was potatoes, stubborn and cheap, that covered hunger with their weight” from her poem peel
Fighting Silence
It is easy, so easy, to go an entire life without speaking out. Why rock the boat? What do I have to gain by talking about this? But the truest, most just causes have never been pleasant to discuss. They have never had the support of the powerful or the majority. Silencing ourselves is internalizing the panopticon that was designed to keep us repressed, to keep us willfully ignorant. But to me, that is not a world worth living in. That is not a world worth fighting for.
Let me share some of the people and groups who are fighting a world that wants to silence them.
Israel’s Genocide Betrays the Holocaust - The Chris Hedges Report
The most stunning piece of writing I read in December.
”But there is a cost to defending Palestinians, a cost they do not intend to pay. There is nothing moral about denouncing slavery, the Holocaust or dictatorial regimes that oppose the United States. All it means is you champion the dominant narrative.”
A doctor went to Gaza to help. What he saw there still haunts him - The Washington Post
”There was a little boy, he was 3 years old, we didn’t know his name at al-Ahli. I amputated his leg and his arm. And the following day when I went to check up on him, the woman whose son was wounded in the bed next to him had him on her lap and was feeding him and her son, because he had no family.”
"Christ in the Rubble": Palestinian Pastor Delivers Powerful Christmas Sermon from Bethlehem - YouTube (must watch)
”To our European friends, I never want you to lecture us on human rights and international law ever again, and I mean it. We are not white and it does not apply to us according to your own logic”
The Impossibility of Reporting the Story of Gaza - The Nation
“We will not leave. And when we do leave Gaza, we will go to the sky, and the sky only.”
Health, Mental Illness, Mass Incarceration
Am I Getting Enough Vitamin D During the Winter? (pdf)- The New York Times
Are Low-Fat Dairy Products Really Healthier? (pdf) - The New York Times
For Too Many With Mental Illness, Incarceration is the Default - Pew Trend Magazine
Attorney Liz Komar on the decay of the American legal system, the criminalization of poverty and the crisis of mass incarceration - The Chris Hedges Report (Video)
Please feel free to add your favorite readings of the month in the comments so others can benefit as well. Let me know your thoughts including what was interesting/useful for you.
“Israel’s Genocide Betrays the Holocaust - The Chris Hedges Report
The most stunning piece of writing I read in December.”
💯 agree, I too shared it with friends. Chris Hedges personifies the journalism of humanity, and journalism itself.