Breaking The Walls

I.

So a quick thought about the recent incident in Gaza, where someone or some people broke through the fence, letting refugees pour into Egypt to go shopping:

Israel and her citizens do not deserve to be bombed or barraged by missiles. No one deserves to have to worry about the safety of their children.

But at the same time, Israel should be the LAST nation in the world to justify fencing in a group of people.

I think Egypt did the right thing, under difficult political circumstances, in not moving immediately to seal the gaps in the fence. Humanity demands flexibility in this situation; a lack of flexibility and a lack of compassion are two elements at the heart of conflict, not just in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but throughout the world. Humans in one community tend to gang up on those from 'outside'. Maybe this trend was necessary early in our evolution; it is NOT necessary now.

This is all just dust in the wind, of course, because idealism is no match for political reality. But I just wanted to throw this thought out there, because these walls of political reality demand constant hammering, constant searching for breaks in the mortar. It is the only way to a) possibly make a difference; and b) feel better about one's own integrity.

II.

For those of you who have not visited The Sandbox at www.doonesbury.com, you should do so. The Sandbox is a collection of blogs posted by soldiers, nurses, spouses, etc., all the people directly connected to Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2006, Garry Trudeau decided it would be valuable to offer a link to the insights and thoughts of those serving.

I wouldn't be so bold as to offer direct comments on these. These stories speak for themselves. I know what I think about the politicos and the politics involved on the grand stage for these wars; I want to learn more about the perspective of those on the ground. Politics, liberal versus conservative, religious versus secular, capitalistic versus humane, these all lose meaning next to the idea of someone trying to avoid being shot or blown up.

III.

I am reading another novel by Zadie Smith, one of many authors I have discovered thanks to Nick Hornby. This novel, White Teeth, is a rich and humane look at the comedy of errors side of cross-cultural collisions, as opposed to the more malicious and more blatant racist elements. Don't get me wrong, there is still racism in the novel, but somehow, Zadie Smith manages to focus on the aspects that reveal human frailties, not our capacity for malice and brutality.

One item that struck me, and that I want to post here without further commentary, is this: "The facts of disaster are the facts of their lives. Between Alsana's sweet-sixteenth birthday (1971), for example, and the year she stopped speaking directly to her husband (1985), more people died in Bangladesh, more people perished in the winds and the rain, than in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Dresden put together".