No Thanks.
Many of us have much to be thankful for, and we express it to those we love, and to others, every day. Too many of our fellow humans do not, and it's urgent to acknowledge that truth.
(Mahmoud Ajjour, a Gazan boy, who went back to rescue his family after Israeli shells began falling on their home, and lost his arms in his heroic attempt. He is 9 years old, the age of my youngest granddaughter. He told the New York Times: “My biggest wish now is to get prosthetics.” Photo by Samar Abu Elouf, appearing in the November 25, 2024, New York Times.)
Please do not avert your eyes.
Try hearing the cries of 9 year olds,
Like Mahmoud,
Who is not blessed with food, like you
And if he were, his mother would have to feed him.
It’s why I’m not grateful for hateful acts of war
And inhumanity, such grotesque profanities,
Demonizing differences, destroying children,
Like 14,000 dead in Gaza, many under 5 years old,
Ten times the number of Israelis killed or raped or kept.
As Jews, we used to think we were better than that,
But we are not, and we continue to delude ourselves
That we were Chosen to Repair the World,
While we turn tens of thousands of our babies,
The world’s children, into amputees or corpses.
No, I cannot give “Thanks” to a world led by
Tyrants or cranks, who deny the existence of laws,
Of war, or peace, or time,
And defy the courts of justice
Which find them guilty of such crimes.
No, I’m not grateful for the hateful,
Who spew their bile,
Over the face of a child,
And delight in the sickly vapor of their own
Vile cruelty, which, after a while,
Becomes the entire point of their actions.
As Americans we used to think we were better than that,
But we are not, yet we continue to delude ourselves
That we are A Promised Land.
Instead we are nothing but a trench between two Oceans,
Filled with the stench of broken promises,
Deeply scarred by the darkening hues of hate.
I will not give “Thanks” or “Gratitude”
For a world gone mad with the attitude,
That only a select few have a right
To health or wealth or life or love,
And believe that any God, on earth or above,
Would bless such evil,
Or leave the task of deciding who shall live
Or who shall die, to shallow beings who do not care,
And cannot comprehend what any of it means.
Thanks, Diane. I know the risk here, but believe, from the context of the piece focusing on dead and maimed children of Gaza, it's clear I'm taking issue with the Netanyahu government and its extreme right wing policies, and dehumanization of Palestinians. American Jews voted to support Harris by 80%, yet we, too, have to come to terms with the fact that the Israel of today, is NOT the Israel of 75 years ago, and that's the present day Israeli leadership is itself, against violative of the original charter which established Israel, and the fundamental teachings of Judaism. Netanyahu has stripped away any pretense that we Jews are the "chosen people." Chosen for what? Trump has stripped away any pretense that America is "exceptional". The sooner we come face-to-face with both of those delusions, the better off the world will be. My criticism of the actions and directions of both governments is neither anti-Semitic nor anti-American. Just pro-humanity.
Thank-you, Steve. A powerful voice that captured the truth.