So, so sorry

I just want to say, for the record, that I disgree in the strongest possible terms with my country's support of Israel's bombing the shit out of of Lebanon. I do not think it's ok, not at all. I am embarrassed and angry that my tax dollars are going to buy more weapons to bomb more Lebanese civilians and to destroy the basic everyday infrastructure that they rely on for their basic everyday lives. I go through my day trying to imagine what I would do if all the roads around me were bombed, and I couldn't get anywhere, and I had no food, water, electricity or information, and I didn't know whether my house might blow up at any moment, and I couldn't get ahold of any of my loved ones to know if they were alive.

I'd like the rest of the world to know that we don't all buy into the assertion that this incredible death, displacement and suffering among Lebanese civilians is somehow a necessary evil, or reasonable tradeoff, or fair gamble, or whatever is that's being argued by my insane government officials.

That doesn't mean I'm hostile to Israel or Jewish people or their right to a safe home. I simply believe that this kind of destruction is morally bankrupt, no matter who perpetrates it or whatever their reasons. You reap what you sow. Scorched earth retribution is the worst kind of laziness.

I am sending money to relief agencies that are helping people in Lebanon and Gaza. I'm probably on some government watch list now, but I don't give a crap. I wish I had more pull, really I do. I'm sorry that we are so self-centered and such a source of suffering to the world, so willing to sacrifice everyone else for our smallest conveniences and our unsustainable way of life. Not everybody here feels that way. Hell, not everybody here even benefits from the conveniences.

Why don't the dissenters turn out en masse in the streets to protest, you might reasonably ask? I don't know. I wish I had the answer. All I can say is that the protests in my town are small, and depressing, and unfocused, and generally run by people whose righteous indignation seems to demand all-or-nothing agreement with their every viewpoint, and I don't see how it helps. Enrico still goes. He's a better person than I in that way.

There are still good things about the United States. The founding fathers, they were onto something with the democracy and the freedom of speech and the checks and balances. As a woman I realize I have more respect and rights and opportunities here than in most places on the planet. Don't give up on us completely, because we really do have something to offer, if we don't completely extinguish it with our government's war-mongering, fear-mongering, swaggering, dictatorial, willfully ignorant destructiveness.