Damned be the system!
Damned be the world!
Over whom shall we weep first?
Over the burned ones?
Over those beyond recognition?
Over those who have been crippled?
Or driven senseless?
Or smashed?
I weep for them all.
Now let us light the holy candles
And mark the sorrow.
This is our funeral,
These our graves,
Our children,
The beautiful, beautiful flowers destroyed,
Our lovely ones burned,
Their ashes buried under a mountain of caskets.
(The above is part of a poem "The Triangle Fire" written by Morris Rosenfeld in the Jewish Daily Forward after the New York City Factory fire in 1911. And below is what I feel about the attack on Gaza Strip)
The way the media covered the Mumbai terror attacks was awesome; live coverage 24/7. But this was so, because it was an untoward incident, which happens once in a while, not so often.
On the other hand, the conflict in Palestine, and the terrorism that they are undergoing is hardly if ever highlighted and brought into focus by the main stream media. This terrorism that has been going on since May 1949, needs to be stopped; people need to be sensitized toward it.
I fail to understand how a people whose ancestors have gone through the world's worst Holocaust can themselves inflict so much misery and pain on others? Is it because "violence breeds violence"?
Isn't it time to stop, learn from the past, and step toward a brighter future? A future where someone's land is not snatched away, a future where someone's house is not shelled, a future where you do not destroy someone's farms, someone's livelihoods. A place where children jump and run freely, a place where one is free to go about one's daily chores without fear, a place filled with hope and trust.
It pains me to hear about the "Iron Wall", it pains me to see the difference between the map of Palestine in 1947 and the map of Palestine today, it pains me to see so many people living as refugees, it pains me to see death and destruction everywhere.
-- Behrooz K Y Avari
