We Are All Gaza
By: Ira Lee White
Tags: Politics, Palestine, Gaza

I spoke on messenger this morning with a man from Gaza. He is a young man, a frustrated man who is at the same time joyous. Why is he joyous? He recently got married and is now expecting his first child. Even with the duress he is under, this gives him happiness.

But what kind of a world will he be bringing his child into? The father just lost his job which paid the equivalent of $80 US a month and he has debts totaling $4,500. He is in a city persecuted by Israel; with the help of money the US sends despite its own problems. He is in a city where the power goes off regularly and food and drinkable water are difficult to find. He is in a city that Israel regularly bombs, where snipers wait to kill or maim people just for being outside, where a young girl was killed from a bullet while eating dinner.

I bring this up because what the Israeli’s have done to Gaza is being done in other parts of the world. The process has begun here. We have had several years of fear instilled into us and even though many of those things we were supposed to fear never materialized for most of us, we were still affected by that climate of fear. Many are on a razor edge as is evidenced by the number of suicides recently and the number of assaults both verbal and physical. We already have a long list of cities with bread lines and for years have had a similar list of cities with too much lead, cyanide, rocket fuel or some other contaminant in the water. Our factory farms are producing food that makes us sick because of all the chemicals used. Our environment is degraded, our Constitution is broken, our Congress and other governmental bodies do not do what we want them to. Our citizens are being snuffed out by police who rarely suffer the smallest consequence.

You see, we aren’t very far from becoming Gaza, the prison of torture we should never have allowed to have been built. But we don’t know this because the rich people who are benefiting from all this also own the media and the story the media tells is quite different from what is actually happening. If you think Gaza isn’t happening here, consider these facts: Gaza is surrounded by a wall. We are building our own physical wall, but a much stronger, psychological wall has already encompassed us. Most of the information going into or coming out of Gaza is restricted and all of it is monitored. The US has a data collection system that collects data on each person in the country and stores it for future prosecution/blackmail. Gaza is short on potable water. Our country is delivering polluted water to hundreds of cities, Indian reservations and even private wells are contaminated because of fracking and the use of industrial and agricultural chemicals. Food is short in Gaza. We are beginning to have long lines at food banks and much of our crops have been destroyed by weather and in the fields because they could get no money for them. Unemployment and underemployment are rampant in both Gaza and the US. The only thing missing here is the bombs.

If my neighbor is not doing well, I will help them because none of us can do well, none of us can be free if our neighbors are not doing well and free as we are.

Both Democrats and Republicans are giving billions of dollars to Israel each day while Israel tortures Palestinians and our own country goes to hell. They have made it clear who they represent. When hard times fall, they support the corporations and those who are rich. They give them all they ask for. When we ask that they do what we, the people, want done, they do not do it. Thousands are dying each year from lack of health care, but we cannot find the money for it. Many are going hungry and more will be added to the list this winter. If we go ahead and continue this farce, this sham of an election, it will not solve anything at all no matter who wins because the election is just one of the many distractions plaguing us. We must get those in power out of power and reorganize our government so that all the power doesn’t go to the wealthy.

If my neighbor is not doing well, I will help them because none of us can do well, none of us can be free if our neighbors are not doing well and free as we are. We have lost our freedom here in the US. We are all being locked into a cage, just like the Palestinians. We are all Gaza.

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