Well, here goes. Time to do a little catching up.
The events in Lebanon are acquiring a horrific sense of multiple deja-vus.., 1973...1982...2003...2005...and I wonder what fresh hellish piece of information tomorrow (or tonight if I am brave enough to look at the East Coast/European feeds/newsources) will surface. It's hard to face friends from the region without thinking "my god, what do I say...?" It's hard to face my students, knowing that many of them are following these events and wondering how their teachers stand on them. It's unbearable thinking of filmmaker friends in Israel, Lebanon and Palestine, and of journalist colleagues and fellow artists, and of friends from college, many experiencing the invasion of Lebanon, stuck in another country, yet again.
And again, there is the question of what can one personally do? The temptation to be an ostrich is great, but then so is the feeling that personal accountability requires witnessing and raising one's voice in whatever manner one can. There is a sense of being devoured by the murder of Lebanon and that the internet is a curse.
The events in Lebanon are acquiring a horrific sense of multiple deja-vus.., 1973...1982...2003...2005...and I wonder what fresh hellish piece of information tomorrow (or tonight if I am brave enough to look at the East Coast/European feeds/newsources) will surface. It's hard to face friends from the region without thinking "my god, what do I say...?" It's hard to face my students, knowing that many of them are following these events and wondering how their teachers stand on them. It's unbearable thinking of filmmaker friends in Israel, Lebanon and Palestine, and of journalist colleagues and fellow artists, and of friends from college, many experiencing the invasion of Lebanon, stuck in another country, yet again.
And again, there is the question of what can one personally do? The temptation to be an ostrich is great, but then so is the feeling that personal accountability requires witnessing and raising one's voice in whatever manner one can. There is a sense of being devoured by the murder of Lebanon and that the internet is a curse.
