Friday, March 22, 2013

The Political is Personal



At a  teach-in on Israel’s blockage on Gaza
Henry introduced me to Sylvia

She was very involved in the growing Free Gaza movement
She came from an unusually committed family

Sylvia’s mother's family hid Jews
During the Nazi reign of murder

The way some people are obsessed with sports
The mother was obsessed a hundred times more with injustice

As a playwright
As a CP member

As an animator
As an instigator

14 hour days were typical
For this woman who pushed herself her whole life long

Noticing the awed expression on my face
As Henry was telling me about her eighty-year-old mother

Sylvia told me that her mother regularly badgers her:
“So, why are you taking you so long to go back to Gaza?”

On another occasion she told her mother
She was going out dancing with some friends


Her mother glared at her:
"You want to go dance while Gaza is being strangled?"

-- Dear Layla/Welcome to Palestine: A Novel Collage


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