So, woke up to news of Osama Bin Laden having been killed, and as I lived in NYC most of my life up until 2003, I was moved to tears...not 'of joy'...I don't even know what of...but I am reminded of 9/11 and the sadness of that day and the sense so many of us had that we never wanted to see anything like that ever again - anywhere. So it is a mixed feeling.
I knew then - even when it was happening - that the US had a hand in it - not in the conspiracy theory way, but in the sense of our foreign policy in the Middle East making this kind of reaction at some point almost inevitable. That it would be so incredibly masterfully planned and executed, that I did not in any way predict. But I was as terrified as everyone else and as devastated as everyone else for long afterwards.
I now live in London in a neighborhood with a large Muslim population some of whom are radical some of whom are just wandering around rooting for their football teams. Some of the people who supposedly wanted to blow up planes using liquid in shampoo bottles came from around the corner. They were teenagers wearing track suits and frankly didn't seem too capable of their attacks if their 'martyrdom' videos are anything to go by...
So here I am like usual, seeing and feeling things from many places at once. The place of the person who had her hometown attacked and smelled the stench of dead bodies and plastic for weeks afterwards - a smell I wish on no one ever. The person who lives overseas now and sees the US from this POV too. Who wonders about the people wandering around yelling USA today - that in their teens and 20s, who saw 9/11 when they were 12 or 13 and must believe a monster has been slain.
And the part of me that on that day 9/11 decided to commit myself on the deepest possible level to non-violence even if it was fucking terrifying...not that day, that's a lie...a couple weeks later. I read Gandhi and began to realize how hardcore that man was...what kind of faith is necessary to be non-violent and that it means risking death. I knew I wanted to be that, was not sure if I was as hardcore...but I did commit to this: attempt to disinvest from the patriarchy on a molecular level...
This is what I have been attempting since then...it's almost 10 years later...have I? I don't know, honestly. I weirdly enjoyed watching the royal wedding, which seems to disqualify me on the face of it - felt some kind of awe at the continuity it implied and was drawn in by the emotions of any wedding of anyone...but also as some who comes from broken everything and lives in a global capitalist world beset by trends and planned obsolesence, the tenaciousness of the monarchy alone is somewhat awe-inspiring...
which means I have definitely Not disinvested from the patriarchy at a molecular level.
What I have done is this: managed to begin to observe myself without judgment or less judgment anyway - decided to that these emotions I have are simple those - they are the weather and not the atmosphere.
I am writing now, a lot, and letting go of millions of expectations I have felt of myself both externally and internally imposed...I am letting of 'the image of me' - it's just crumbling. Somehow this seems more important than any ideological stance...it feels alive and well alive...
And so I cried when I heard the news that Osama bin Laden was killed. And that means...I don't know. I wonder if I will move back to New York. I wonder where I will be in a few years. I really don't know. Right now what's most important is my writing and my finding the last living relatives of my dead grandparents...
A couple days ago tracked down a lot of people and need to start writing letters...found the war death record of my grandmother's brother killed in a Destroyer by a Kamikaze at the battle of Okinawa. My grandfather worked on the Manhattan project - as an admin person...he was too small to go to war and changed his name at his boss's request because it was 'too Red' - those are the relatives I'm trying to track down and find out if they are related or adopted parents...so murky...
and I have a cousin once removed and her husband who are Palin supporters of all things...so I definitely need to talk with them and find out how on earth that works. My grandparents on that side were Nixon supports though, they were the hardcore who during Watergate said 'Ah, they're all liars, he just got caught.' And so he should have been left alone presumably.
The other side of my family are as virulent democrats, so there you have it...class/political warfare American style, internecine, irrational, angry...strains like viruses...apparently I, like most Americans, am a mutt...a conflagration (I use that word on purpose) of all of these strains...identifying with some, trying to damp down others and then they rise again...a crazy quilt of emotions and loyalties.
When I was young and living with my left-wing mother and 3rd father, I was a Republican and Baptist - no shit. I argued for this stuff pretty violently. I got over it when I was 16 and doing a history paper on Iran. It was 1979 and the hostages were being held in the embassy after the first big islamic revolution, and my history prof said why don't you check out the CIA's involvement in 1953, which being a good student I did...and all my political ideas changed...I saw the cynicism of US foreign policy and went ballistic (also used on purpose that word...), and turned into a left wing activist for many years after that. Like usual my timing was impeccable - in the 1970s when US was liberal, I was conservative, when US was about to go all Ray-gun, I turn into someone who my mother proudly told her friends was 'somewhat left of Mao'...in her circle, this was a good thing.
And now? I write a lot...I am sorting through a lot. I still hold non-violence as the highest ideal, even if I don't know if I'm capable of it. I know that I never want anyone to suffer what we did in NYC on 9/11 and I know the US has inflicted that type of suffering on others and that makes me sad. The UK too, don't worry I'm not delusional and think it's all crunchy granola over here, cause it's definitely Not. But I still vote in the US and am still American in the end...so feel more responsible for that.
It's a beautiful day here in London - blue skies, gorgeous just like on 9/11. I hope my neighborhood doesn't kick off today, it could. I will walk outside tentatively and see what the mood is. I hope there is not some big crackdown and helicopters everywhere. I hope that the young amazing people leading the various revolutions in the Middle East are the future - extraordinary courage, commitment for the most part to non-violence and an ability to die for a cause, simply to get out from under soul-destroying dictatorships. God bless them...whatever 'god' - I don't care I really really don't...
Oh please, this is my prayer to the universe or Whoever - let this day someone bring peace and not what I fear which is more violence...please let the US begin withdrawing from the places it has no business and and and.....you know, I know you know...I don't need to say these things out loud.
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