We’re losing, but we haven’t lost

As Americans were distracted by their hyper-consumerist obsessions during the superbowl, bombs paid for by their tax dollars rained down on the village of Rafah.

The horrifying and despotic events that occurred last night during the superbowl have led me to a rather harrowing realization: We are losing. The tide is not turning and the balance is certainly not shifting in our favor.

And truth be told, I had never really imagined that to be the case. I’ve always had a slight morsel of optimism stashed away in my back pocket. Things like progressive virtues seeping into the mainstream of western consciousness, nationwide, even global, protests sweeping the streets, and perhaps the materialization of a class awakening. And while yes, those things are presently taking place, no doubt about that, it’s quite clear that their impact is falling short by colossal and consequential margins.

There are currently over 30,000 dead Palestinians, 100 of those taking place, strategically, during America’s annual sporting event that’s filled with perverted self-indulgence and deranged consumerism. And since this ‘great’ nation has written the IOF a blank check for its genocide in Gaza, these numbers will only continue to grow.

So, tell me, how can we look at ourselves with earnest eyes and say “we’re making a change”? How can we pat ourselves on the back, kick back our feet, and feel any form of dignity? We haven’t and we shouldn’t. We should feel the blood of the Palestinians dripping through the cracks of our ceilings, pooling at our feet, inch by inch covering our freshly-ironed lapels and newly shined shoes. And for as long as we live, through the corners of our periphery, we should feel their reddened gaze condemning us, tormenting us, as their retribution was left unfulfilled through our unwillingness to act, through our unwillingness to fight back, even though they’ve been doing so for close to a century.

So enough with blanket statements and pseudo-activism, enough with believing in a peaceful means to an end, enough with mincing words in order to placate the established hierarchy .

We are the land of change? We are the banner-men of the free world? We are the unequivocal detesters of tyranny and forgers of liberation? No, I believe those distinctions belong to the thousands of Palestinian freedom fighters that have been labeled as ‘terrorists’ by the west for pursuing a not-so-peaceful end to their not-so-peaceful annihilation. From birth, they’ve been forced to understand the very premise of emancipation. And due to its indisputable truth, we must, in our privilege, learn from them and cast neither judgement nor prejudice, for if it were our families trapped in the rubble or our babies torn to shreds by shrapnel, we too would seek a not-so-peaceful means to an end.

Relinquish all that you think you may know about the path towards a free world, because as the great Kwame Ture once said, “In order for non-violence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. America has none. Has none.” Neither does Israel.

Yes, we are losing, but we have not lost. And we cannot lose, for Palestine.
From the river to the sea…