Rot before Ripe—The Market and the Healing Sea

Yes it is good to hear that money has at last been released to the Abbas government in the West Bank. Too bad about Gaza! Yes, too bad! And did Paris Hilton get out of jail yet?

Benjamin Franklin wrote that “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”

Though a fan of Paris he did not mean Paris Hilton, nor would he consider her liberty more deserving than those suffering in Guantanamo. Ben would have been amazed and appalled at the lack of attention to important issues. What are we doing instead of paying attention?

Summer sets in with a sense of poison in the air. I walk past cafes open to the night with the sad flowery scent of rotting. This rot comes before and instead of ripeness. Pale, flushed, round and hard as supermarket peaches, suburban Greek Americans rut and strut, newly graduated and reverting to Spring Break habits.

Around the corner and in the hookah cafes edgier young Arab Americans do much the same. Though the warmth of summer evening slows the Arab blood, and though our Muslims show traces of restraint, the sickness also shows itself in this wholesale butcher’s inventory itemizing eyes and thighs, grading and ranking and measuring each body limb by limb.

Beyond meat market America –or hidden in its heart—is the trading floor. From shore to shore and wall to wall multitasking America is hard at work. Behind that reality what do we find instead, within the hunger and forgetting?

Perhaps we find the seed of negativity, the inchworm of terror. It comes from deep within. What can we learn? It starts in competition for sex and ends in greater violence. Perhaps we see how those inside fight those outside, and outsiders fight among themselves.

Or perhaps, even in this storm of confusion, we may find something else. An effervescent sea of human affection and love surrounds us in embrace. Imagine!

America, you multitasking meat market! Are you too busy to read a poem? Consumers! Are you too brand-loyal for the question of the Real? Readers! Do we judge others too easily? And when do we take positive and public and united action?

Americans have opinions and positions on many issues. What stream is the mainstream? The mainstream is a chemical bath of opinions and stereotyping. Beware the Egyptian fruit-seller mafia and Senegalese watch seller mafia. Beware the Jews and Muslims! We do not want to stereotype of course. But if You See Something Say Something! In English! Please!

Some of us still mock the lowly Mexicans infiltrating the restaurant kitchens of America. Immigrants! But few dare to complain about the Israelis or the Saudis. Israeli developers have spent 2 billion in the last four months buying up New York skyscrapers such as the Lipstick building, the Clock Tower on Madison Avenue and the former Times Building, giving the sellers enormous profits. Speculators Haim Revah, Uzi Ben Abraham, Rotem Rosen of Africa Israel USA, Lev Leviev, Shaya Boymelgreen-- who could resist them! And just last year a Saudi investor sold the Plaza Hotel to El Ad Properties.

One could say of course that immigrants are adding value to our economy. Yes, let’s not stereotype. God bless them all. We hope they are not adding math to our aftermath.

Even worse are those who sell arms to terrorists, death squads and oppressive governments. And who does not? Business is great! Latest news— the USA is arming the death squads of Ethiopia. Insiders must help each other after all. And what is wrong with those Muslim Somalis and those dissident Ethiopians? They only hate us for our freedoms.

But Freedom is a brand name. Our freedoms have been privatized. Perhaps this was inevitable given the current political and social climate. Certainly the current war is privatized with Halliburton, KBR, Bechtel, the Lincoln Group and many others working hard for democracy—and completely free from the threat of Freedom of Information inquiries. We will never need to know the awful news again. So wonderful to know these brave and well-paid men and women cut through red tape so effectively—perhaps using nukes.

Yes, business is booming. And not just bombs. In health care, Michael Moore has called our HMOs “the Halliburtons of the health industry.” And maximizing profit means taking careful inventory. Will we cover this tooth; that tooth, this lung or that finger? What is each one worth to you? The meat market is our friend! Isn’t choice great?

And even boring public services can be wonderfully valuable. In Indiana Governor Daniels, previously budget director in the Bush White House, has already placed in the hands of private companies welfare-applicant screening, running a prison and, notably, leasing the 157-mile Indiana Toll Road to an Australian-Spanish consortium, for 75 years.

Dear readers, what are you doing instead of taking effective action? This does not have to be violent. Political action is perhaps the only alternative to things getting even worse. This means you! Does demonstrating against Salman Rushie really lead us anywhere?

Is your mosque providing clear and useful guidance in daily matters, and is your community speaking out clearly on issues of social justice? We Muslims do like to talk but do we ever try to organize? Is leadership invisible and mysterious?

Since the current threat of rain may be “probably linked” to al Qaeda, and the threat of Global Warming must be a jihadist threat, Muslim Americans are scattered in confusion.

I expect that the American Revolution would not have freed us from tyranny in this current generation. Washington and Jefferson would certainly be classified as terrorists by the George Bush regime. The Boston Tea Party would have ended with café con leche in Guantanamo.

Or perhaps, even in this storm of confusion, we may find a healing sea of human affection and love around us. Imagine!