7/23/05 Terrorism and Gandhi

It’s a beautiful sunny day in Brooklyn. I am eating a late breakfast at the Greenpoint Café. I began actively writing about a month ago. My goal was to try to pry loose my stifled soul. To get my mind working, and to dig around in the inner depths.

I guess it has worked because the numbness of day-to-day life has given way to depression. Depression is no fun, but at least it’s a sign of life. A recognition that my life needs to change.

My life isn’t bad. It’s comfortable and easy. But it’s not what I want. It feels like failure. And it’s incredibly boring. My life used to feel extraordinary. Now it feels all too ordinary.

This morning reading the news it seems the terrorist really have the whole world on edge. What do they hope to achieve with random acts of violence? In 50 years it hasn’t helped the Palestinians. It’s just brought more violence, poverty and injustice. Do the Al Queda people believe they can take over the world and force us all to obey Muslim law? Or are they just plain stupid?

Once when The Imperial Orgy was doing a street theatre project a Muslim man came up to me to tell me we were wasting out time. He argued that change can only come through violence and power. He seemed unable to think beyond that simple idea.

He, and I believe it is also true for the Muslim terrorists, don’t seem to see the power of public opinion. Terrorizing the world with indiscriminate violence has turned most of humanity against them. Around the world Muslim extremists are at war with Christians, Jews, Hindus, and I suppose Buddhists in Indonesia.

I, and many other people around the world are very sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. (Let me be clear that I think Al Queda’s war is not concerned with the Palestinians)

It occurs to me that if the Palestinians used the techniques of Gandhi and King they would have achieved the goal of having their own state a long time ago. Bring in the news cameras, defy the Jewish occupations in a non-violence display, and stand helplessly as they a brutalized. No guns, bomb or throwing stones. No defending themselves in any way. If that happened public opinion would force the change in no time. The Middle East needs a hero like King or Gandhi.

Al Queda is a different story. Their goals as well as they tactics are evil.