Thought
After A LOT of sleep I've had time to think about the past week and the anti-disengagement protests. I went down south to Sderot Tuesday with my younger sister (who was not at risk to get trampled on by any riot horses!!!). There was a huge legal rally there where many Parlimentary members, rabbis, and activists spoke. After the rally we boarded on busses and headed to Ofakim where we slept in the JNF Park right outside the town. The next morning was Park Ofakim was transformed. If you didn't know you were part of a protest rally, you'd think you were at a fair. There were different food and drink stands, and cotton candy, Ofakim's bakery had a stand. Communities that had come together put up signs and sectioned off parts of the Park to be their area. (My friends' and I joined Ramat Hagolan.) Kids had to choose from snacks, arts and crafts (put together by the student organazation, Ta Katom ), and bouncy jumpy moonwalks. Adults had their choice of speakers, (both Torah and political orientated), walk around the fair, meet new people, check out the city of Ofakim, or just play cards... My group decided to check out the city of Ofakim. In the city we had the chance to meet the "natives". The pizza lady, Mina, was wearing an orange shirt and was very excited to be getting the business and to hear about the protest. Sami wanted to know where we had come from, and was amazed to meet new olim who knew about and cared about the situation in Gush Katif. Shimon loved that we were buying bubbles. Nonshop owners were also very excited to speak with us. Without going into too many details, and making this as long as the Kfar Maimon post...
After another rally that night, we marched out to the street towards Gush Katif, where my friends and I handed out candies to the soldiers and police blocking our way, we blew bubbles around them, and tried - sometimes successfully - to engage them in conversation. When we got to the point where the security forces would let us go no further, we pulled out our sleeping bags and went to sleep right there on the street. The next morning we woke up, and headed back to our base - Ofakim Park, for another day of fair. We spent more time meeting people, this time other protesters. One of my friends and I grabbed garbage bags and started to help the cleanup process. Around 1 PM we left Ofakim and headed towards Jerusalem. I needed to be back in time to go up north with my family for Shabbat.
As I stated earlier...I had A LOT of sleep... I was supposed to meet my bro and sis-in-law Friday morning at 12:00 at the bus station...I woke up at 5 PM and spent Shabbat in Jerusalem, but more about that later.
Back to my thought...why do we need a protest to go into random cities and just meet people? The protest organizers tried starting a new program to fight "disengagement". It is called פנים אל פנים - Face To Face. Purpose, to meet new people, and fight "disengagement" thoughtout the country, by "engaging" with random people.
My walk back to my apartment includes going through Gan Sacher, a major Jerusalem park. I was stopped by a number of people who wanted to hear "word from the front" how was the rally? why did I come back? Are people staying for Shabbat? How many people are there? Do I think it will help? Etc...
I think people just want to talk. About anything. Every day.
Go out and engage.
After another rally that night, we marched out to the street towards Gush Katif, where my friends and I handed out candies to the soldiers and police blocking our way, we blew bubbles around them, and tried - sometimes successfully - to engage them in conversation. When we got to the point where the security forces would let us go no further, we pulled out our sleeping bags and went to sleep right there on the street. The next morning we woke up, and headed back to our base - Ofakim Park, for another day of fair. We spent more time meeting people, this time other protesters. One of my friends and I grabbed garbage bags and started to help the cleanup process. Around 1 PM we left Ofakim and headed towards Jerusalem. I needed to be back in time to go up north with my family for Shabbat.
As I stated earlier...I had A LOT of sleep... I was supposed to meet my bro and sis-in-law Friday morning at 12:00 at the bus station...I woke up at 5 PM and spent Shabbat in Jerusalem, but more about that later.
Back to my thought...why do we need a protest to go into random cities and just meet people? The protest organizers tried starting a new program to fight "disengagement". It is called פנים אל פנים - Face To Face. Purpose, to meet new people, and fight "disengagement" thoughtout the country, by "engaging" with random people.
My walk back to my apartment includes going through Gan Sacher, a major Jerusalem park. I was stopped by a number of people who wanted to hear "word from the front" how was the rally? why did I come back? Are people staying for Shabbat? How many people are there? Do I think it will help? Etc...
I think people just want to talk. About anything. Every day.
Go out and engage.
posted by 2R at 10:07 PM
4 Comments:
Back in the 60s you so would have been a "hippie".
Keep posting I love reading about what you are up to.
I don't think she would have been called a hippie. I think she would have been called a "pseudo-hippie". She has a job. She doesn't have unprotected sex with random people. And, she doesn't do drugs or hellucinigenics. Now, these are all assumptions, but I think I can bet the bank on it. In any case, hippies were a bunch of losers with no job and no discipline. They are the picture of what not to do. But, rock on sister!!
-OC
hip·pie also hip·py ( P )
n. pl. hip·pies
A person who opposes and rejects many of the conventional standards and customs of society, especially one who advocates extreme liberalism in sociopolitical attitudes and lifestyles.
I think 2r seems to fit that description in a sense. Doesnt say anything about drugs or sex. There is nothing wrong with being a hippie. In fact I meant it as a complement. When she believes in something she fights for it.
Well, that might be what it means in the dictionary, but that's not it's definition in real life. And, I don't believe that hippies really stood for anything. I've got a really good quote for that:
"Like many men of my generation, I had an opportunity to give war a chance, and I promptly chickened out. I went to my draft physical in 1970 with a doctor's leter about my history of drug abuse. The letter was four and a half pages long with three and a half pages devoted to listing the drugs I'd abused. I was shunted into the office of an Army psychiatrist who, at the end of the forty-five-minute interview with me, was pounding his and shouting, "You're fucked up! You don't belong in the Army!" He was certainly right on the first count and possibly right on the second. Anyway, I didn't have to go. But, that, of course, meant someone else had to go in my place. I would like to dedicate this book to him.
I hope you got back in one piece, fellow. I hope you were more use to your platoon mates than I would have been. I hope you're rich and happy now. And in 1971, when someone punched me in the face for being a long-haired peace creep, I hope that was you."
-P.J. O'Roarke
Sticking up for your beliefs is one thing; especially if you have a valid and logical reason for doing so. But, calling her a hippie for it is actually more derogatory now-a-days than a good thing. Ala, how much fun is made about people who are protesting the war in Iraq by saying, "Peace now!" or "War is evil". From what I've read, 2r seems to be very much conservative. Most conservatives don't think very highly of hippies.
P.S. Sorry 2r. We seem to be arguing over your personality.
-OC
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