On New Years Day, me and my family all trudged off to see “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” and once again got inspired to take sword in hand and fight against Injustice and the Bad Guys. I wanna be Queen Lucy! (But non-violently of course).
And now I just may get my chance.
Sometime in April of 2011, many American and European peace-and-justice organizations plan to join together and launch yet another humanitarian flotilla of boats and ships to Gaza, in an effort to bring food, medicine, books and building supplies to the illegally-besieged men, women and children there — trying to relieve their suffering under the Dark Lords who have kept them chained and imprisoned. How heroic is that! I wanna go!
But, unfortunately, I won’t be able to do anything that involves fighting giant sea monsters and dueling with dragons — because of my sore foot and bad knees.
“But Jane — maybe you won’t have to fight any dragons,” you might say. “I hear that this voyage is going to be completely nonviolent. All they are going to do is sail to Gaza, drop off humanitarian supplies and leave. Think school notepads. Think penicillin. Think toothbrushes.”
Yeah, okay, but — what will happen if we DO come under attack? How the freak will I be able to inform the Bad Guys (who will be coming after me with battleships and helicopters and ski masks) to just leave me alone because I’m the next Gandhi — as they violently charge at me with tear gas, crowbars, assault rifles, hand guns and vicious mean dogs!
How did Gandhi manage to remain nonviolent in the face of all that — when even Queen Lucy couldn’t do it? Snaps for Gandhi. Any fool can fire a machine gun, drop a bomb, plant a roadside device — or even use a sword. You really gotta be a real hero to be as brave as Gandhi.
PS: I really liked “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” which took place at a time before guns were invented and all fighting was done hand-to-hand. It may not have been as nonviolent as I would have liked it to be but at least when you are locked in swashbuckling combat, you at least get to see your enemy up close and personal before you kill them or they kill you. Now the whole thing is just done with artillery and drones.
PPS: Wanna go sail on the “Dawn Treader” flotilla to Gaza yourself? Here’s a link to instructions on how to submit your application: http://ustogaza.org/application-information/
PPPS: According to the Huffington Post, Wikileaks just announced that, “Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip was meant to push the area’s economy ‘to the brink of collapse,’ according to a U.S. diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks on Wednesday, signaling that Israel was well aware that the policy was taking a heavy toll on the area’s civilian population.”
Isn’t that illegal? And immoral? But, hey, at least it’s not fattening — that is, if you are a malnourished three-year-old living in Gaza http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/05/israel-gaza-collapse-wikileaks_n_804583.html
