a trifle perturbed

so it's the fourth of july, whatever that means anymore. and as I sit here in my room listening to the explosions of fireworks from the party a few houses down (you'd think it a college frat from the noise; in actuality, a bunch of middle-aged, sad, depraved men), my mind remains glued on the recently captured 'Spirit of Humanity,' the ship on its way to gaza to provide aid to the tormented place in the form of medicine, building supplies, and toys. as many of you have no doubt heard already, the israeli military left its waters to invade the 'spirit' and imprison its 21 passengers, who all currently reside in Ramle prison with limited contact with the outside world.

and yet, i open my email to find a message from none other than our esteemed president, joyously praising the american tradition of independence day. as a, shall we say, influential power in the global scheme of things, i would have thought it appropriate for our administration to, i don't know, give this astounding violation of human rights the coverage it deserves.

obama, being obama, does have some shit to say that i can understand as being human and compassionate, but his glossing over of this ongoing tragedy, unfortunately a defining event in modern history, is very disappointing. This is, however, the U.S. administration, so par for the course.

But whatever: i could cry about the unfolding tragedy of palestine until my tongue turns blue, but the point is that an event on the scale as magnanimous as the situation in gaza seems to me should be a hell of a lot more pervasive in our collective conscious. full disclosure: i can only count on one hand the number of people i know personally at least partially aware of gaza, and even fewer who have heard about this weekend's events (to be fair, i live in CT, a state horribly devoid of culture, and attend a state school wherein the majority of students don't know how to live with any sort of passion). for what it's worth, any reader of adbusters has surely come across their recent juxtaposition of photographs from the holocaust with gaza. sure, possibly premature and bold, but striking and provoking nonetheless.

i'll plug www.freegaza.com for anyone interested in becoming more involved or simply learning more.