I had a gig in Mill Valley last night. I always do this gig with mixed feelings. Well to-do liberals are a curious bunch. They have Obama pins, Free Tibet pins, Peace symbol pins and every other cause you can think of on their lapels while standing in $500 shoes. Part whole foods attitude and part guilty rich white guy gets you a recyclable brand of condescension to deal with. But all went well with my set. There were no gasps of horror or long awkward pauses like I get with this crowd sometimes. I stepped outside to get some air. On a brick wall someone had left post-it notes that read, End Gaza Siege.
This is the Marin I know!
You want to take a stand on an issue but you don’t want to leave graffiti? The solution? Post-it protest!
Sure, they are protesting but why bring down property values? You can be the rebel that doesn’t leave a mark. Because lets face it, opinion can change but paint shouldn’t have too.
There is something so anal about writing the same phrase over and over again and then placing them on walls and cars like your leaving a note on the fridge to remind the roommates about the phone bill, that I think it violates the sprit of protest. What are you going to tell people if they ask, what did you do to stand up to aggression?
I left post it notes on walls.
I am not making fun of anyone. I am not making fun of the tragedy that war is. War should always be seen as a failure. Not an option. But if someone thought this was a worthy way to enlighten the public and it’s the Bay Area so of course they did, then isn’t this trivializing the issue?
Or maybe there is some Palestinian sitting in a bombed out school thinking to himself, I hope some where in America a socially aware activist has access to office supplies!
Disposable and passive aggressive. The American way!
3 comments:
End Gaza seige
Restore economy
Soy milk x2
Whole wheat flour
P.U. Jared @ soccer 2PM
I like this, Dean! Its like a list of things to get done today. Start with a lofty goal ad work your way down to what you can really get done in a single day. Its like the Free Tibet bumper slogans. I couldn't do that but I did get all the dry cleaning.
Well, maybe we should look at it like the comments that were posted on walls by Chinese during the Cultural Revolution. In the US today, we do have defacto censorship. Mass media is not giving any air time to the Palestinian side. The surreptitious placing of post-it notes is a symptom of something rather insidious. The fact that someone does not feel comfortable condemning the Gaza slaughter house probably means they are wary of being accused of anti-Semitism.
Post a Comment