Morning, CoSo. ๐๏ธ
Today, I summarize some key regional context and ways to think about the news you're seeing about the violence in Israel and Gaza. Hamas, Iran, political spin, Palestinian struggle with local authorities, Israeli internal politics swept aside by these attacks...
It's titled, simply, "War, again", because there is enough gamified media whenever the world falls apart.
The main goal is to retain the better parts of our humanity every single time it does.
@MLClark Good morning MLclark!
Good morning, Hakomo! I hope you've been taking good care of yourself this weekend.
@MLClark ๐ฅ So well written. I am on the side of innocent lost on both side. it is why I hate seeing ppls reactions and saying such things as," I hope they reduce Gaza to ruble" yes, the Palestinians were told to evacuate however many may not have a real place to go and some ppl have lost all their soul and sympathy because they gave it all to the Israelis that got attacked. Even now some will come at me and say I side with Palestinians ignoring my second sentence. I weep for BOTH sides innocent!
In the last few days, I've seen so many different forums cheering for the deaths of different civilians. I have to remind myself that it's a sign of very deep global trauma. That this is part of how humans grieve when they haven't had time to heal from past wounds.
But it is a hard, hard, hard thing, to live with so many open wounds.
We'll make mistakes.
Our wounds will wound others along the way.
But we'll keep trying.
That has to be enough, day by exceedingly difficult day.
@MLClark โค๏ธ You are beautiful. Thank you for what you do. it is so very much needed. ๐ค
And you, for everything that you do, too. It makes a difference, truly. ๐ค
That last sentence: "What haunts about this reference is the twinned understanding that there can be no retaliation that will ever make up for all the atrocity already doneโฆ and also, a commitment to letting the world fall to ruin, if it cannot offer the justice that we seek." ๐
I'm not Israeli or Jewish, and I wanted retaliation and reducing Gaza to rubble or less. I also wanted retaliation after 9/11. It is human nature.
Not saying I'm right, just observing my reaction.
@MLClark I'm also not saying I'm wrong.
I don't know what I am.
Knowing ourselves, naming the wounds, and recognizing our shared humanity in the wounds is some of the most powerful work we can do in this incredibly cruel world.
Thank you for sharing your self-knowledge. The fury that you feel, the helplessness, the desire to let it all burn... these reactions are shared by many others.
You are not "wrong" to feel what you need to feel, & you are no less "good" for being moved to such despair.
You are here. Trying.
That's all you need to be. ๐ซ
@MLClark Hmmm ... The only woman in the photo is way in the back. A translator, perhaps.
One wonders if there'd be more peace if the genders were reversed.
Not so much reversed, but there's definitely business research that suggests a "mixed" work environment is more constructive than any homogenous one. A greater range of ideas and discourse comes into play the more you bring folks from different backgrounds into conversation.
All speculative history now, though! (And funny how ST crews always bypass the morally messiest parts of our past whenever they time-travel into it...)
@MLClark DS9 did the Bell Riots -- which is coming up September 1, 2024. Ironic, because San Francisco has a significant homeless problem right now.
In general, though, I think the Trek universe writes off those inconsistences as alternate timelines.
The TNG mirror-universe novel I posited established that the mirror universe occurred in the timeline where Edith Keeler did not die.
@MLClark As for mixed work environments ...
When I was a police dispatcher in the 1980s, any time we had a family dispute or any other potential for violence I always tried to send at least one female officer (of which we had few). Male officers tended to resolve conflicts with a show of power. Female officers tended to reason the situation. Also, men won't hit a woman but they'll hit a man, so bullies tended to back down.
Ah, you went the Harry Turtledove route!* Time travel too, or did you carry that Nazis-win plotline out another few hundred years to match TNG's chronology?
(*Or maybe the PK Dick route; Dick better encapsulated the psychological weight of living with alternate histories, though Turtledove was always good for an alt-WWII/nuclear age romp.)
@MLClark I started work decades ago on an alt-universe Civil War story -- until I found out that lots of people had already done one.
I still have the chapters, so I might pick it up one day ...
I seem to recall a DS9 scene with Bashir and O'Brien discussing temporal paradoxes. O'Brien said (paraphrasing), "I just don't think about it" or somesuch.
@MLClark I'd been tipped that Paramount was looking for a story to bring back Denise Crosby. (Turned out they went the Sela route ...) I started writing one that was a "Yesterday's Enterprise" sequel, but it got turned down.
The Tasha who left on the Ent-C turned up with Romulan refugees. No one could figure out who she was except Guinan, who had that perception beyond linear time.
(Thanks to the retcon Ribbon ...)
@MLClark โค๏ธ