Many things have happened over the last few weeks and I haven’t had time to articulate them, organize them, record them – basically write about them.
During the Fringe Festival, I saw “Marx in Soho” a play written by one of my heroes, historian Howard Zinn. It shows “Marx as few people knew him, as a family man, struggling to support his wife and children.” The idea of the play is that Marx comes back to life to defend the ideals of communism (and separate them from the dehumanized version practiced in the former Soviet Union) and to expose the cruel inequities of capitalism. I was particularly moved by Marx’s description of the Paris commune of 1871, a successful worker’s revolution that established progressive laws and inspired lofty political dreams. It reminded me of the model community that was built in Zuccotti Park. “The people of Paris formed not a government, but something more glorious, something governments everywhere fear, a commune, the collective energy of the people.” Zinn’s one-man play ends with these wonderful lines: “Do you resent my coming back and irritating you? Look at it this way. It is the second coming. Christ couldn’t make it, so Marx came…”
Two days earlier, on September 24th, I attended “Connecting the Dots: Ferguson to Palestine” a lecture by Rev Graylan Hagler, a veteran social and economic justice activist and outspoken supporter of Palestinian human rights, whose credentials include the fight against South African apartheid and now, deep involvement in the Black Lives Matter movement. After a mendacious campaign directed at Rev Hagler’s character and work, and topped off by death threats, he was disinvited from the venue where he was slated to speak. However, Christians Witnessing for Palestine and the local chapter of the Jewish Voice for Peace joined forces to make sure that the event was a huge success in Rochester. Not only did Rev Hagler speak at an alternative venue where activists of every stripe attended en masse, but he also spoke to students at the U of R. This was a heartening experience for me. Not only did it confirm that free speech (free political speech) actually means something in America, it also highlighted how the exercise of this constitutional right is not enforced by politicians (making grandiose statements or marching for the press in Paris) but by grassroots activist organizations that can come together with incredible power. It was one of the most diverse and vibrant events I’ve ever been to in Rochester and I was honored to partake of such inspiring solidarity.
On October 8th I was invited to speak about cultural competence at the Diversity Conference at SUNY Brockport. This was my third year as a presenter and once again I loved the brilliant energy at this lively conference. The international food tasting was great as usual: my favorites were Kenyan matoke (a delicious plantain stew), Namibian kapana (beef grilled on an open fire) and Spanish orange-flavored flan. The food tasting was accompanied by terrific dance and music, all performed by students. The panel discussion was extremely well-attended. When one of my co-panelists, Shauna O’Toole, found out that I am Muslim, her immediate reaction was to apologize for everything that’s said about Islam and is done to Muslims in America and in the world. I was taken aback. We had just met. I thanked her profusely. This is the kind of astonishing and heartwarming support I have always received from LGBTQ compadres. It means the world to me. It gives me hope.
This last weekend, I attended a beautiful memorial service for my friend’s husband. It was filled with music (Scottish bagpipes but also gospel and blues music by the Campbell Brothers) as well as reminiscences and endless love and admiration. It wasn’t just how many people came to the service but also their wonderful diversity. There was something solemn and deeply moving about the impact that one person can have on so many. It reminded me of Steinbeck’s East of Eden. I read it when I was quite young and one of the things that stayed with me was how he assessed the measure of a person’s life:
Humans are caught in a “net of good and evil.” There is no other real story in the entire world, and there never will be. It is how we live our simple lives while caught in that trap of good and evil that determines our success as individuals and our impact on the world. A person’s life can be measured by the feelings of those left behind.
