Crabs, Sad, Sharks, Fish, Guns, Happy

I've been feeling oppressed by the news from Tel Aviv; a (still unknown? WTF?) gunman entered a GLBT center and opened fire with an automatic weapon, leaving at least 2 dead and many wounded. Quite a few blogs, as well as comments to news stories covering the incident, seem to be trying to turn it into a "this is what you get" type of situation, as opposed to the pure tragedy that it is. There has been a barrage of finger pointing regarding alleged Israeli war crimes, (I say "alleged" because if only one thing about the ridiculously, obscenely ongoing Israeli-Arab conflict is true, it is that not every Israeli action is a war crime, just as not every Arab action is a bid for freedom. Both sides have perpetrated acts both shameful and inhumane- that's all I'll say about that!) alleged Israeli discrimination, alleged Israeli nation-stealing and the standard chorus of straight up anti-semitic BS. This is, to me, is essentially taking a big, fat poop on a tragic event and calling it icing. Because if there is one thing that can be said, indisputably, in Israel's favor, it is that it is the only- the only- nation in the Middle East in which GLBT people may legally exist as such. It remains a criminal, and often capital, offense in every other country in the region, as well as being grounds for quasi-legal "honor killing" by one's family.

It is in this climate that the unique GLBT community of Tel Aviv has evolved as perhaps the sole "open" community in the Middle East. Israel (indisputably in her favor, as I said) grants asylum to the possible victims of GLBT-related honor killings, which has made it the Mecca, as it were, of openly GLBT Arabs, North Africans, Turks and many other ethnicities and cultures. The Israeli GLBT community may well be the ONLY community in Israel- perhaps the Middle East as a whole- where Jews, Christians, Muslims and others coexist as merely fellow human beings.

This is why the attempts by bloggers and various internet gadflies to turn this event into a politicized "payback" are more than just wrong...they are almost obscenely dehumanizing and minimizing. This was not a crime perpetrated in revenge upon Israelis as a whole, although the vast majority of Israelis have openly and vigorously deplored it. This was a blow struck against a minority, composed of minorities, in a nation of minorities. This was not a blow struck against oppression or disenfranchisement of a people...this was a blow struck against diversity, against tolerance in an attempt (which I dearly hope to be futile) to preserve old, familiar hatreds.

I could, of course, be wrong; very little information has been released regarding this incident. But what I do know is that the community attacked is targeted, easily and often, by the fundamentalist demagogues of every faith in the region. Tel Aviv's pride parade has been a thorn in the sides and a mote in the eyes of a multitude of fear-mongering, hate-spewing religionists for many a year. It is, ironically, one issue upon which the fundamentalist, anti-progress "leaders" of the region's 3 major faiths are reliably in agreement. If this attack serves to destroy the brave emergence of Tel Aviv's GLBT community, then it will be a sad testament to the victory of hate over love, all in the name of faith. And thus a truly terrible loss, in the end, for faith.

In other news, I went fishing today for bluefish in the salt creek outside the summer house. I waded out into thigh-deep waters, looked down into the murky, opaque, seaweed-clouded swirls surrounding me and tried very, very hard not to think about Shark Week. Specifically, the 1916 fatal, unprovoked attacks in Raritan Creek, N.J. Nope, I was not thinking about Shark Week AT ALL as I felt...something...delicately scrabbling at the fresh scratch on my ankle and scuttling over my foot. I was definitely not thinking about Shark Week when...something else...suddenly snapped loudly at the surface a scant yard to my right, nor did I think of leeches when I thought I saw one swimming by and yelled to my DH, "HEY!! MARINE LEECHES ONLY GO FOR FISH RIGHT?!?" to which he very sensibly replied, "THE CHILD IS SCREAMING IN MY EAR AND IT LOST A SHOE, I'M SORRY BUT I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!" at which point I decided I would just really stop thinking about leeches and yelled back to the DH, "UM, OH NOTHING...DID YOU FIND THE SHOE!?" which he had not.

After the DH had very amazingly agreed to take The Child back home, still single-shoed, I stuck around, determined to catch dinner. I honestly don't even know what I was thinking when a long, thick, brownish segment of cattail rose to the surface several feet in front of me, but it was something like "Hunh! how odd that a segment of cattail would float to the surface in such a, well, intentional appearing manner!" I was still bemusedly looking at the segment of cattail when it suddenly bent in freaking half and LOOKED at me with its pointy, very definitely non-vegetable-kingdom FACE!! So, it was not a segment of cattail, as you may have guessed by my clumsy dramatic lead-up. It was some kind of pipefish, which- excuse me- I was like totally unaware lived around here. Weird little pointy face and all! Who knew!?

I caught nothing but some green hairy stuff and big, squeaky clumps of laver. Which, when just emerging from the water, tangled in my rig, looks quite distressingly exactly like Old Gregg's head.

I was still out there, not thinking about whether I'd rather catch a shark or have to drink bailey's out of a shoe, when my family called me in for dinner.

In Summation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye3ecDYxOkg

p.s. Some ladies in a little inflatable raft found the shoe! Woot!!