Wow this blog has lingered, hasn’t it? Well, that’s probably for good reasons beyond my ADHD. Since I started this little site many things have happened in my life; I got married, I started writing, I got divorced, I started a noise band. All of them equally joyous in their own rite, but also time consuming and attention diverting. I stopped drawing as much, and focused on other various forms of art–mostly on writing, but when it became glaringly apparent I needed a way to get some of those ideas ‘out there’, Curious Bastard to the rescue!
So, lets talk about Israel.
I’ve written on this before, but I grew up a pudgy Jewish kid on Long Island. I was indoctrinated in multiple youth programs like The Boy Scouts of America, and N.C.S.Y. I probably truly believed in the U.S.A., and that Isreal was my “homeland”. I was never told about the Palestinians. Then punk rock happened in my life, and it taught me about radical politics. Thank you Jello Biafra and Bad Religion in the beginning, and then A.R.A. and Aus Rotten latter on. My college education was completed at punk shows in basements and churches. Even then I think I still considered myself an Atheist Jew, but without the context of Zionism, until I read a graphic novel from the library entitled; Palestine, by Joe Sacco. I cant remember exactly how I felt about it, but I know it led me down a road disavowing any belief I had about Israel being my homeland. How could it be, other people were living there, of course, and what had been perpetrated in order to remedy that was genocide. I heard Gaze being called an open-air prison, and this was being done in my name, by the Israeli’s. I didn’t learn about the Nakba until much later, the history of Zionism, and the future plans of Greater Isreal’s expansionism. What can I do? I am a relatively poor American Jewish artist, writer, father, delivery driver…
So, I make art, I write stories, and I sell shirts to get the message out.
Every single person, especially Jewish people should be speaking out against the atrocities Israel is committing. I hope my little drop in the bucket can help in some small way.
But thats not all.
As Americans we are currently watching our democracy being eroded by pedophiles, tech companies take over our government and public spaces, billionaires run ransack on our economy, our friends and ally’s being stripped of their rights, and soon, ours as well. So if now is not the time to stand up, I’m not sure when is.
Stay Curious.
-jayme