Me and the First Ammendment

I have received some feedback from readers (yes, I have readers) that my posts are getting a little repetitive. Apparently you all are sick of hearing about women’s inferior place in society and my evil ex-boyfriend; I am tempted to tell you all to go to hell, reminding you (Ellie) that no one is forcing you to read my blog, but I just so happen to have something else on my mind today that I would like to talk about instead. I am obviously open to suggestions and would not mind talking about anything that you guys want me to, no matter how ridiculous. I do love to talk about double standards, gender issues, and my failed relationships, but I love stating my opinion on everything even more. Suggest away.
But, before you do, I would like to draw your attention to an issue that is a far cry from the feminist rants I usually go on. A rant all the same, this topic is equally, if not more, controversial than the stuff I usually talk about and if it offends you in any way, I am sorry. Actually, no I’m not. I have my opinions, you are the one reading my blog, and if it offends you, then go read Al Jezeera and leave me alone. So, reader be warned, this is touchy stuff, but it needs to be said.
Something happened to me yesterday that shook me to my core. I am not a very politically motivated person; there are very few public topics with which I actually take issue, very few national problems that I have actually formed an opinion on. With this in mind, the very few issues that I do care about, I care about passionately. I don’t care about the health care reform, weapons of mass destruction, or the national deficit; however, I do care very much about the Arab-Israeli Conflict in the Middle East. I have visited Israel at least once a year ever since I was old enough to withstand the flight (I was 6 months old), I lived there for a year, I might go to medical school there, and my entire family, grandmother included, lives there right now. Every one of my cousins, including the girls, has served in the Israeli Defense Forces in some capacity and my friends and family outside of Israel support the country to the best of their abilities. Attacking Israel means attacking me.
Accordingly, I have very strong pro-Israel opinions and I fully support all operations and efforts carried out by the IDF. I know the issues, I know the other side’s opinions, and I know the public’s opinion of it all, but Israel is my country and I would like to think that I would give my life for it and its citizens. So when I was personally confronted by an issue regarding my pro-Israel opinions yesterday, I immediately went on the defensive. Basically, in a nutshell, I have been suffering through my Women’s Studies senior seminar all semester. I need it to graduate and it has proven to be more painful than your average 3 hour-long social science lecture. Since the Women’s Studies department, in general, despite the feminist principle that we must be accepting of everyone, expresses predominantly liberal sentiments. Most of the professors and faculty are openly anti-war and pro-choice—expressing anything to the contrary would prove to be economic and social suicide for anyone involved with the department. It comes as no surprise, then, that my senior seminar, whose main topic of discussion SHOULD be Gender and Health, has been punctuated instead with moments of anti-Israel protest. The teachers and guest lecturers have referred to the problems in Israel as the “Israeli Apartheid” and have openly expressed their disdain for the Israeli army and its efforts to maintain peace in the region. Since none of these viewpoints were directly aimed at me and were only said in passing, I sat in my chair, and quietly fumed to myself. It wasn’t worth it to make a scene. But ever since yesterday’s drama, it is now very worth it to do so.
As part of our final project, we were told to make one PowerPoint slide featuring an “artifact”, or thing that represents a lesson we have learned throughout our Women’s Studies education that we had written a reflection paper about during the semester. Since we covered a section in class on militarism, I wrote a reflection paper about how my exposure to my family’s involvement in the Israeli army taught me what it means to fight for a cause. Accordingly, on the slide, I put a picture of my cousin and me, both dressed in her army greens, a picture of an Israeli flag, and a little blurb that explained how I had been taught a lesson in conviction. Pretty harmless. Or so I thought. We had to submit our slides to a girl in our class who had volunteered to compile the overall PowerPoint presentation and prepare it for presentation at the Women’s Studies graduation brunch. So, like everyone else, I finished my slide, and sent it to her. A friend on mine, innocently walking on campus, ran into said volunteer and struck up a conversation with her about the slides that we all had submitted. Keep in mind that this friend (who ran into the volunteer) is also Jewish, went on Birthright, and has expressed her dislike for the anti-Israel rhetoric expressed in the class to me in the past. Anyways, when my friend ran into the girl (we will call her Karen, because no body likes people named Karen. Just ask Dane Cook), Karen said that she had received my slide and was “completely offended” by it. She said that she intends on speaking to our professors (one of whom is Palestinian) and demanding that it be removed from the presentation because “putting up a picture of herself wearing the Israeli army uniform is the same thing as her putting up a picture of herself wearing a KKK uniform.” I kid you not. This is a true story.
No, I’m sorry Karen, now I am offended. The beauty of living in this country and attending a university like this one, where I am free to think and say ANYTHING I want, is that I can say and think what I feel. ANYTHING. Just because you align yourself with a line of thinking that loves censorship and hates dissenting opinions (shout out- you know who you are), doesn’t mean that you have the right to censor me. This is American, honey. For better or for worse, this IS the land of the free.
The worst part about this whole ordeal is that it’s all in limbo. The only way I can actually stand up for my opinions and myself in this case is if my teachers actually ask me to take it down (in order to save face, and their jobs). If they never say anything to me, then I have to endure this quietly and allow Karen to maintain her belief that my convictions are analogous to those of the KKK. I do not feel well versed enough in the issues surrounding the Middle East conflict to be able to state my case accurately and eloquently enough. I would hate to have to come face to face with an argument with Karen. I do not think I would do Israel justice. I would just get angry and frustrated and call her a crazy leftist bitch. I only know my feelings, and on this campus, and in the world in general, those aren’t usually enough.
The KKK! Wow. Just wow. You want to compare me to a group of terrorists who carry out hate crimes on African Americans and even Jews. IM JEWISH! You might at well just call me Hitler. So I guess, Karen, that you have it all figured out. You know all the facts. You live in Israel and see the conflict first-hand. Just like me, you have actually watched a rogue Arab construction worker drive his tractor through downtown Jerusalem, crushing everyone and everything in its path. You, like me, have a cousin who lost her best friend when a terrorist, strapped with a bomb full of nails, blew himself up in a crowded pizza store. And you, like me, have an aunt who lost her boss, an ER doctor who treated everyone who walked into his ER with respect and care despite their conflicting opinions, when he was sitting for coffee at a local cafe with his daughter on her wedding day, and another terrorist walked in, shouted that awful phrase, and blew himself, and the café, to pieces. My aunt felt the bomb’s aftershocks in her apartment 4 blocks away. You know it all. You have experienced it all. You are totally allowed to pass judgment even though you know that those terrorists burn Israeli flags and use their children as human shields.
In truth, I could have said a lot worse. A lot worse. If I wanted to say that all gay people are societal leeches who suck the virtue out of America with their destruction of the institution of marriage and their gay AIDS disease, I could. But I would never, because I don’t believe that at all, but mainly because my parents raised me well and I respect that value of difference. This university prides itself on its respect for diversity, so it really pains me that I encountered such ignorance here. My slide, my opinion, my passions are my prerogative and neither Karen, nor anyone else, has the right to take that away from me. Why? Because the constitution says so. So, God Bless America.