Hundreds of Palestinians have lost their lives in the past few days.
Men, women, and children have died. Many of those who died were not fighters. They were schoolchildren. They were mothers. They were fathers. They were sisters and brothers and best friends. They were in love. They were loved. They had lives that were ended by this violence.
Two young girls, two sisters, the oldest aged eleven, were killed. No matter what you believe about the politics of this conflict in the middle east, no one with a heart and soul can say that is right.
Israel has always claimed to be on the right side of things. In the United States, we have always heard that Israel is on the right side of the conflict. Our country has supported Israel's claim on the Palestinian homeland. Our country has ignored the human rights of hundreds of thousands of people.
Palestinian militants have committed inexcusable atrocities in the name of their home and their right not to be displaced by Israel. But Israeli forces have done unthinkably horrible things in the name of the homeland they claim based on history, a place already home to an entire population of people when the Jewish immigrants poured in.
It's not about who has been right and wrong in history, though, because there are a thousand ways to decide that. It's about who is right and wrong today. It's about the country that has American support, the country that the Western media will show over and over again in a positive light. It's about Israel's decision to sacrifice the lives of innocent Palestinians because of what they want.
And yet, our media will never see it that way. Our media will always glorify the Israeli cause. I am not condoning anything that the Palestinians has done that has cost innocent lives in their effort to reclaim their home; I am simply condemning Israeli actions today. Condemning is not a strong enough word, though. I have cried for the lives lost in Gaza these past few days, and for the lives that will be lost as Israel says it will not step down.
And still, the headline on Fox News blames the Palestinians for retaliating, rather than addressing Israel's murder of civilians. Fox News chooses to focus on the handful of Israelis who have died. As regrettable as those deaths are, and believe me, they sadden me greatly, the American media chooses to vilify Palestine rather than focus on the hundreds of lives lost due to Israeli attacks. It has always been this way.
It is time to forget the past. It is time to stop giving Israel a free pass because America believes that Israel has been wronged in the past, or because our media and mainstream society is prejudiced against Muslims. It is time to see people as people and not political entities. People are people everywhere, and in Gaza, innocent people are dying because of the Israeli government.
I’d never been to Waffle House. I’d heard that it was smoky and dirty and “totally sketch,” to use the words of one friend, especially after midnight.
It was 12:30 AM, and my friend was driving me home from a birthday party, when I said, “Let’s go to Waffle House.”
Naturally, this suggestion was met with, “Why?” I answered, “Because it’s an experience. Because I want to have experiences. And going to Waffle House in the middle of the night is an experience. I’ll give you ten dollars. And buy you a hash brown.” And he loves hash browns, and needed gas money, so we set off for Waffle House.
When we walk in, it’s smoky and dirty and full of all kinds of people. The waitress who took our drink orders was all you can imagine: a middle aged woman with a smoke-tinged, southern accented voice, the kind of person you imagine might have a stereotypical waitress name, like “Flo,” and call you “honey,” and know your name if you come in often enough.
The guy who brought our food is young, possibly a little stoned, and with ridiculous hair. He has to keep his head sideways to keep it out of his eyes, and when he asks about the check he says, “Do you want to get together, or separate, or…whoa. Get together. That sounded wrong.” I stare for a minute. Stoned? Or just stupid? I can’t get a good look at his eyes; the hair, remember?
The people in the booth across from us are college-aged, a guy in a hoodie and a girl with a t-shirt with faded Hebrew writing across the front. Not too interesting, until someone who knew them comes in and says, “Wow, you guys have been here for like five hours.” Five hours on a Friday night at Waffle House…Interesting.
Over two booths in the corner, there is a sign that says, “non-smoking section. Every Waffle House in America has a Non-Smoking Section,” however, that’s very nominal. Most people in Waffle House smoke, and you’re not too protected from it by sitting in those two booths.
There is a “Did You Know…” trivia fact on the back of the receipt. It says that in the jukebox at every Waffle House, there are songs written just for Waffle House. One is about raisins in toast. I can’t come up with any change. Too bad. I’d have liked to hear those songs.
We stay in Waffle House for two and a half hours. Many people in Waffle House past 2AM seem to be intoxicated and/or crazy, but you’d be surprised at how many seemingly normal people are spending time in Waffle House in the middle of the night.
We talk about life. We talk about the future and our plans and ourselves. We tell silly stories and complain about how awkward it is when M and W, a couple, hang all over each other in public, and then can’t stand it anymore and go out to the car and we all pretend we don’t know what they’re doing in there. We talk about how all friendships are unbalanced equations; one person always cares more than the other. I’m always on the wrong side, the side that cares too much. I’m on the wrong side with our friendship, but it’s okay because we talk about it, and that makes it more okay somehow. We talk about everything. We watch people, from the group of women in fancy clothes to the gangster-types with bloodshot eyes. We wonder who puts Worcestershire sauce on what at Waffle House. We eat our hash brown and drink our cokes, and it’s an experience.
That’s what I want out of life: experiences. I want to sit at Waffle House for two and a half hours in the middle of the night. I want to get lost driving to the dollar movie theater at 10pm on a Tuesday. I want to shut my eyes, spin, pick a direction, get in the car, and go. I want to see where I end up, who I see, and what happens. I want to watch life happen in weird places. I want to find a hole-in-the-wall Salvadoran restaurant in a strange city.
That’s part of what I want from New York. I want to be in the city that never sleeps because the craziest things happen in the middle of the night. I want the experiences, and I hope that I can find someone to share them with. The friend in the Waffle House story is someone who is sometimes cooperative with my weird desires, but in a tolerant, indulgent way. I want somebody who wants to do these things as much as I do, not because I think anything specific will happen, but because I just want to see what might happen or what I might see or where I might end up. Is there anybody out there who’s this crazy? After mulling it over, I’ve decided that there’s one person who might be: a fellow writer. Don’t we always want to people watch and see what stories come out of it? Don’t we always want to see new places and meet new characters? And don’t we always want to come home and write it down, like I’m doing now?
I can still feel the smoke in the back of my throat as I write this. I’m happy.