Pen Thoughts

Remi Kanazi is an Palestinian-American performance poet and human rights activist based in New York City. Born 1981 in United States of America. He published "Poetic Injustice: writings on resistance and Palestine" a book that illustrate the struggle of Palestinian people enduring the Israeli occupation. In his new book "Before the Next Bomb Drops", Kanazi wrote "A Grin Behind the Tears", a poem expressed by Samir, a young Palestinian who has experienced the brutality of occupation. it goes like this: "No matter how tight Israel thinks its grip is the bullets, the bombs, the checkpoints the UN vetoes, the congressional applauding these children are more powerful than F-16s more assured than U.S. military aid they will climb walls, skirt roadblocks, dodge teargas they will unravel injustice by their very existence in every breath they take, every wedding that's held every newborn they bring into this world, ...

it is in the nature of the rule of law that it establishes a single standard for all parties. it is in the nature of imperial power (which must possess "unchallenged" might) and another for the ruled (those restricted to "trade and other pursuits of peace") indeed, a double standard is required by any form of rule by force: those who hold the sword prescribe the law but are not under it, whereas those against whom the sword is wielded must obey the law but can have no part in making it

" Any owner of cats will know of what I speak. Cats come at dawn to sit on your bed. They may not nip your nose or inhale your breath or make a sound. They simply sit there and stare at you until you open one eyelid and spy them there about to drop dead for need of feeding. So it is with ideas. They come silently in the hour of trying to wake up and remember my name. The notions and fancies sit on the edge of my wits, whisper in my ears and then, if I don't rouse, give more than cats give: a good knock in the head, which gets me out and down to my typewriter before the ideas flee or die or both. In any event, I make the ideas come to me. I do not go to them. I provoke their patience by pretending disregard. This infuriates the latent creature until it is almost raving to be born and once born, nourished."  Ray Bradbury (b. 1920), U.S. author. Yestermorrow: Obvious Answers to Impossible Questions, preface, Capra Press (1991).