IT'S ABOUT TIME WE GLOBALIZED THE INTIFADA.

The issue that has been weighing heavily on my mind today is the crisis between Palestine and israel. There are many different claims as to whom the land belongs to and who has the right to be there, either on historical or religous grounds. Here are a few of them:

1. Jews resided on the land thousands of years ago and returned to the land that was once theirs, giving them the right to be there.

2. The Jews are god's "chosen people" and israel is their "promised land," therefore Jews have the ultimate right to be there.

3. The "state of israel" was created on Palestinian land to accomodate Jews after the atrocity of the Holocaust.

4. Palestinians and Jews resided peacefully together for many years until the creation of zionism, which calls for a Jewish homeland, which does not allow any other race or religion to co-exist on the land.

The most well-known solution to be negotiated is the two-state solution, essentially two states for two groups of people, being the State of Palestine and the state of israel. The borders would still need to be negotiated, with Palestinian and Arab leadership insisting on the pre-1967 borders, but israel not accepting. Others at pro-Palestinian rallies have demanded, "We don't want a two-state, we want '48!," referencing the land belonging to the Palestinians before the creation of the state of israel in 1948. There are many illustrations that depict the land grab, here is one:

Often refered to as the "Palestinian Question," the conflict has been debated numerous times at the United Nations, with the U.N. condemning the demolition of Palestinian homes and the illegal israeli settlements, but doing nothing to stop them from continuing. Palestine is a non-Member Observe State in the U.N. and just recently at the end of September, along with The Vatican, had its flag raised for the first time, to the dismay of israel and the united states. Both flags will fly whenever flags are raised outside the headquarters here in New York City. See my PressTV coverage of the event here.

Wherever you may stand on the issue of land, which can and is heavily debated, what is more difficult to claim is that israel is under attack from Palestine, but all one has to do is read a mainstream media article and the bias is incredible. I would like to attempt to explain the reality of the situation, the one that we in the united states rarely encounter due to our undying lust for everything israel, but one that much of the rest of the world has been able to see clearly for years. This is only meant to be a starting point. Please do further research and come to your own conclusions.

PALESTINE IS BEING OCCUPIED. There are checkpoints where Palestinians must show identification. There are military soldiers known as the IDF or israeli defense force [although we refer to them as IOF, the israeli offense force] with extraordinary large guns and other weaponry, continuously pointed at men, women and children. Palestinians every day are faced with the possibility of being harassed, beaten, arrested, jailed and murdered, much like Black and LatinX people here in the states face by their local police, and it's been this way for years. There have been two intifadas, or Palestinian uprisings against israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the first from 1987-1993 and the second from 2000-2005. A third intifada is now on the brink of occuring at any time.

Last summer from July to August 2014, israel launched what it called Operation Protective Edge, where they bombed schools, hospitals and homes in Gaza and claimed that they were operation sites for Hamas [more on them momentarily]. In total, according to the UNHRC, over 2,500 Palestinians were killed and Gaza Health Ministry says over 10,600 were wounded. How many casualties on the israeli side? 66 soldiers and 6 civilians killed and only 469 soldiers and 87 civilians wounded. Doesn't seem like much of a fair fight, does it? THAT'S BECAUSE IT'S NOT. Israel has the strongest military in the Middle East, aided by the united states taxpayers at a ridiculous $3 BILLION per year. And people are bitching about paying money for SNAP benefits so u.s. citizens can eat? Meanwhile, Palestine does not have a military. Yes, it has Hamas, a democratically elected body, which sends rockets into israel, who has what's called an Iron Dome that intercepts short-range rockets and artillery shells. Israeli casualties are always a drop in the bucket compared to those of the Palestinians, yet the u.s. mainstream media continue day after day to blame the violence on Palestine and aid in israeli cries of being the victim. But what more does one expect from a country who had ONE DAY of terrorism on 9/11 and has spent over a decade abolishing the countries it originally claimed was to blame, only to turn around and say they actually weren't to blame? And then still didn't leave!

ISRAEL IS NOT THE VICTIM. ISRAEL IS THE PERPETRATOR OF VIOLENCE AND CHAOS IN THE REGION, AIDED BY THE UNITED STATES WITH FUNDING AND WEAPONS. IT HAS BLOCKADED GAZA AND THE WEST BANK FROM RECEIVING MATERIAL AID AND FOOD. IT HAS DEMOLISHED PALESTINIAN HOMES AND BUILT ILLEGAL ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS THAT HAVE BEEN CONDEMNED BY THE UN AND MOST OF THE WORLD. THEY HAVE CREATED CHECKPOINTS TO KEEP PALESTINIANS FROM TRAVELING FREELY ON THEIR OWN LAND. ISRAEL IS THE OPPRESSOR AND IN ORDER FOR THE VIOLENCE TO END, THEY MUST BE THE ONES TO STOP. THEY ARE NOT WILLING TO NEGOTIATE PEACE BECAUSE THEY DO NOT WANT PEACE. THEY WANT PALESTINIANS TO BE ERADICATED BECAUSE THEY ONLY SEE THEM AS A NUISANCE.

It is our job and our duty to read through the lies and propaganda and see the truth. Palestine needs our help, they need our solidarity and our voices to scream so loud that the world can't help but acknowledge the truth about what is really happening. Palestinians have a right to fight back, to take control of their own lives and to shout that they're not taking this anymore. The occupation must end by any means necessary!

IMPORTANT: This is not an anti-Jewish message, this is an anti-zionist message. I am not against Jews or Judaism, I am against any oppressor believing that it is their right to rule over another person or people. If this were any other race of people fighting the Palestinians, I would be just as upset and enraged at them as I am at israel.

STAND ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY. STAND WITH PALESTINE. STAND AGAINST OPPRESSION AND GENOCIDE. PEACE AND LOVE. VIVA VIVA PALESTINA.

The Time Is Now

It is very rare that I am inspired to write and have access to a computer at the same time, but today is one of those rare occasions. If I've started once, I've started a thousand times to explain the logic behind my thoughts, but the timing has never been right. However, I've been reminded several times lately that the timing to take a risk will never be right, we must just dive in. We'll either succeed or discover an approach that doesn't work. Either way, we must take risks.

Probably the most basic reason that I don't write as much as I should is that my thoughts are so scattered. I overthink everything and one thought leads to another and then to another and before I know it, I've completely lost focus of the primary reason I began. And this has been my excuse for years now and I've let it hold me back, along with allowing the negativity of others saying I'm not an expert or I don't know how things function enough to properly give an opinion on a subject. But no more. I was once asked what my ideal world looked like and I couldn't answer that question, because despite many years of protests, meetings and self-reflection, I never even attempted to picture it, it was just too complicated and I didn't know where to start. I could name a few aspects that I wanted to see, but didn't have a clear vision of my utopia.

I still don't have one, but I hope that I learn to write through the times of no inspiration or motivation. When I ask myself how I want people to remember me after I die, the answer is simple - I want to be remembered as an educator. Not necessarily a teacher in a formal classroom, but through my writing, videos and photographs, I want to light that spark in people like Lupe Fiasco did in me. He wrote and rapped about history and his story, but also used a book club called The Readers to further reach his fans and inspire us to read the works of others.

[Pauses. Gets distracted by internet memes of SCOTUS ruling in favor of marriage equality in all 50 states! Attempts to get back into blogging mindset.]

This brings me to today's rant. I am not against work or dedication, in fact, I think both are imperative to quality of life, but only when there is meaning and passion behind each faction. I have worked in fast food, for two of the world's leading corporations, Universal and Disney, for museums in NYC and none of those jobs had meaning for me. I did not feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day, I did not feel like I was creating, that I was working towards an end goal. Every day was the same and I was bored quickly and pissed off at the level of disgusting customers that we were just supposed to deal with and move on, while they got free food or tickets because the managers just didn't want to deal with them. I do not want to participate or contribute to a society that rewards the assholes and steps on the deserving because it feels they are weak. I do not want to participate or contribute to a society that praises individualism and competition and expects everyone to fight their way to "the top" by any means necessary, even if that means physically or emotionally injuring other living creatures. I don't want to participate or contribute to a society that doesn't appreciate its workers and their dreams. In a nutshell, I do not want to participate or contribute to a capitalist society.

Throughout studying photography I have come across a few well-known photographers whose eye for framing subjects is so incredibly similar to mine and it's reassuring to know that even though I had never previously seen their work, that there were others out there who thought just like I did. Yesterday I began reading the book Global Justice, which includes three speeches by Ernesto Che Guevara. I know very little about Karl Marx's teachings, nor do I know that much about socialism and communism, aside from what I've learned and witnessed from my visits to Cuba, but reading Socialism and Man in Cuba has me feeling that same assurance that there are indeed others out there who think the way that I do and perhaps I'm not crazy after all. I'll gladly accept the term radical, although it is disturbing to think that wanting justice, equality, safety and access to affordable housing, clothing and food for all is considered radical.

I'm just now really beginning to comprehend the reasoning behind not having learned any of this in school. There is a reason that we're conditioned to believe that competition based on individualism is the only way and although we may be assigned to work in groups, we're never really taught HOW to work in groups or what to take away from the experience or how to improve upon it. We're just expected to know how it should function and typically it always functions as a microcosm of the greater society - one person becomes the "leader," while others follow instructions. There is no consensus process, typically that "leader" assigns portions to the others and there is little to no discussion. If there is, it likely devolves into an argument and people ask to be moved to a different group or just don't do any portion of the work assigned. Then the group is given a grade as a whole and perhaps evaluations are given to the group to discuss the other group members participation. When your "leader" is a known bully or you're not one of the popular kids, there is no way that those evaluations are a clear indication of what really occured. I know because I've been there. You don't want to snitch on a friend who didn't participate to their full potential, even if you're the one that suffered from having to pick up their slack. We're never taught properly the different ways that groups can interact and the different ways are never tested. Many basic necessities of functioning in society are never taught to students. If it wasn't for me learning progressive stack, blocking, points of information, clarity and other aspects of the consensus process [and its flaws] at Occupy Wall Street, I would still not be aware that there were different ways or what actual democracy looks like.

So how are we supposed to function most efficiently in groups when we're older if we were doomed from the beginning? How many of us give up on our dreams, or worse yet, never even gave thought to our dreams, because we were forced into working a job or jobs just to keep a roof over our heads, food in our stomachs and transportation to and from that job or jobs? How many of us are miserable and have come to accept the expression, "Well, that's just the way it is" or "I've gotta do what I've gotta do"? We're not meant to live this way. We're meant to contribute to society, but we're also meant to have enough time outside of that contribution to analyze our lives and the world, to travel, to experience. We're not meant to be slaves to other human beings, we're not meant to be exploited. And that is the greatest leverage that they have over us, our belief in having to do something to survive. But oh, when the tables turn and the masses realizes how they've been kept down. We must get angry, we must fight back. We're worth more and we must realize our worth.

There will be great sacrifice for many or at least it will seem like great sacrifice, but what all have we sacrificed so far? Your children's birthdays, first steps, first words, graduations, traveling the world, photographing, blogging, writing, novels, art, healing. The list is exhaustingly long and different for all of us. First we must educate, then we must fight back. But there are still small ways you can fight back now. Don't be afraid to stand up to that boss that is an asshole. Yes, you will risk being fired, I was, but in some way, I hope that it eased conditions for my co-workers that I left behind and/or that they gained courage and confidence in themselves for that sacrifice that I made. I don't regret it a day in my life. I had learned my worth and it was more than what I was being given. And you're likely worth more than you're being given. Rise up.

HUMAN BEINGS ARE NOT COMMODITIES.

Baltimore, Maryland - Part III

Nina, a friend of mine from LA, traveled cross-country last year to Baltimore for Maryland Death Fest and I took a bus down to visit her for a day. This year she came again and we decided to make somewhat of a tradition of it and I ventured down again. When I first arrived we ate at a vegetarian and vegan restaurant called Sticky Rice on Aliceanna Street and South Broadway, near Fells Point. I had pot stickers for an appetizer and a Maryland Crab Cake sandwich with tator tots for lunch, which was absolutely delicious. Afterward we walked around sections of Baltimore that we hadn't seen last year and some that we had, as we tried to visit Red Emma's on North Avenue again, but unfortunately they are closed on Mondays. I was hoping to get my nose pierced at a tattoo parlor called Saints and Sinners, but sadly they were out of my price range, so it didn't happen. Here are some of my favorites from Monday, May 25, 2015.

Baltimore, Maryland - Part I

Baltimore, Maryland - Part II

Baltimore, Maryland - Part II

Nina, a friend of mine from LA, traveled cross-country last year to Baltimore for Maryland Death Fest and I took a bus down to visit her for a day. This year she came again and we decided to make somewhat of a tradition of it and I ventured down again. When I first arrived we ate at a vegetarian and vegan restaurant called Sticky Rice on Aliceanna Street and South Broadway, near Fells Point. I had pot stickers for an appetizer and a Maryland Crab Cake sandwich with tator tots for lunch, which was absolutely delicious. Afterward we walked around sections of Baltimore that we hadn't seen last year and some that we had, as we tried to visit Red Emma's on North Avenue again, but unfortunately they are closed on Mondays. I was hoping to get my nose pierced at a tattoo parlor called Saints and Sinners, but sadly they were out of my price range, so it didn't happen. Here are some of my favorites from Monday, May 25, 2015.

Baltimore, Maryland - Part I

Baltimore, Maryland - Part III

Baltimore, Maryland - Part I

Nina, a friend of mine from LA, traveled cross-country last year to Baltimore for Maryland Death Fest and I took a bus down to visit her for a day. This year she came again and we decided to make somewhat of a tradition of it and I ventured down again. When I first arrived we ate at a vegetarian and vegan restaurant called Sticky Rice on Aliceanna Street and South Broadway, near Fells Point. I had pot stickers for an appetizer and a Maryland Crab Cake sandwich with tator tots for lunch, which was absolutely delicious. Afterward we walked around sections of Baltimore that we hadn't seen last year and some that we had, as we tried to visit Red Emma's on North Avenue again, but unfortunately they are closed on Mondays. I was hoping to get my nose pierced at a tattoo parlor called Saints and Sinners, but sadly they were out of my price range, so it didn't happen. Here are some of my favorites from Monday, May 25, 2015.

Baltimore, Maryland - Part II

Baltimore, Maryland - Part III

Whenever One Question is Answered, Three More Appear

What are we doing? Do any of us really know?

At some point in my childhood, writing became therapeutic. I wrote to escape my parents arguing, to receive even a momentary sense of calm after one of the many boys broke my heart, or perhaps to use the paper as a figurative punching bag after another friend walked away from me without explanation, never to look back. Some times I knew why, most of the times I didn't. Apparently to most people I'm not worth a second chance. I won't deny some times I deserved it, like when I told a mutual friend that I knew our best friend's dad was gay when I had promised not to or the time I asked my best friend if I could have a photo that I saw of us in her room and when she said no, I stole it. I thought about that recently and how that could never happen now with scanners and cell phones. If we were in seventh grade today, I could've borrowed it and we'd still be friends.

But most of the times I've had no idea what I said or did. And even for the ones that I do, were they ever really real friends if they would give up on me that easily? With the exception of my parents and my friend Shangry, I can't remember the last time that someone called or texted me to genuinely ask how I was doing, or to hang out. Maybe I haven't been the best of friends, but got dammit, I just want someone that loves me enough as a friend to call me out on what hurt them and give me a chance to make it right. I just want people to forgive me as much as I forgive them. To stay when things are rough, even if they need space to heal.

I'm not in a good place right now. I can't think of a time when I felt more alone. I have friends here, but I haven't had a best friend or friends since I left Florida. People that I trust, that I hang out with regularly, whom I laugh with and who I call when I need someone. I don't have that here. Perhaps it's the city, it really can be merciless. If I'm honest, the last time that I truly felt alive was in 2013 when I had my last crush. He gave me a reason to wake up in the morning and someone to dream about as I fell asleep. I hate to feel dependent on someone or something for my happiness, but then again, when was I ever in control of my emotions? I suppose we're all dependent on something for our happiness, whether it's a cool breeze, the sun, a certain smell or...people...or whatever it is that produces that adrenaline rush or that calm stillness that makes us sigh and take it that feeling. I just wish I could take that feeling with me, but it's always so fleeting, gone before I can really capture it. I want that feeling always, but maybe it's impossible.

I think that's why I take photographs. They capture moments in time that will never be again. People move away, they die, buildings are demolished, graffiti is painted over. Everything is so fragile. Childhood feels like a lifetime ago, so does high school and college. Maybe it's a mid-life crisis, when I realize that my biological clock is ticking and soon I will have to make decisions regarding children, especially if I don't find someone to be with within the next few years. It always seemed like so far away, but now it's not.

I've been standing at this crossroads for awhile now. Hell, I think I may have even laid down and taken a nap. There are many forks in the road but I'm too afraid to choose one. It's comfortable here. Despite everything else, I know this place and it's easy to navigate. Florida to NYC was done with ease, but putting my creations out there in the world... that scares the living hell out of me.

And then there's that thing that everyone is required to do to live on this planet, at least without condemnation - contribute. I want to provide something meaningful, but it doesn't seem genuine when it's forced. I don't want to work. I just want to travel and photograph and eat local cuisine, stay in hostels and meet new people, to have a blog and have my photographs be published. And if I happen to make a documentary or seven, that's cool too. But I didn't ask to come into this world, none of us did, so why are we always being forced into abiding by its rules? Cause I don't want any part of that. It's the reason I feel so shitty, it's the reason many of us stress as much as we do. It's the reason for abusing substances and doing extreme things that can cause us danger.

We're not mean to live like this.

Bushwick, Brooklyn - Part III

View Part I
View Part II

Harlem was always a wonderful place in my mind. So rich in history and a place where many famous musicians, actors, actresses and activists have called home, and ever since I was a young teenager I have always wanted to live here. A little over a year ago I made that a reality. Sadly now I find myself wanting to move on, wanting to be where the current artists are and dive into present day culture, so I am strongly considering moving back to Brooklyn - Bushwick, specifically. But it's complicated. As an activist that values community and family, I cannot move into a neighborhood that is rapidly experiencing gentrification [read about it here] if I'm going to be part of the problem. So I have to think long and hard before making the decision to move and if ultimately I do decide to, take every precaution that I, as a single white person, will not be exacerbating the problem. I have been to Bushwick multiple times and have even done a photo shoot out there with a client, but I never just perused the neighborhood and photographed, so on Sunday, April 26th, I ventured out to do just that. Here are some of my favorite images: