Christopher Hitchens, blasting the flotilla, at Slate.
Those who care about justice and self-government for the Palestinians might want to be helping Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as they build up the institutions of an embryo state on the West Bank. And those who worry about the conditions of the Gazans might want to send convoys of aid to the many United Nations and NGO operations in the Strip that have a proven record of transparency and efficiency.
’60s Freedom Rider C.T. Vivian (in Eric Etheridge’s book, Breach of Peace):
What these liberal white fellows were saying [to the nonviolent direct action movement in the U.S.] is that the non-liberals down here are gonna kill you… and we won’t be able to help you…. And without our help, why, you could never make it, because you must have us talking to white people.
And we were saying, that’s your importance, all right, but you haven’t freed nobody.
This is the genius of Martin, who spoke the whole thing so well, week after week, month after month, from that time on. Until we are in charge of our own freedom, there is not gonna be any freedom for us. As long as we allow someone else to speak for us, and they know each other very well, there’s not gonna be a breaking of the old order. We’re still going to be killed whenever any policeman decides to. And they are always gonna be covered up if they care to cover it up at all.
