Occupied: A Picture of Why Occupation

These pictures are obvious. The contrasts shown will come as no surprise to anyone I know who views them. Most know that the second and fourth images ought not to be. I wonder though if in fact, the first and third ought also not to be - they are only possible because of their opposites. The awful of the latter images is built on a deeper awful hidden in the former.

I doubt my choice to pay cash at the grocery store will make food acquisition any easier in Somalia. But it will be my own reminder to myself that I need not be wholly owned by a system that pays for my comfort with the struggle and pain of others.

This is the mess. Those of us who "have never had it better", have it because there are so many who have never had it worse. If I am silent... well, I just can not be.

If my protest is judged ineffective by the very system who's measure of effectiveness is it's own growth, I am not concerned. It will be effective if I do a better of job of walking through this life awake, aware that I am not audience but actor on this stage and someone who can Do Something. Even if it's just a tiny thing. I will not say, "But I didn't know."

I do know.

Occupy Me.