EVENT
Among the many features of the New School that I have enjoyed so far, something ranking much lower on my list than the U of C is the flavor of activism here. Of course, I’m going off of one experience; last Wednesday I mae it up to the school by eleven to learn what I could do to help with Hurrican Relief efforts. After all the shouting on the news to give money to the Red Cross, Jess and I have already reached our modest, jobless limits, and I was looking to see what could be accomplished in terms of work and donation.
I was a little disappointed. Our major effort has gone toward the purchase and donation of… specifically… stuffed toys and childrens books, as facilitated by Soka Gakkai International. The meeting’s coordinator wouldn’t hear much talk of donating clothing and food that day because “there isn’t any place to put it,” and the issue was pretty quickly dropped.
I understand the importance of inspiration (books) and comfort (toys). I understand the impulse to direct assistance towards children specifically. What I do not understand is the rationale that these objects cannot be shared, cannot be manufactured or created by improvisation… that dance and storytelling are the oldest human arts so far as we know, and be created by a community with next to nothing. When our stuffed toys go out to a people needing fresh water or books where diapers are wanting… you have to look to essentials first. You can’t not look to essentials first. And especially now. At this moment.
Not to say that we couldn’t do both… I don’t object to giving books and toys. It’s the “in lieu of.” Couldn’t someone spare her apartment (mine is out of the question for messy reasons, but any other place I’ve lived would’ve been game)? Couldn’t New School lend us a room for a week?
There is a speed and urgency to these efforts right now. As one woman said (in one of the most enlightened comments made during the ninety minute meeting, the last third of which was occupied by searching for our “name”), “Next week there’s going to be another runaway bride on the news.”
Didn’t they see the necessity of speed? And didn’t they see that their excuses were barely the palest reflection of the ability to act, of the power and resourcefulness exercised by those in true need?
END OF POST.