A Christmas Message for Thom
A Choice this Christmas?
December 26th 2024
Truth and Love or Lies and hate?
Every morning, noon and night, I have to delete a few notifications of new subscribers to my short SubstackStack. My new subscribers liked the recent publication of my email exchange with Thom Yorke of Radiohead fromback in 2017. It seems it cleared a few things up for them. Good. Let’s clear up a few more. The genocide and ethnic cleansing of the indigenous people of Palestine by the murderous state of Israel, aided, abetted and financed by the Western Empire takes my breath away to the point where I can hardly write. My hand shakes, my chest is tight, my breath comes in fits and starts, my eyes blur with tears of compassion, rage and disbelief. I am thousands of miles from the nearest stiff, cold, dead child, I haven’t heard a single gunshot, or smelt the faintest whiff of putrefaction from the rotting bodies of mums and dads and uncles and aunts and cousins and grandpas, and sisters and brothers under the rubble, and yet…………….?Maybe I’ve got PTSD.
“Calm down you lanky prick!”
I shake my head, to clear it momentarily of my agony.
I thought we had all agreed.
“Never again”.
I thought when our leaders signed the Universal Declaration of Human rights on the 10th December 1948 in Paris, enshrining its thirty articles in law, they all meant to abide by it, but I was wrong. Not all of them meant to abide by it, some of them were telling porkie pies weren’t they Thom? Some of them had their manicured fingers crossed behind their backs? Didn’t they Thom?
It was a bit like July 4th 1776 in Philadelphia wasn’t it?
The Declaration of Independence.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
When we read the history of the American revolution we assumed these inalienable rights to which the founding fathers refer were meant to extend to brown people, didn’t we Thom? Like African Americans, or native Americans, or Palestinians?
I suppose it is just possible that the founding fathers believed what they declared, but it seems hardly credible, given that history shows us that their attachment to the fundamentally European notion of white supremacy and settlor colonialism has for the last 240 years overridden the supposedly inalienable rights of anyone of non-European lineage who stood or stands in their way of what they believe to be their manifest destiny. This obviouslyincludes the forty or fifty million or so indigenous native Americans who stood in their way in 1776, not to mention the African slaves shipped in to make the white man’s fortunes for him or, currently the seven million indigenous native Palestinians who are so heroically standing in resistance to defend their native land. Let’s leave aside the genocide of the Native Americans for the moment and focus on the ongoing genocide in Palestine.
So, Thom? Sorry Thom I’d almost forgotten you. Chance would be a fine thing wouldn’t it Thom. Do I sound angry Thom? Well, well spotted Thom, I am. Can I ask you a question Thom? Do you own a smart phone? If you do youcan’t claim ignorance can you? Or are you just a sociopathThom? Why are you not manning the barricades with me and Brian Eno and Ken Loach and Susan Sarandonhowling your outrage alongside ours, at Israel and the USA, and the UK and France and Germany and all the rest of the genocidal, white supremacist, manifest destiny,European cabal? Or are you just philosophically and emotionally and politically aligned with all those whosigned The Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 with theirmanicured fingers crossed behind their backs?
So? Was the signing of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights the biggest smirking porkie pie of the twentieth century Thom? What do you think? You seem to be dithering a bit Thom, so I’ll answer for you. No Thom,the signing of The Universal Declaration of Human Rightswasn’t a porky pie. It was an heroic, magnificent attempt atprogress Thom. It was an expression of a global desire to make a world that was better than it was before the two World Wars to end all war. For most of the signatories it wasn’t a lie, most of them believed in what they were signing. Most of them still do. No Thom it wasn’t a lie, it was a universal expression of love, truth, and above all, hope for the future of mankind. It still is and if we the people stand together unflinching in our resistance to the genocide, being brought to an I-phone near you Thom, all day, every day, 24/7, in all its disgusting detail,……. if we do Thom and demand the implementation of the thirty articles of that declaration from Paris 1948, under international law, we may, just may, be able to save our precious planet home, and all life on it, irrespective of ethnicity, religion or nationality, from extinction.
The planet Earth Thom, our home, which, with your connivance, is being inexorably nudged, by hateful white supremacist leaders, mainly, but sadly not exclusively,American and Israeli, (yes Sir Keir Starmer I mean you!) Where was I? Oh yes, hateful white supremacist leadersspewing lies and hatred, garnered from malign ancient religious texts, nudging Planet Earth ever closer to its final plunge into the abyss.
Just to be clear Thom, when I speak of malign holy writ, Amalek and Armageddon, were always a nightmare, Thom, never a dream…….. even for the chosen few.
Love and truth,
R.
PS. I attach a song.
Crystal Clear Brooks
When the time comes
And the last day dawns
And the air of the piper warms
The high crags of the old country
When the holy writ blows
Like burned paper away
And wise men concede
That there’s more than one way
More than one path
More than one book
More than one fisherman
More than one hook
When the cats have all been skinned
And the fish have been hooked
When the masters of war
Are our masters no more
When old friends take their whiskey
Outside on the porch
Raise a glass to their comrades
Who carried the torches
We will have done well
If we’re able to say
As the sun settles down
On that final day
That we never gave in
That we did all we could
So the kids could go fishing
In crystal clear brooks
Crystal Clear Brooks c. Roger Waters
Live performance of Crystal Clear Brooks with the men of Musicorps at The Daughters of the American Revolution Hall, Washington DC November 2015. It was a great night! It was called Music Heals. It does. We were joined that night on the barricades by Tom Morello and Billy Corganand Sheryl Crow and G.E. Smith and Jeff Kazee among others. Thank you comrades all. Love and truth. R.
Hi Roger -
Just joined your Substack but am a longtime fan. I cannot express how grateful I am (especially as a middle eastern woman) that someone like you has spoken up so steadfastly for years about this. Sometimes - especially in a post 9/11 America - I’ve felt misunderstood and maligned when I’ve tried to bring up Palestinian rights (and Lebanese, and Syrian, and I could go on). The other side sometimes resorts to name calling and what about-isms instead of taking the time to understand what’s at stake. To fight genocide isn’t to take up the mantle of anti-Semitism. That’s not what it’s about. But it’s hard to make people understand, especially when your skin is a certain color and you’re from that region. So to hear you and others like Bobby G. make these statements so poignantly - well, that’s been extremely meaningful to me.
Speaking of whataboutisms - I do shake my head that Thom acts as though this is all new information for him. I recall a prior instance some years ago where folks, en masse, asked him not to play in Israel and he turned it right back around and said something to the effect of “well I don’t like American leadership, so should I not play there?” Well, Thom, yeah maybe you shouldn’t play here either given that we’re funding this and other genocides. That’s your decision. But you definitely should give some thought as to the message you’re sending to the world by playing in Tel Aviv and giving legitimacy to a government that is taking that funding and burning children alive, bombing hospitals and food relief workers, and so on. None of these acts are in question. They’re doing it and they’re doing it out in the open and proudly. You can watch it on the news, on YouTube, or read it in the paper. Nobody is hiding it anymore. It should be a no brainer and a moment of education and growth and empathy. Instead, and disappointingly, he’s acting so personally offended.
Anyway, just dropping a line to say what I’ve wanted to say for a long time. Thank you tremendously and keep on.
Thank you, Roger, for everything.