Jewish Voice for Peace has sent out a call to participate in a “snail mail’ campaign to end the massacres in Gaza. And this is how we do it.
On February 26 you, I, and everyone who cares, will send New York senators Chuck [“Chucky Cheese”] Schumer and Kirsten [“Bland”] Gilllibrand an envelope or more, each containing the name of one among the many victims of aggression in Gaza. The plan is to overwhelm both politicians with the sheer number of envelopes. The organizers hope as well to “push the staffers opening letters to look at each name,” but that’s a horse of a different color: getting staffers to look and feel about each and every name, let alone the politicians.
Getting folks to feel from written signs — from that which refuses transcendence —has been my job. I was working on a similar project before COVID hit: recording the names of immigrants, drowned while trying to cross the Mediterranean, lest their names be written on water:
Or frozen to death in Vienna:
Or recording names of immigrants who disappeared on their way to the US border:
For its part, Jewish Voice for Peace links to a list of the many, many murdered in Gaza:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17pdu5SBbBGs44LnaZd5k3NYhD3E5e2G-37dX44AXGfs
and asks that the names be sent on February 26 to:
Kirsten Gillibrand 478 Russell Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
and
Chuck Schumer 322 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
Adding,
“By signing up next to a name, you are committing to write the name and age of that person on a slip of paper to include in your mailed envelope. People can sign up for as many or as few names as they would like.”
Consider me signed.
ENTFERN #2 [scheduled for 2/7/2024]
WOID XXIII40a
February 5, 2024