harborshore | Entries tagged with grief

Today, when at least 84 teenagers and young adults have been killed because they were at the Norwegian Labor Party's youth camp, I'm thinking about what Social Democracy in Scandinavia means, historically and now. Because what we have, Sweden and Norway (and Denmark, though these days they've given in to a right-wing bent in their immigration politics) so often gets cited as unbelievably liberal. And there are people who hate it. I'm going to write about Sweden for some of this, not because I want to "claim" this grief for us in any way, but because we share a historical background and approach. This will probably not be especially coherent, but I needed to write it.

The post includes mentions of two political assassinations as well as this weekend's mass murder, but just mentions, that is, statements of fact: they happened. This isn't a post about political assassinations or murders, this is a post about what inspires the fear and the hate: the unbending belief in a world where everyone has the same rights and the possibility of working towards that world through political change.

( this is something we built and this is something I love )

And death shall have no dominion.
Dead mean naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan’t crack;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Through they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.

—Dylan Thomas

84 people dead at Utöya. No.

You do not attack an aid ship on international waters. You do not. That is only permissible under wartime maritime law or when you have been directly attacked. This was an aid ship and it was not going to Israel.

The information varies on what happened after that and whose fault anything was, but the consensus is this: 19 aid workers are dead, more injured. But all of that happened after boarding. You do not attack an aid ship on international waters.

ETA: Official death toll now says nine dead. Not as bad, but still fairly awful.

ETA 2: As this post puts it, the Israeli military-political complex is a far more useful term for the force behind the massacre of aid workers yesterday than the name of the nation Israel. The longer term presents a useful distinction between Israel the country, which it is possible to love even if you don't actually support this action, as it is possible to love other countries whose leadership perpetrates horrendous acts. It's a fairly important distinction.

Current Mood: horrified

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the wrong end of the telescope

and I'm walking the firm margin

On being a Social Democrat

And Death Shall Have No Dominion

no

no, israel

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October 2024

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