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Meghan Daum and Rob Walker

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from: Meghan Daum

Many Happy Returns, Lou!

Posted Friday, March 2, 2001, at 4:05 PM ET

Rob,

I can't tell if that New York Times story is subtly mocking the pro-Israel extremists who object to "A Death in Gaza," the photo of the Palestinian father/son shooting victims, or if it's revealing shades of anti-Arab sentiment by giving credence to their argument at all. From the sound of things, not even the Anti-Defamation League is going to get involved with this one. I couldn't get on their Web site to read their "explanation" regarding the contention, but based on spokeswoman Myra Shinbaum's use of the word "crazy" in the Times article, I gather that they have bigger fish to fry. As is so often the case with Zionist carping, this issue appears to have been raised not by anyone in Israel but by some presumably American) "backers of Israel, including a diplomat in Los Angeles whose e-mail about the photo was forwarded across the country." Even more repugnant was the quote from an e-mail written by Meirav Eilon Shahar, consul for communications and public affairs at the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles (I assume she's someone other than the diplomat). In encouraging people to vote for a photo other than "A Death in Gaza," she wrote: "To us, this photograph epitomizes everything tragic about the present violence: Children led into the crossfire by their own parents for publicity purposes."

In my view, it takes a particularly American kind of hubris--and a particularly American form of Zionism--to accuse a parent of leading his child into the crossfire for political purposes. I doubt many people living in Israel, where political bloodshed is an ongoing condition and relations with Palestinians, at least on a personal/social level, are probably far more congenial than American Jews would like to admit, would say anything so meanspirited and manipulative. So, shame on the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles! And shame on the MSNBC photo contest for showing me a newer, better way to waste time. There's nothing like viewing countless puppy and kitten shots that take too long to load to make you long for your former, more honorable pastime of looking up old paramours on Who Where.

On the other hand, I still wouldn't vote for the photo because it's just not that great a photo. I mean, it's powerful and disturbing and resonant in a LIFE magazine sort of way but, as a member of right-place-at-the-right-time academy of so-called brilliant photojournalism, I would boycott it on principle. Naturally there's much to be said for spontaneity and risk to the artist and all that, but I generally prefer to judge art on its aesthetic achievements, the combination of technical prowess and creative zest. "A Death in Gaza" is, for instance, to "Wildlife Amid the Wildfire," what Nirvana Unplugged is to Steely Dan. But it's simply a matter of taste. And, I, despite the Muzak channel that is the Two Against Nature album, am a Steely Dan fan.

OK, I was just going to launch into something else (a tirade on the "cute maimed animal" aesthetic that appears to dominate the MSNBC photo gallery) but it's getting late and you probably want to go out tonight and I don't want to keep you waiting around while I contextualize my way into disappointment and then despair. It is a sweltering 40 degrees in Lincoln this afternoon, and I think I'll do as the natives do and put on a pair of shorts to fetch the mail. It's Friday, so The New Yorker should arrive, the bars should be packed by 4 p.m., the propane guy should come check the tank, and all will be well on the prairie until Monday, when the grind will resume and we'll see road rage on Cornhusker Highway.

It's been a pleasure.

Ducking out now,
Meghan

P.S. Lou Reed, God bless him, is 59 today.

the breakfast table
entries
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from: Meghan Daum

Many Happy Returns, Lou!

Posted Friday, March 2, 2001, at 4:05 PM ET
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Meghan Daum's essay collection, My Misspent Youth, will be published in March. Rob Walker, a journalist living in New Orleans, writes Slate's "Moneybox" column.
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Reader Comment From The Fray:


I have a suggestion for some 'reality based' TV programs. How about Refugee Boat? We could take contestants and put them in a third world, war torn country and give them thirty days to figure out how to make a raft, find food and get set afloat before despotic soldiers order them to dig their own graves.

Or, how about Street Survival? In this one, the contestants must survive three months on the street with only the clothes on their backs and no identification. They would be required to jump trains, sleep outdoors in alleyways and in shelters, and generally try to survive their new found compatriots, welfare rolls and dumpster diving.

And, how about this beauty? Prison Guards would be a reality based show where one would become a prison guard in one of the most feared prisons in the United States. In this show contestants get thirty days training and then must work as a prison guard in the most violence-prone sectors of the prison for at least two months. Talk about ratings! I know that I would personally be glued to the screen.

Let's give vanity and greed a real price. Instead of paying people to play the mind games most of us have to wade through in our regular work week, let's up the ante a little. I can't wait until the spotlights burn and we get to see one of these numbnuts have to face a freight train's worth of trouble rushing headlong into them.

--Rogue

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