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February 19, 2008
February 14, 2008
so what are these bridges we keep talking about building?
"Bridges are thresholds to other realities, archetypal, primal symbols of shifting consciousness. They are passageways, conduits, and connectors that connote transitioning, crossing borders, and changing perspectives." -- Gloria Anzaldua, in her preface to "this bridge we call home"
Prior to the organizing I'm doing currently around KGIA, I never thought much about bridges.
I occasionally thought about how I prefer them to tunnels (which kind of scare me) or why it was worth raising the tolls to cross them if it meant lowering the price of public transportation...i think that was a proposition in CA a few years back.
I didn't think of them in a "political" way (except I guess that last point was about a proposition, so that's kind of political).
When I thought about building links between people and/or communities I thought about "movement building." When I thought about shifting consciousness I thought about "breaking through barriers" or "tearing down walls." But with the work around KGIA came these repeated descriptions of Debbie (the school's founding principal) as a "bridge builder."
At first, I rebelled against the term. At one point, when trying to organize other Jews to support KGIA, I literally couldn't get the words out of my mouth. Every time I tried to say that Debbie was "building bridges" I said "brilding bidges" or "bridging build...wait." It was comical. People laughed at me. I laughed at me. I just thought it sounded like one of those terms that takes all the politics out of an issue that's actually really important - sort of like "multiculturalism" or "diversity" - ideas that are actually really great, but when we hear them, we cringe in anticipation of the liberal, meaningless banter that we know is coming next. Oh yeah, and the lack of a power analysis...we cringe at that too.
But recently, I've been thinking about what it really means to "build bridges." I picked up "this bridge we call home" (for those who don't know, it's a book that follows and continues the dialogue of the anthology "This Bridge Called My Back") at Bluestockings bookstore, mostly because the "women's studies" section where the book was happens to be directly across from the table at which I was sitting to drink my coffee and attempt to write a poem that ended with a call for boycott-divestment-sanctions (I've recently been thinking about what it would look like if activist poetry actually incorporated concrete calls to action...thoughts?) Since I picked it up (and bought it, and brought it home, and stayed up late reading it...and continue to spend nights staying up late reading it...) I've been thinking a lot about Anzaldua's definition of bridges.
"shifting consciousness"
"connectors"
"transitioning"
"crossing borders"
"changing perspectives"
how much better - and how much more essential to social change- can you get?
I started to think about the people I love working with, politically. Always, they are the people who not only see the links between issues in a theoretical sense, but who want to ACT on those connections. Sometimes I think that's why I'm drawn to poetry - it allows us to make those connections- build those bridges- without having to spell out all the links - because really, isn't it obvious? Do we really need to know that it's the same company (Elbit, an israeli company, look it up) building the wall in Palestine and the wall in/ontheborderof Mexico? Isn't it enough to just recognize that in both places, communities and families are being torn apart by these walls? On land that's stolen/colonized in the first place?
...How did I end up talking about walls? I was talking about bridges...
but that's just it!
It's all connected!
And no, this abundance of exclamation points is not because I have any illusions that I'm saying anything that hasn't already been said a million times before...I'm just really enthusiastic about it right now!
Of course, Anzaldua also says "A bridge...is not just about one set of people crossing to the other side; it's also about those on the other side crossing to this side." This, I think, encompasses why I was uncomfortable with the idea of "building bridges" in the first place. So often, "building bridges" means "compromise" and so often "compromise" means the people with the power set the standards and take half a step from the position they were at in the first place, while the people without the power have to take ten giant leaps. In other words, the people without the power get stuck doing most of the building- or the compromising. And then the people with the power take most of the credit and try to portray themselves as romantically self-sacrificial. I know you know what I'm talking about.
So that, is my reflection on bridges.
Then again, if we're going to go with the metaphor...what IS so great about bridges? And why is it better to build a bridge than just swim across the ocean? Thoughts...?
Prior to the organizing I'm doing currently around KGIA, I never thought much about bridges.
I occasionally thought about how I prefer them to tunnels (which kind of scare me) or why it was worth raising the tolls to cross them if it meant lowering the price of public transportation...i think that was a proposition in CA a few years back.
I didn't think of them in a "political" way (except I guess that last point was about a proposition, so that's kind of political).
When I thought about building links between people and/or communities I thought about "movement building." When I thought about shifting consciousness I thought about "breaking through barriers" or "tearing down walls." But with the work around KGIA came these repeated descriptions of Debbie (the school's founding principal) as a "bridge builder."
At first, I rebelled against the term. At one point, when trying to organize other Jews to support KGIA, I literally couldn't get the words out of my mouth. Every time I tried to say that Debbie was "building bridges" I said "brilding bidges" or "bridging build...wait." It was comical. People laughed at me. I laughed at me. I just thought it sounded like one of those terms that takes all the politics out of an issue that's actually really important - sort of like "multiculturalism" or "diversity" - ideas that are actually really great, but when we hear them, we cringe in anticipation of the liberal, meaningless banter that we know is coming next. Oh yeah, and the lack of a power analysis...we cringe at that too.
But recently, I've been thinking about what it really means to "build bridges." I picked up "this bridge we call home" (for those who don't know, it's a book that follows and continues the dialogue of the anthology "This Bridge Called My Back") at Bluestockings bookstore, mostly because the "women's studies" section where the book was happens to be directly across from the table at which I was sitting to drink my coffee and attempt to write a poem that ended with a call for boycott-divestment-sanctions (I've recently been thinking about what it would look like if activist poetry actually incorporated concrete calls to action...thoughts?) Since I picked it up (and bought it, and brought it home, and stayed up late reading it...and continue to spend nights staying up late reading it...) I've been thinking a lot about Anzaldua's definition of bridges.
"shifting consciousness"
"connectors"
"transitioning"
"crossing borders"
"changing perspectives"
how much better - and how much more essential to social change- can you get?
I started to think about the people I love working with, politically. Always, they are the people who not only see the links between issues in a theoretical sense, but who want to ACT on those connections. Sometimes I think that's why I'm drawn to poetry - it allows us to make those connections- build those bridges- without having to spell out all the links - because really, isn't it obvious? Do we really need to know that it's the same company (Elbit, an israeli company, look it up) building the wall in Palestine and the wall in/ontheborderof Mexico? Isn't it enough to just recognize that in both places, communities and families are being torn apart by these walls? On land that's stolen/colonized in the first place?
...How did I end up talking about walls? I was talking about bridges...
but that's just it!
It's all connected!
And no, this abundance of exclamation points is not because I have any illusions that I'm saying anything that hasn't already been said a million times before...I'm just really enthusiastic about it right now!
Of course, Anzaldua also says "A bridge...is not just about one set of people crossing to the other side; it's also about those on the other side crossing to this side." This, I think, encompasses why I was uncomfortable with the idea of "building bridges" in the first place. So often, "building bridges" means "compromise" and so often "compromise" means the people with the power set the standards and take half a step from the position they were at in the first place, while the people without the power have to take ten giant leaps. In other words, the people without the power get stuck doing most of the building- or the compromising. And then the people with the power take most of the credit and try to portray themselves as romantically self-sacrificial. I know you know what I'm talking about.
So that, is my reflection on bridges.
Then again, if we're going to go with the metaphor...what IS so great about bridges? And why is it better to build a bridge than just swim across the ocean? Thoughts...?
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