What is unity? It is the act of togetherness. It is when people like me and you go and meet up at a café and watch the Final match of the world cup with people laughing and cheering with joy. Unity can never ever include discrimination, racism, humiliation, and poverty. All of these factors crush Unity and without it, the world may as well be lost and in disarray. On the other hand, if unity is achieved, a nation can be considered to be a paradise with no issues and problems that could lead to dire consequences such as violence and rebellions. Unity is what every nation should strive for. Unity binds the world in hope. Unity is happiness.
We Shoot Children Too, Don’t We
By Dan Almagor
What is the significance of humiliation in the line, “That humiliation./ Of patients forced to wipe the writing on the walls”
Dan Almagor’s We Shoot Children Too, Don’t We is filled with criticism towards the nation of Israel against their treatment of the Palestinian nation. This quote from this amazing poem is nothing short of that criticism. Let us start off with the first two words of this quote, “that humiliation.” This quote is significant as it highlights the “humiliation” and torture of the Palestinian nation that was incited by the Israeli nation. The Israeli soldiers humiliated the citizens of Palestine by making fun of them and torturing them, breaking any hope of unity that could have been created between Israel and Palestine.
This leads to the last section of the quote, “Of patients forced to wipe the writing on the walls” This is quite significant as Dan Almagor attempts to successfully show us using imagery of how the Palestinian people were tortured. This specific quote can be directly interpreted as people who have mental disabilities being humiliated and shamed by the Israeli people.
In the context of this quote, humiliation is also emphasized in the quote, ” Of the old water carrier/ whom soldiers ordered off his donkey/ and rode on his back, just for fun.” This quote means that the soldiers ordered a man off his only mode of transportation, and the soldiers rode on the man. This was very good example of humiliation and the torture that is seen throughout Israel/Palestine. This serves the same purpose as the quote that I am responding to, but it shows how much the Israeli nation really harmed the Palestinian people and broke the unity in the region.
For this question, I do not have a close connection, but I have seen humiliation in action, destroying unity and friendships with ease. When I visited Switzerland last year (which a beautiful country by the way), I saw humiliation before my eyes. As I was riding a Tram, (A train that goes on regular civilian roads) I saw two boys that looked like they were in high school visibly making fun of a girl when I was passing by a residential area to get to the countryside.
Now, I do not really understand any German (with the exception of saying Hello and Thank you) to make out what the kids were saying but their expressions were more than enough. I think back to this incident and relate it to this question since humiliation prevented these three kids from ever befriending each other which is, in other words, no hope of unity.
Lady Liberty
By Tato Laviera
What phrases, words, or segments of the poem stood out to you? What does it mean and how does it connect to the human experience?
This poem was very deep. As a result of the amount of depth and meaning in the poem about freedom, flaws, and improvements, there were numerous phrases, words, and segments that stood out to me. I can narrow this down though. I believe that the most significant phrase in Lady Liberty by Tato Laviera is, “Let us concentrate on our weaknesses,/ on our societal needs.” This quote means that the United States (America) as a nation, must focus on the weaknesses that falter their nation’s unity. These flaws can include racism, political instability, and many more consequences that are damaging to the United States.
This ties to the human experience as people in the United States cannot be happy unless everyone around them is happy which achieves unity and kindness. For example, if the nation of the United States focuses on making the rich richer and the poor poorer, there will be a significant divide that will crack the unity in the United States in two, and bring the destruction of peace in this country.
Therefore it is essential to follow Tato Laviera’s advice on focusing on the flaws of a nation instead of boasting while people are unhappy and suffering.
This quote that really stood out to me showed unity. Since we all have to focus on our weaknesses that divide us apart. A personal experience I had about this was during my science fair in Grade 8. I have always been very interested in virology and microbiology, so I decided to research about Bacteriophage (A virus that does not attack human cells, only bacteria), I loved that topic!
I did have a partner though. He did not agree with my topic since it seemed quite boring to him. He wanted to choose if superluminal space travel (Faster than light [FTL]) was possible or if humans were confined to only subluminal space travel (slower than light [STL]).
I disagreed with his topic as well, and this created a major dilemma. With only a week left until we had to submit our research, we decided to combine both our topics into fantastic topic, which was seeing the effects of space travel of the bacteriophage’s actions.
Even though we didn’t make it to the city wide competitions, this projected showed the unity that we achieved if we put our differences aside and how the amount of work we can get at any time!
Conclusion
As shown by the two responses to the poetry seminars and personal experiences, they both talk about one common and relevant theme, unity, happiness, and hope. Both poems and their questions, We Shoot Children Too, Don’t We and Lady Liberty emphasize the fact that without unity, dire consequences usually follow close by. While We Shoot Children Too, Don’t We talks about the consequences of the absence of unity and Lady Liberty talks about what we have to do in order to achieve unity. Both of them have one main message; unity is the key to peace. prosperity, and friendship.
Sources
- Laviera, Tato. “Lady Liberty by Tato Laviera.” Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, 2014. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/58195/lady-liberty.
- Khalifa, Omar. “‘We Shoot Children Too, Don’t We,” by Dan Almagor.” Google Docs. Google, November 17, 2022. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cfykH0dHUFI8WF0JMkbHoBIAVGBD2caApWbzZv4FLSc/edit?usp=sharing.
- Vodka, Prisitine. “Do You Always Take the Blame for Things You Didn’t Do? Today Is Your Payback Day! #BlameSomeoneElseDay #Pristinevodka: Disney Characters, Disney, Disney Princess.” Pinterest, May 13, 2017. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/357754764139315971/.
- Cantello, Eloise. “The New Organ Donation Law – What It Means for You.” East Midlands Connected, March 10, 2020. https://eastmidconnected.co.uk/the-new-organ-donation-law-what-it-means-for-you/.
- Krannawitter, Thomas. “Helping Others.” Speakeasy Ideas, August 11, 2016. https://speakeasyideas.com/helping-others/.
- Information obtained from Poetry Seminar #3: Made By: Sanjay, Ammaar, Aayan, Ziyan. To present Lady Liberty By Tato Laviera || See one of the individuals listed above for Poetry Seminar link for more information
- Information obtained from Poetry Seminar #5: Made By: Omar, Elmedin, Shiv. To present We Shoot Children Too, Don’t We By Dan Almagor || See one of the individuals listed above for Poetry Seminar link for more information