Dear Editor,
This letter is a response to Dylan Sabas article that appeared in the Daily on March 5. I admire Dylans activism. His Jewish and Palestinian background puts him in a unique position, and it is encouraging to see that he has embraced his heritage to make a change. Being myself half-Iranian and half-Jewish, I can appreciate the complexity of taking a stand, but I agree that it is essential for people like us to educate ourselves and have an opinion. Like Dylan, I would be ashamed to ignore the issue and not develop an opinion. But that is not the case for everyone.
For a huge number of people, Israels behavior in the Middle East is irrelevant. At Tufts, prolific activism on both sides bombards the non-aligned, convincing them of the importance of the issue and to have an opinion. But why should a dispassionate person develop a viewpoint on an issue that is so far removed from him or her? This radicalizes the issue further and tears it out of the grip of the people who have valuable input.
At the end of his piece, Dylan calls on everyone to have an opinion about the conflict. Why should we develop a position on that issue, though, and not others? We live in a world of conflicts, often closer to home than Israel. Mexico, for example, is now in the grips of a war among drug cartels whose existence depends on American drug consumption. Some estimates say that the majority of marijuana in the U.S. is of Mexican origin and in five years 40,000 people have died in a conflict fueled by American demand for such illicit drugs. Nevertheless, one hardly hears a word about it here because of students inflexible commitment to personal liberty that ignores its residual effects.
Like Dylan, I am frustrated that people do not care about these issues but being neutral does not legitimate a morally reprehensible view. If a person does not care about a certain conflict, their unawareness does not necessarily put guns in the hands of the oppressor. Every single one of us lives in ignorance of some injustice. This is not unacceptable, it is simply the truth. Now, by no means do I seek to be the wind at the back of the apathetic. I just think we should take a step back and recognize that everyone has to pick his or her own battles. No one can fight in every war.
Sincerely,
Cameron Uslander
Class of 2015
