August 9, 2002 — Mudeif Productions

Coney Island - New York's equivalent of Stone Mountain, but without the troubling legacy of slavery. We connected with Marthame's cousin and headed down to walk the boardwalk along the famed stretch of beach. The most disturbing feature was the new "Shoot the Freak" booth where, as is self-evident, you shoot the freak. With a paint gun. A human being. And we decry violence in other countries...We ate Nathan's hotdogs, rode the famed Cyclone, and Marthame's cousin wore the keffiye we gave him to see if he would get a reaction (he didn't - it's New York, after all).

We went back into Brooklyn to meet up with friends from various times in life - Junior High, Nerd Camp, Birzeit - and learned that there was a Palestinian solidarity rally just down the street. We arrived in time to hear the testimonies of some brave young souls - members of a local racial justice organization - who had joined up with the International Solidarity Movement and had brought back stories and pictures of their encounters with tanks, gunfire, curfew, the like. It was encouraging, though it's location (on a random rooftop in Brooklyn) indicated a distance from the main stream.

The trains weren't stopping at our destination running north, only south, so our journey was extended - New York's version of the checkpoint...