one death
A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.
-attributed to Joseph Stalin
There is no proportion between the pity we feel and the extent of the
pain by which the pity is aroused: a single Anne Frank excites more
emotion than the myriads who suffered as she did but whose image has
remained in the shadows. Perhaps it is necessary that it can be so. If we
had to and were able to suffer the sufferings of everyone, we could not
live.
- Primo Levi, I sommersi e i salvati (The Drowned and The Saved),
translation from the Italian by Raymond Rosenthal
A meditation on salient examples used within activist movements and in the
media, especially concerning representation and misrepresentation.
Rachel Corrie was a 23-year old peace activist from Olympia,
Washington, who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Rafah, in the
southern part of Gaza Strip in March 2003. 105 Palestinians and
23 Israelis were
killed in this same month.
While it is not particularly surprising that the death of a young white
American woman should
capture media attention in the United States, extreme reactions at both
ends of the spectrum are cause for alarm. On one hand, we have the
insensitivity epitomized by
Daniel J. Friedman's cartoon
in the University of Maryland student newspaper. On the other hand, the
focus on Corrie herself can be seen as overshadowing the cause she fought
for.
|
|
|
One Death:
Rafah, Gaza Strip, 16. March 2003
Black Rock City, Nevada, September 2002
Oil on canvas, March-April 2003
9 x 12 and 7 x 5 inches