Excerpts from "First writing" by: Suheir Hammad

"One more person ask me if I knew the hijackers.
One more motherfucker ask me what navy my brother is in.
One more person assume no arabs or muslims were killed.
One more person assume they know me,
or that I represent a people.or that a people represent an evil.
or that evil is as simple as a flag and words on a page.
We did not vilify all white men when Mcveigh bombed oklahoma.
America did not give out his family's addresses or where he went to church.
or blame the bible or pat robertson.
and when the networks air footage of palestinians dancing in the street,
there is no apology that hungry children are bribed with sweets that turn their teeth brown. that correspondents edit images.
that archives are there to facilitate lazy and inaccurate journalism.
and when we talk about holy books and hooded men and death,
why do we never mention the kkk?
If there are any people on earth who understand how new york is feeling right now,
they are in the west bank and the gaza strip.
today it is ten days. last night bush waged war on a man once openly funded by the cia.
I do not know who is responsible.
read too many books, know too many people to believe what I am told.
I don't give a fuck about bin laden.
his vision of the world does not include me or those I love.
and petittions have been going around for years trying to get the U.S. sponsored taliban out of power.
shit is complicated, and I don't know what to think.
but I know for sure who will pay.
In the world, it will be women, mostly colored and poor.
Women will have to bury children, and support themselves through grief.
"Either you are with us, or with the terrorists" - meaning keep your people under control and your resistance censored.
meaning we got the loot and the nukes."

Live, Love, Laugh.
-Maira