Resources: Statements and Commentaries

Left on Purpose: A Movie on Life & Death, Movements and Mayer

Somber tonight, coming home from the truly unusual and important new film Left on Purpose, directed by Justin Schein, which premiered at NYC DOC – the world’s largest festival of documentary cinema. The movie chronicles the life of an acquaintance, Mayer Vishner, whose behind-the-scenes work in the US peace movement was essential to groups such as the Resistance and the Yippies.

No violence. No exceptions. No exceptionalism.

As the days that unfold before us mimic a time over a decade ago when the devastating War on Terror began with US occupation of Afghanistan, we mourn because it is makes us human. For those in Raqqa. For those in Tunis. For those in Yola and Kano, in Ankara, in Beirut, in Baghdad, in Zabul, in Paris, and beyond. But our grief cannot be exceptional. The lives of those living under systemic and perpetual invasion, war and occupation are not disposable and must be mourned and fought for.

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