The Sobering Effects of Wearing Orange

Posted on March 22, 2007
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By Jamilah Hoffman, 3/22/07

I have to admit that I had
been late when it comes to wearing the orange jumpsuits.  Something always came up, or I just didn’t  “feel” like it.  But four years after the invasion and
occupation of Iraq,
I knew that the least I could do was wear the jumpsuit.  In Houston,
we have this event called Freeway Blogging, where we hold signs on the bridges
overlooking freeway traffic. You get a lot of positive honking and quite a bit
of middle fingers, but the energy is good nonetheless. On March 20th,
we had groups on six bridges and World Can’t Wait shared a bridge with people
expressing solidarity with the Palestinian struggle.

I did not know what to
expect.  I thought that it would be a
normal protest and that would be the end of it. 
I hoped people seeing me would be reminded that while they are driving
home from work, people were being tortured in their names. I had wanted a
visceral emotional response from the people and had not expected one of my own.

Wearing the jumpsuit with a
black hood, immediately I felt cut off from the world.  I became self conscious because I knew that I
was standing out.  People could see me,
and any notion of wanting to blend in fell away as I stood as a symbol of the
hatred and violence american soldiers commit everyday.

My Lament
By Jamilah Hoffman

my tears no longer remain
shut away in an embarrasing display of stoic non responsibility
i care
and perhaps too deeply
but Abu Ghraib has just hit
me
there are more pictures and
videos
children
women
men
abused
assaulted
killed
in my name?
in yours?
i have never felt so
powerless
yet
so responsible
every person who upholds
this war must hear from me
that torture is wrong
and that soldiers torture
so soldiers must be wrong
but is my logic correct?
is my premise accurate?
cause i do support some
troops
only those who resist
and there just aren’t enough
of them
and torture still goes on
and yes, good old boys have
been sent to the middle east
do i breathe a sigh of
relief
that they”re over there
instead of
over here
Hell No!
because Iraqis, Afghanis and
Iranians
do not deserve this
and
all the yellow ribbons
blowing in the wind
beckon a return of america’s
finest
and
i suppose i should digress
but
that just ain’t gonna work
anymore
i know too much to ignore
the blood that flows from
Hadditha to Houston
and i have never met 15 year
old
Abeer Hamza
though i will never forget
her
the pain she went through
and the life cut too short
and for what?
imperialism?
so that the US can remain a
superpower?
is it really that easy to
destroy a people
instead of build them up”

i will no longer muffle my
cries
in a bathroom towel
while dinner guests
discuss whether it’s a good
thing if the us attacks Iran
maybe the anti-war movement
will grow
how fucked up is that?
how about debating what to
do to stop the attack in the first place
the people of the world are
not the american government’s
pawns in a global chess game
neither do they belong to a
liberal’s
check
mate
there is such a disconnect
between
them
and
us that this society fosters
so we have to
reject that and connect
rise up and be strong
resist and stand firm
and refuse to go along

I thought to myself that at
the end of the day, I can take the orange jumpsuit off.  I can remove the hood, wave it around in the
air if I want, but there are people who can’t do that.  There are people for whom, they may never
take off the jumpsuit if we don’t stop this war now, and if we don’t stop the
torture now.

Wearing the jumpsuit and the
hood, I did not want to joke with people or even respond when people called my
name.  The people being held at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib weren’t laughing and
I felt it was disrespectful somehow. 
That this was some sort of “action” I was doing and nothing more.  That this was something I “did”, but was not
something I was serious about stopping, which I am.

I started asking myself all
sorts of questions. How are we going to stop this war and torture and reverse
the whole direction bush has taken society? 
What am I going to do to stop this? 
What will it take?  I really
wanted answers because the sobering effects of wearing that jumpsuit has stuck
with me.  This isn’t some joke and
driving out theBbush regime isn’t something I’m doing while I’m figuring out
what to do with the rest of my life.  Torture
is happening, probably as I write this and I can’t go another day without
speaking out against it. This war is still going on and I’m so angry and every
person who upholds this war must hear from me because this shit has got to
stop.

 

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