Member-only story

DISASTERS | USA | PALESTINE

I Won’t Cry For You, Los Angeles

Gaza’s disasters are not natural, but man-made, or to be precise, “Made in USA”

Ramsey Hanhan 🇵🇸 🌍
The Resistance Room
6 min readJan 10, 2025

--

(Not a Medium Member? Read here for free)

When fire engulfed Lahaina in Aug. 2023, I cried for days. Though I had only visited Maui once, it was heartbreaking to see places I vividly and happily remembered left smoldering.

Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii (Photos by the author, 2009)

Here we go again, another fire, more places I happily and vividly remember, ones I had visited numerous times, and loved: the Getty Museum in Malibu; Westwood and the UCLA campus; Pasadena, where I have friends; Santa Clarita, where my cousin lives.

The Getty Museum, Malibu, California (Photo by the author, 2002)

Yet strangely, I’m hard-pressed for tears. Perhaps it’s the shock of seeing places vaporized so suddenly, leaving no trace of what used to be. Homes disappearing, whole neighborhoods flattened.

So surreal, except … wait!

I had spent the entire last year watching homes disappear and neighborhoods flattened. I saw apocalyptic landscapes aplenty. I saw a whole nation crying, not only over the loss of property, but the loss of…

--

--

The Resistance Room
The Resistance Room

Published in The Resistance Room

Daring to combat colonialism, we are fierce advocates for a Borikén Soberana + a Free Falastin.

Ramsey Hanhan 🇵🇸 🌍
Ramsey Hanhan 🇵🇸 🌍

Written by Ramsey Hanhan 🇵🇸 🌍

Author. Tree spirit trapped in human form, I speak for the voiceless: children and the Earth, nature, justice, truth, freedom, love and Palestine. 🇵🇸 🌍

Responses (13)