Only on a day with both massive world events and considerable personal turmoil would it have occurred to me that one is more important than the other. We’re fed the line that what happens to us, what immediately affects our individual lives will understandably and obviously feel heavier to us. Part of our humanity is creating a circle to encompass our lives. That circle is depicted as closed – a solid membrane around what holds weight within our consciousness.

I see, instead, a web.

Perhaps it is the pervasiveness of the internet. Perhaps it is opening myself up. Perhaps it is embracing experiences that pass quickly as entirely as those that linger. Whatever the reason, I reject the me-only, tribe-only, day to day-only bullshit that we are fed – especially in the country I call home.

I cried today. Not for me. I cried on behalf of my race – the human race. Children who had no hand in creating conflict or deciding the part of the world that would be their home are dying, massacred in an attempt at vengeance. A death feud where each side says the other struck first, where the killing reaches back so many generations there is no beginning. At what point does retaliation become perpetuation?

With or without a beginning, there are clear sides. And one is considerably stronger, with more powerful allies and an unending source of weaponry. Many of those weapons are wielded through support from the government that collects my tax dollars – and likely yours if you’re reading this. So, yes, it affects me and it affects you. Directly. You are involved whether you turn your head or stare the devastation in the face.

Beyond that, though…shouldn’t we simply care that people are dying? When I woke up this morning, even the mainstream media was reporting more than 100 Palestinian deaths and a half a dozen on the Israeli side. Each of those is a person. A PERSON. A human life that no longer exists outside the memories of friends and family.

People – all people – matter. That should be the end. That should be enough.

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Categories: Finding My Voice

Tags: Gaza, human, humanity, Israel, Israeli, Palestine, Palestinian, peace, settlements, war