This is a local blog, and the events of October 7, 2023 are not a local story. But they deeply impact members of our community and to ignore this day would be ignoring their grief. And there is no local story today that could possibly be bigger than the death and destruction of the last year.
I’m sorry. It’s no way to begin your Monday. It would be easier to push it aside.
The last twelve months have challenged everything I thought about Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East. They have also made me realize how useless I am and how powerless I feel to have any positive impact in this morass of suffering.
But, I apologize. This isn’t about me.
I read these words this morning:
Monday will mark one year since the Hamas attacks on Israel left over 1,200 people dead and 251 people taken hostage.
In the year since the October 7th attack, an estimated 41,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza through Israel’s military response, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
It’s about them. And it’s dedicated to our friends and neighbors here in Howard County for whom these deaths are not just numbers in a news article.
Oh, we have all heard time-worn expressions like “war is hell” or “there are truly no winners in war” but it seems to me that Americans (that includes us, Howard County) have done a truly abysmal job at processing what this conflict really means. Some have worked extremely hard at preventing opposing views from being heard at all.
When I was growing up many of my sister’s friends protested the Vietnam War and they were labeled as anti-patriotic or Communists and perhaps a threat to orderly society. Young people today protest in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza and they are accused of hating all Jews everywhere and wishing for their demise. That’s a huge difference.
Would you be vocal about advocating for a ceasefire if you felt your Jewish friends and neighbors would take that as a personal attack against them and their personal safety? Your friends and neighbors are right here and you can see them. The people suffering are far away and, if you try very hard, you can put your anguish in a box and manage to not say anything that might upset someone you know.
“When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.”
– John Lewis
Are we?
If this is a day which impacts you personally my heart aches for you. If, like me, you have the luxury to hold it at arm’s length - - perhaps we can use this day to look at what options we have to actively be peacemakers in this world. Express care for those who are hurting. Or, at the very least, to open that box and let all that anguish out and face the truth of it.
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