Rallying round the red, black, white, and green. *

I missed the Pride Parade today. I had not planned on missing it. As a matter of fact, I had planned on missing most of church to go to the parade. I have been rather anxious in crowds though, lately. I have no regrets about missing the parade though. The wee bit conflicted my heart and mind were on my way to church, by the time I got there, I knew I was not going. There were other reasons.

I follow Mosab Abu Toha on social media. For those of you who do not know who Mosab is, he's a Palestinian poet and writer from Gaza. He won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for his essays in The New Yorker about the "physical and emotional carnage" in Gaza. I have not read those essays, but listening to him, and having read some of his poems, I will hunt them down in the library. Mosab was born in one of the refugee camps in the northern part of the Gaza Strip and lived in Gaza for most of his life.

Mosab and his fellow Palestinians, and allies have been posting images and news regularly from Gaza. As the situation gets more and more deadly and dire, his appeals to the world to end this increase in urgency. Gazans are dying not only from Israel's bombs, and guns, but also starvation. The images of children who have died of malnutrition are real. It is painful to look at them but we must not look away. The IDF is killing Palestinians who are going to aid sites. The Israeli military is widening evacuation orders from parts of Gaza where international aid workers are located. Where are Gazans to go for help? For food.

One of Mosab's notes today really affected me. They all do, but this one hit hard on a Sunday morning:

And it hit hard, because he is not wrong. Readers, you can disagree with him (and some of his commenters have), but he is NOT wrong. Because even though we've been speaking, writing, preaching, creating works in support of Palestine. Even with all that we are doing, we are all connected to systems who are fueling the Genocide. We do business with these systems. Now we may not be doing this intentionally, or with consent, but we have been doing this for as long as Israel has been suffocating Gaza.

In Mosab's note, the words "every single one" and "guilty" rankle. They put us in defensive mode. They put our dukes up. Who is "every single one?" Well, let's talk about the countries who are making plans for Gaza once again, without including Gazans in the conversation. Just as they did over a century ago, and later when they carved what was Mandatory Palestine up for Zionist settlement after World War II. The ones who have been dictating what Gaza should do, and where Palestinians should live from that point onwards.

How do we read or write land acknowledgments for our First Nations people, and ignore Gaza?

I accept my complicity as a US citizen in the Palestinian Genocide. I can holler "Free Palestine" until I lose my voice, and write endless notes and posts, but as long as my money is going to systems that are supporting our government and/or the Israeli government, I am complicit. My government is complicit. I didn't vote for the Dictator, or the Democrats and Republicans who welcomed Netanyahu, but I am still complicit. I can stop buying Starbucks, cancel my Prime subscription, do whatever I can, and I will still be complicit. I can say I never consented to this, and still be complicit.

Also, silence is complicity. Indifference is complicity.

I appreciate "independent" media sources and people from Gaza who are reminding us daily of the death count, of the schools that are being bombed every day. This is more than we got in genocides that have happened in my lifetime. That are ongoing.

A question came up more than once, "What can I do?" One even added to that question if they should set themselves on fire. There have been a few instances of that, most notably Aaron Bushnell, who would have been 26 at the end of last month. Nothing changed as a result of those self-immolations, except for the people who loved Aaron, and Matt Nelson.

The genocide continues unabated.

For the question, "What can I do?" All I can say is continue to speak up. To let Palestinians take the lead in groups. Don't correct Palestinians when they use the word genocide. They are watching it happen. And while some of my friends may disagree with me, be willing to disengage from as many businesses that are supporting this administration and/or Israel. I know, we cannot disengage from all of them. Contact your representatives, even if they're on the same page, but are dealing with a majority that supports what the Israeli army is doing.

And pray, if you feel the Holy Spirit moves you to do so. Or whatever moves you from another tradition.

. . . .

This was how I responded to Mosab Abu Toha's post this morning, minutes before leaving for church:

When I say "my love for Palestine," let me clarify that I have never been there. But for me, Palestine is members of the diaspora that I have known for years.

Palestine is the owner of a cafe who fed me for weeks when I was hungry and had no money. I felt ashamed going to him and telling him I had no money for the one meal I would have those weeks, but my friend fed me anyway, and I will always love him and remember him for that.

Palestine is the dear friend who gave a friend and I along with an anti-Apartheid activist, a place to sleep for the night when we brought the activist to Portland.

Palestine are the women who have taught me, and who have been involved in social justice, and the struggle for a free Palestine, whom I rarely see now, but when I do, are still as beautiful as when I was crushing on them in my younger years.

Palestine is so much more.

It has been with them and for them that I grieve for Gaza, for all of Palestine.

. . . . .

I have never read the Book of Amos in the Bible. I never got that far in the Old Testament. So when one of the lectors read from Amos 8: 1-12 this morning, I was amazed with how it began, and what it became. It begins with a vision of a basket of summer fruit, but then it turns into god's righteous rage against her people, Israel. god speaks of her people exploiting the poor and needy, and the consequences of their actions. She laments that this signals the end of her people, and shares with Amos what she will do in response to their decline, and corrupt ways. She will bring a famine, but not of food, but the words of the Lord (which is food in itself). Her people will run in all directions, but they will not find the word of god.

As I listened to the words, I was utterly struck by how this reading applies to the world we are living in today. Our leaders, or many of them, reject accountability unabashedly. The absence of social justice, egregious. Amos shares god's prophecy with god's people in order to counsel them that it is not too late to turn back to the vision she has. To eschew exploiting the poor, and gorging on said exploitation. To have a famine of the words of god, for the people of Israel is to be lost, directionless.

But is this what the so-called religious rich and land greedy are hearing today? Or have they turned away and created their own words again, yet again?

*I hope my Black and Rastafarian siblings forgive me for being inspired by the words of Steel Pulse's Worth his Weight in Gold (Rally Round) for the title to this post.