Middle East conflict: perspectives I appreciate

I know that everyone’s feeds are overfull with both signal and noise related to conflict in the Middle East. However, I am always grateful to find writers who advance my thinking and/or my feeling while staying true to the deeper goals of justice and peace.

So, I’d like to pause for amplification of and gratitude to:

• Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg for her rebuke of dehumanization and call to awareness that a lot of things are true,

• Camille Hernandez for her research on genocide and insistence that (all) the children are ours,

• Garrett Buck for his honesty around navigating the cocoon of white American privilege in this moment,

• the authors at Gen Dread for connecting the dots between climate and war,

• Jane Ratcliffe for sharing her personal story of inter-generational war trauma, and

• Sarah Bessey for describing how ordinary work can be a north star in extraordinary times.

In addition, I shed tears at this incredible, hopeful story of shalom and seeding peace (shared by Lisa Sharon Harper).

Thank you, teachers, for grounding us and for sharpening both our awareness and our compassion.

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