All Babies Should Be as Safe as my Babies.
Letting myself be peeled open by the horrors in Gaza. I have been so damn privileged in this life to have the option to look away, to not follow the news because it's "bad for my mental health". Meanwhile I get to sleep soundly knowing my babies are undoubtedly safe in the night and through their days.
I'm struggling to understand how everyone I know isn't absolutely losing their shit about this. 4,000 dead in a matter of weeks. 1,400 of them children. Unarmed civilians trying to survive while cut off from food, water, fuel and being bombed day and night. What number will be high enough to spark the horror of what's occurring? I can understand feeling like you might not know enough to voice an opinion or to bring this up in conversation, or be worried you might say the wrong thing. But take a second to pause and read these words and check in with your heart and especially your gut. This is WRONG, and your body knows wrong. Today at protest an older Palestinian woman took the time to come over and really thank me for being there with my kids. As if standing in the sun and holding signs and chanting slogans and walking around the block is in any way enough. It's not enough. And it's easy to feel truly fucking powerless. But to do nothing and say nothing leaves us complicit in genocide - because make no mistake, that is what's happening in Gaza right now. May we be brave, pull our heads out of the sand, open our eyes, send money, sign petitions, share information, speak out, protest. Watch some footage from people on the ground. Bring this up in your day to day conversation ("I'm not actually fine, thanks - because genocide"). Because those babies are just as wonderful and miraculous and deserving of safety as mine and yours.
To donate money: https://www.thecut.com/.../where-to-donate-to-support...
Petitions for ceasefire:
https://act.oxfam.ca/page/137514/action/1
https://secure.ijvcanada.org/.../gaza-brink-ceasefire-now https://www.justpeaceadvocates.ca/trudeau-stop-enabling.../ https://worldbeyondwar.org/canadastoparmingisrael/
Links for social media accounts to follow - from US Campaign for Human rights toolkit: bit.ly/StopGazaGenocide https://www.instagram.com/p/CySCPAprJ9M/?img_index=1