||| FROM DAVID TURNOY |||
If you have driven through the main intersection in town at Main Street and North Beach Road on Sunday between 11:30 and 12:30, you may have noticed a small group of locals standing with signs calling for peace and for a ceasefire in Gaza. We have been doing this for the last couple of months in the hope of letting others know that peace is in our minds and in our hearts, even as we try to understand and work to stop the violence in Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, and other parts of the world.
We feel the need to hold a space for peace and talk about peace – the need for it and how it might be achieved – and also to let others who may feel isolated in their grief or frustration know they’re not alone. The fact that so many of the weapons being used are coming from our country weighs heavily on our minds.
You are welcome to join us any/every Sunday. If you’d like to receive occasional emails from our Peace Orcas group, you can request being added to our google group by sending an email to: sharmuse@gmail.com
We also want to encourage our county councilors to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire. Although a county resolution doesn’t carry much weight, it does officially express a powerful sentiment of our community and sends a message to our officials on the state and federal levels. In the absence of action from our federal representatives, even though they have received hundreds of thousands of constituent calls for a ceasefire, the next effective action is to have local governments take a stand. City councils like Seattle, Oakland, and Richmond, CA, have passed resolutions in support of a ceasefire.
So, in addition to joining us in town, you can sign a petition calling on our county councilors to pass such a resolution at: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/permanent-ceasefire-now
Here is the language of the petition:
The mass destruction and displacement being unleashed in Gaza must be stopped. Our government is directly aiding this tragedy, and we must ensure our elected officials take a strong stand in support of a permanent ceasefire. People across the country are organizing their local governments to pass resolutions, and it is time San Juan County does the same!
Many Americans, of every religion, feel an obligation to do what we can to end the atrocities in Gaza. If you are of like mind, please join us at the intersection of Main Street and North Beach Road, sign the petition, or both.
At the peace vigil this morning, I was asked if I am against Israel. I responded that I am against the policies of the current government in Israel. As an American Jew, whose family was impacted by the Holocaust and whose great-grandparents fled the pogroms of Eastern Europe, I feel a responsibility to speak out when similar atrocities are committed against other human beings, especially when so many of the weapons being used on those people are being supplied by my government. I realize there is a difficult discussion to be had around this. In no way am I condoning the atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. But I think it’s important to recognize and understand that the violence between these two peoples goes back to 1948. It didn’t start on Oct. 7, or in 1973, or even in 1967. Trauma has to be acknowledged, and healing has to begin somewhere, sometime. Why not now?
Sharon Abreu has expressed it perfectly: the attack by Hamas on innocent Israelis was reprehensible, but so is the indiscriminate slaughter of Gazan civilians by the Netanyahu regime. There must be an immediate ceasefire and a new government in Israel.
Thanks for posting this story and your continuing efforts David.
IMMHO, it is way way past time for US economic and military aid to Israel to have serious strings attached.