Someone asked "Where is the American Outrage on Gaza"? [View all]

I can't speak for America, any more than a single Palestinian person can speak for everyone in Gaza, or a single Israeli can speak for everyone in Israel.

But I can speak for myself.

I do not have "outrage".

What I have is heartbreak.

My heart is broken that anyone who might want to discuss or support a realistic way to end this conflict is marginalized, silenced, derided or ignored by those who are certain that only one side is right and has justice and history with them.

My heart is broken by the exploitation of the agony of innocents and the claims that the horrors experienced by only one side matter and those experienced by the other side are trivial or false or, worst of all, justified.

My heart is broken by the lack of places where people who want to bypass the rage, ambition, and greed for power of leaders, can meet one another and talk about common human concerns and experiences.

My heart is broken by the roars of anger and pain and the calls for vengeance in the name of justice and genocide in the name of history.

My heart is broken by the sense that nothing I could do or say would change the trajectory of those bent on killing or displacing everyone they perceive as being in the wrong about Gaza.

My heart is broken by the weight of history that has soaked that stretch of land with blood for centuries in the name of group after group of claimants unwilling to extend tolerance and justice to others and/or exercise moderation and consideration in their own actions there.

My heart is broken by failure after failure of diplomacy and nation-building and aspiration subverted by politics, greed, fear, and hate.

My heart is broken by the awareness that my government is not only no longer interested in appearing as a humanitarian broker of peace, but is actively pursuing an agenda of escalating the misery and chaos. And by the awareness that nothing I can say or do will change that unless and until I have the opportunity again to vote for competent and humanitarian leadership in America.

I do not wish a plague on both their houses (for one thing "both" doesn't begin to encompass the number of interests and parties and groups and human beings whose welfare is at stake there.)

But wishing enlightenment on all their houses seems both futile and disingenuous, even if it is meant in utter heartfelt sincerity.

And so I carry my heartbreak in silence, knowing that it will meet with nothing but scorn, derision, and denial from everyone who "knows" what I "should" be doing or feeling or saying, and be ignored by the rest.

heartbrokenly,
Bright