When I was a child and learned about the Holocaust, I couldn’t stop wondering how something so depraved and abominable was allowed to happen. Why didn’t people stop the Nazis?! Unfortunately, I now have a much better understanding of that apathy due to the past three months of Israel committing depraved and abominable acts against the Palestinians. A genocide is happening before our eyes as people shop after-Christmas sales and draft their New Year’s resolutions. I’ll exercise more! I’ll quit smoking! I’ll finally get organized! As bombs rain from the skies and Palestinians are literally being rounded up and held in a mass detention camp in a Gaza stadium, we’re unironically exchanging Peace on Earth messages.

How did we get here? One huge piece is that the Covid-19 pandemic laid the groundwork for our current indifference. Despite the deaths of millions and long-term disabling of millions more, life has “returned to normal.” Parents were told it was completely fine for their children to be infected over and over and over again in schools as the infections do untold damage to their immune systems. Society was instructed that it was okay for old people to die because, well, they were old. Same for the immunocompromised and disabled. Survival of the fittest, amirite? We were fed the message that only the weak and vulnerable were at risk, so we should resume our normal lives, namely working/producing and buying/consuming. Our “leaders” were wildly successful in getting us to avert our gaze from the ongoing mass death/disabling event that is Covid-19 (and to make that super-easy and convenient, the world’s governments have mostly stopped tracking infections and deaths!) Aside from Zippy, I do not know anyone else in real life (as opposed to people I engage with on social media) who masks. Despite the fact that the virus continues to mutate and become more contagious. Despite the fact that we’ve already seen how this movie ended during the AIDS crisis. Despite the fact that HIV is transmissible via direct contact with bodily fluids, but we’re now facing an unchecked virus that is airborne. Know what the government tells people to do to avoid HIV/AIDS? Don’t share needles and wear a condom. What’s our government’s main message for avoiding Covid infection? Wash your hands. EDITED TO ADD: I meant to also include climate change in here as another example of how they’ve  normalized mass death and destruction.

So, it’s not a huge surprise that many, many people here in the U.S. are also averting their gaze from the slaughter of Palestinians. They’d rather not think about it. They’ve been groomed to not think about such things. We were taught to think only of ourselves (rugged individualism!) and to believe nothing bad will ever come for us, personally. We’re immune to death and illness, prejudice and racism. We will never, ever be “othered.” We are the exceptional people who live in the United States of America, the greatest democracy on earth! Meanwhile, this so-called democracy is behaving in a very undemocratic fashion as it bullies the United Nations and –against the will of the majority of voters–supplies money, bombs, white phosphorous, and unconditional support to the genocidal, right-wing Israeli government that’s been very upfront about its intentions to displace, injure, kill, starve, etc. as many Palestinians as possible so that it may once and for all take ALL the land for Israel.

It’s overwhelmingly grim. But we aren’t powerless.

Please, keep making noise. Phone calls, emails, rallies, vigils, signage. Refuse to look away. Talk to your family and friends about what’s happening. When a neighbor yells, “How you doing?” let them know this U.S.-sponsored genocide weighs heavy on your heart. Pay attention to what’s happening in Gaza and allow yourself to grieve. Cry. Rage. Dance. Laugh. Sing. Go out into nature and absorb the wonder and beauty. Be fully present in this moment and remember our shared humanity. Extend kindness to yourself and strangers.

We’re at this point because we’ve become disconnected from each other and our surroundings. Our survival depends upon us reconnecting and remembering that we are all threads in the same fabric. We are one.

UPDATE: Just as I got ready to post this, the doorbell rang. It was a man from up the street who stopped by to introduce himself. He said his family is Muslim and that they very much appreciate the CEASEFIRE NOW sign in our front yard. He gave us a beautiful box of cookies and accepted my offer to make them a sign for their yard. The entire exchange brought tears to my eyes and deepened my resolve to forge connections.