Click here to read the full Happenings email for this week.
| Dear Kent Streeters, I am troubled. On the political left – among progressives, moderates, independents, Democrats – there seems to be a divide, always present, that is now developing into an ever deeper and widening chasm. I do not know how we bridge this divide. I see people I admire and respect who, though aligned on so many issues, now declare the other complicit in the worst of atrocities. I find myself, at times, judging others with a severity that threatens to preclude the very connections and dialogue that we need now more than ever. To be honest, I am wary to even try to talk about this – afraid that I will be accused of being a genocidal, war monger on the one hand or the worst kind of leftist antisemite on the other. I have been all but accused of being both this week. I am neither. Nor are the people I know and work with. Instead, I see people of goodwill trying to navigate the most difficult moral challenges while falling far short of having answers. I see some who understand with utter certainty that the destruction in Gaza is nothing short of genocide, another Nakba. I see others who understand the attacks of October 7th as its own kind of genocide, a memory of the Holocaust and a reason to never forget the very why of Israel. Still others stand aside, feeling that they don’t know enough to have an opinion, troubled by their own lack of certitude. Here at home, we see an alarming rise in antisemitic attacks against Jews – deadly and violent. We see hate-driven attacks against Muslims – also, deadly and violent. Too often these attacks are happening in the most sacred of spaces – houses of worship – as we tragically saw this week in San Diego. Speaking out against one type of hate must never be seen as negating another. We must name hate whenever and wherever we see it and stand together in doing so. Somehow, we have to connect with one another through the generational, unmetabolized pain that is here and present, not across continents but in our own communities. Pain needs to be honored. It needs to be acknowledged. Sometimes that is the only thing we can do when we don’t have other answers. Sometimes it means holding two things at once, even though they seem to be irreconcilable. The one thing I know is that we cannot afford to let the pain and the hurt divide us because we share too much and because so very much depends on us being able to work together. Maybe every act does not need to be seen as a political statement, but instead might be seen as a human statement – a way of connecting – a way back to community. I don’t exactly know how we bridge the divide, but I suspect it begins with embracing a bit of humility and giving each other a certain measure of grace. For me, this work is incredibly humbling…sometimes it is so hard to know what to do when there is no one right way. I do know that I find strength, hope and yes, grace, from being in community with all of you. It is in community that we are more likely to assume best intentions, recognizing that there is more that connects us than divides us, and that our shared values provide the path back when we lose our way. With eyes on the prize, Louise |
Kent Street Coalition 