From Cori Bush’s exit interview in Politico.
The Spilled Guts of What My Language Has Become
The opening of a recently published essay called “Notes to Gaza’s Beloved Dead” by Palestinian-American poet George Abraham. Click here to read the entire essay at Atmos.
A promise to our dead and (briefly, necessarily, though not consensually) resurrected: I am searching for a form through which my words might be capable of, one day, holding you. I will not make you object or spectacle. This world is already super-saturated with your viscera, and so, the only way I know to write to you is not with words but with the spilled guts of what my language has become. I cannot focus on anything but you these days. The world is spiraling onwards, intent on burying you, unmourned. The ruling class are reaching for an unmournable world through your bodies. But even in my inability to turn away, my looking itself becomes a violence. As you become content, become news and feed, my looking becomes a unit of capital from which corporations profit. I am hoping, instead, to wander with, and not from, you. To you, and to the living who commit themselves to you, I am responsible. To you, I owe what little life I have left to give.
With These Commitments
From the conclusion of Olly Costello’s opening note to their 2025 calendar. Every month is breath-taking. Order it here.
What must we do to build the power to finally topple these capitalist imperialist systems and end the cycles of violence we keep inheriting? To be honest, I don’t really know but I am determined to be a part of figuring it out. When I really think about where to go next, I know that the answers emerge out of our relationships. What we learn together, what we fight together, working through hard things together, what we are willing to build together…
So I’m gonna start here with these commitments: to rise up against mass death and refuse despair and abandonment, to educate myself and others about the critical connections between imperialism and capitalism, to practice love through resistance, to bring people into this work, to shape this rage inside of me into the fire that forges new bonds, and to ground in the knowing that “what we do in connection makes the world.”
ADVICE TO MYSELF #2: RESISTANCE
By Louise Erdrich (above), published in Orion Magazine’s beautiful 2017 compilation of essays “Women and Standing Rock”
Resist the thought that you may need a savior,
or another special being to walk beside you.
Resist the thought that you are alone.
Resist turning your back on the knife
of the world’s sorrow,
resist turning that knife upon yourself.
Resist your disappearance Continue reading “ADVICE TO MYSELF #2: RESISTANCE”
Find a Palestinian
From Kendra Savusa, a Palestinian-American artist (above) in the US South. This is a re-post from social media (12.18.2024). Follow and support her work here.
I used to think part being a good Christian woman meant holding my tongue all the time, something I’ve never been good at—and in some cases, that is still the wisest thing to do. But this past year, every time I’ve wanted to remain silent, I’ve felt an overwhelming push from God to speak.
So here I am, day 437, still speaking.
To my fellow Christians who have chosen silence, who have clung to what they’ve always been taught, who have stood with the powerful instead of the oppressed—I’m asking you to reconsider.
This week at my church, we reflected on Jesus washing His disciples’ feet—the ultimate act of humility and service. What would it look like for us, as His followers, to lower ourselves in the same way, to serve those we’ve been taught to fear or dismiss?
I pray that 2025 is the year you “find a Palestinian” (in the words of my friend, Amy) and allow yourself to be humbled enough to learn from them.
Continue reading “Find a Palestinian”Unwrapped
By Tommy Airey, re-posted from his weekly newsletter (12.22.2004)
On the first Christmas day, right after Mary the unwed pregnant teen gave birth to her first child, the Gospel of Luke says that she wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger.
Because there was no room in the inn.
On Good Friday, much later in Luke’s story, a rich man named Joseph took down the body of Jesus from the cross, wrapped him in a linen cloth and laid him in a tomb.
Continue reading “Unwrapped”The Laws of Motion
Nikki Giovanni joined the Ancestors last week. She was eighty-one. This is one of her poems called “The Laws of Motion.”
The laws of science teach us a pound of gold weighs as
much as a pound of flour though if dropped from any
undetermined height in their natural state one would
reach bottom and one would fly away
Laws of motion tell us an inert object is more difficult to
propel than an object heading in the wrong direction is to
turn around. Motion being energy—inertia—apathy.
Apathy equals hostility. Hostility—violence. Violence
being energy is its own virtue. Laws of motion teach us
Still in the Rubble
Tomorrow morning. Check here for link to livestream.
To Advance Our Collective Understanding
Our friends and comrades at Mennonite Action are offering a great opportunity to learn in community tomorrow night.
Don’t miss Mennonite Action’s next opportunity to be in community together — and to advance our collective understanding of the connections between antisemitism and Christian nationalism.
Join our mass call on Thursday, December 19 at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT to learn more about the history of antisemitism and the rise of present day antisemitism.
We will be joined by authors, academics, and organizers to discuss how antisemitism is deeply interwoven with the far-right Christian nationalist politics of many of our country’s leaders.
We are excited to welcome the authors of Safety through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism, Shane Burley and Ben Lorber, as well as University of Notre Dame Professor Atalia Omer. These speakers will help us think through how we can stand in solidarity with other members of our communities to push back against rising violence toward the Jewish people.
We hope to see you on our December 19 call to learn more about how we can organize against all manifestations of hate and oppression in our work for liberation in Palestine — and continue our work for the liberation of all of God’s children.
No Matter What the Colonizers Say or Do
White Christians and Jewish Americans have been socialized to be scared of images like this. But isn’t this is pretty much what Mary the Palestinian Jewish teen mother of Jesus would have looked like?
In the Gospel of Luke, it says that Mary prayed to a God who brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly. A God who has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty!
Mary was part of the resistance.
As she called on a Power greater than empire, Mary summoned what Palestinians call sumud. Steadfastness. Standing firm in the face of occupation. Never surrendering their humanity and dignity. No matter what the colonizers say or do.
Here’s to all the courageous young people on college campuses in 2024 who pitched tents and got arrested as they demanded that their campuses divest from companies profiting off of land theft and genocide.
Radical Discipleship 