Ceasefire now
This originally went out as an email to OITO community via our newsletter on November 13, 2023.
Dear Out in the Open community,
This has been an intense month, within an intense year, within an intense decade, and so on.
Last week in a staff meeting, we talked about how in the face of so many big and grief-filled things happening at the same time, some of us are feeling helpless and isolated while also finding connection through collective action. I talked about the disorienting duality of experiencing both distance from and proximity to the violence and death in Palestine and Israel.
I’m not Jewish and I have been lucky to marry into a Jewish family, who I love very much. There is a lot about Judaism I’ve been honored to experience and learn over the years. Including one of the values we talk about most often in our home Tikkun Olam, repairing & healing the world, and how we are each actively participating in that lifelong work.
It’s in part because of what I’ve learned from Jewish family and community members that I remain firmly rooted in upholding values of and actively working towards collective liberation and freedom for all people.
It’s also part of why Out in the Open is committed to continuing the loud call for an immediate Ceasefire, for an end to the genocide of Palestinians, for an end to antisemitism, for an end to Islamophobia, for an end to equating Netanyahu's actions with the beliefs and actions of all Jewish people, and for an end to the occupation.
I also know that in critically important ways, I’ll always be speaking in solidarity, an outsider in this conversation.
With that in mind (and with their permission), I am also sharing the voices and perspectives of Palestinian and Jewish neighbors, friends, and organizers who live here in Windham County and who were part of organizing a vigil here in October. Join me in absorbing their words and in taking the actions below.
Hear directly from Samia, Naomi, and Fischer here.
Contact members of our Vermont & Maine delegations, encouraging them to call for a ceasefire, especially Representatives Becca Balint & Jared Golden.
Love,
HB