What to learn?

As I write another donation check to World Central Kitchen and prepare my 2023 tax return that will fund ammunition to attack humanitarian convoys in Gaza, what did I learn from resisting war tax in 1976?

As I read of Israel devastating Palestinian communities and slaughtering civilians at 26 times the violence of Hamas, what can I learn from America’s near total obliteration of indigenous communities and its 21st century retaliation for the 9/11 terrorist attack?

As I try to relate to the difficulty achieving a two-state solution for Palestine and Israel, what can I learn from challenges of sustaining sovereignty of Wabanaki in Maine and Native Americans nationally?

As I begin to understand how Jews fled persecution in Europe to settle in Palestine; Europeans escaped famine, poverty and religious persecution to “settle” in North America; and African and Central/South American emigrants escaped political, economic and climate crises to try to join European American “settlers” in the United States; what can I learn from the challenges of being siblings and neighbors on planet Earth?

There is a lot to humbly and earnestly acknowledge, apologize for, hope for acceptance, atone for, and find ways to move forward in right relationship with all others.

May we emerge from the darkness of the eclipse with clearer light on solutions.

Mark Rains

Vienna

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