I ask: When we look into the eyes of a Palestinian child begging for food, do we not see the eyes of our own children? Or do we stop ourselves from believing our eyes and decide that that Palestinian child is somehow not a valid human being who is entitled to food?

In George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” the “superior” animals so often repeated “Some animals are more equal than others” that everyone began to repeat the lie and believe it. Can we believe our own eyes and heed our own consciences and not the repeated lies from Israel and too many members of Congress, including some of our own? It is morally wrong for our tax dollars to fund annihilation of a people who simply want to live where they were born, as they have for centuries. Where is our respect and compassion for these, our fellow human beings?

Karen Balabanian
Portland