- United States
- Calif.
- Letter
With election season coming up, what do you think Americans are going to see? Who do you think first-time voters such as myself are going to want? People who care about human lives, or people who stay silent and perpetuate a genocide?
Everywhere I turn, it is another dead body. It is another student being forcefully silenced. It is another protestor being dragged out of "high society" events for "disrupting the peace." You all see it. Mr. President himself has experienced it. Yet the death toll now sits well over 30,000 people. If it were 30,000 Americans being bombed, maybe you'd care. But it isn't. And you don't. Not enough of you seem to care. And if you do, you choose to stay silent. What good will that do for people who cry out to be freed, only to be shut down at every turn? What good will that do for your careers down the line, being known as the ones who stayed silent or the ones who silenced others?
History will not smile down on those who have chosen to turn a blind eye and cover their ears while parents cry desperately for their children, while children wail in pain they should never have to experience. And neither will those of us who still possess a heart.
So yes, I am once again here asking for a swift and immediate ceasefire. I am asking that Israel be held accountable at last for the various war crimes (yes, war crimes) they've committed. I'm asking to look up at my government and for once in my 18 years, 6 months and 9 days see people willing to do the right thing.
We, the people, call for a ceasefire. We, the people, call for fair punishment for Israel. We, the people, who have seen the propaganda for what it is--terribly created propaganda--who have seen bodies blown to bits, who have seen our peers silenced and put in harm's way for being against a genocide, ask for you all to do the right thing at least once in your careers.
We, the people, demand a ceasefire.