Trauma

Friends,
[In addition to my regular Saturday Evening Post this evening I want to announce that I will now offer a separate weekly addition to my SEP focusing on issues of war and peace. I have only occasionally commented on war and peace in my SEP, but because of the pervasive intensity of the war in Gaza especially in my thoughts and heart, I am actually inclined to write on the topic every week, even though I know that is not a subject of particular interest to many of you, and thus I have limited my attention to it. But I have decided I have such a strong leading amidst this especially violent and war-torn time to write regularly on war on peace - maybe if only to seek my own personal clarifications. I am convinced the only way we are ever going to rid ourselves of war and abolish it forever is to continue to name, confront and eliminate the profound tragedy it imposes on the earth. So I must write about it. My weekly column on most Wednesday evenings will be called “Gyroscope: War and Peace In Balance.” Below is my first edition as part of this evening’s SEP. If you wish to sign up to receive “Gyroscope" on a weekly basis, please just write me at [email protected] with your request for Gyroscope, Tom]

Friends,

In order to try to get some perspective on the war in Gaza beyond the military commentaries, the photos of the bombed out buildings, and distraught victims of the war, I was able to watch an hour long podcast this week featuring the report of two members of our Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) staff, Ex. Director Bridget Moix and Middle East legislative director, Hassan El-Tayyab, who had just returned from the Middle East as part of a Churches for Peace in the Middle East delegation. As expected they reported on the dismay and resentment from many, on both sides of the conflict, that the United States was continuing to offer its support to Israel and not making a decisive effort to support a cease fire and assure the delivery of humanitarian aid. They reported on continued efforts by both Palestinian and Israeli peace groups who courageously seek some means of halting the terrible destruction and death that the war is imposing on so many people, especially, of course, innocent civilians, and ever most especially, the children. For those who want to know more about the FCNL report, below are two pieces of information related to their report: A February 16, 2024, New York Times article featuring the FCNL staff and our FCNL “tool kit” for those of you who want to express your comments of the situation.

But for me the heart of the FCNL staff report was the reporting of the impact of the war on the children. Among their other extensive meetings and travel, the FCNL staff visited the long-established Ramallah Friends School where they were able to address a plenary of the students as well as speak to some of the children individually. Even though the Ramallah Friends School has not  been directly impacted by the bombing, they hear the jets and receive information from family and friends who live in Gaza. The children report a combination, as one might expect, of questions about how this all can be happening to their people, why the Israeli government is doing this to them. But mostly they are just so sad. Reports of children unable to speak without crying. The traumatic impact of the war is so evident on these children, even though they were not directly affected. It follows that the children we see in the photos who have seen family members wounded or killed, who have survived the bombings, who continue to live with such dislocation and fear, are subject to even greater trauma.

Each week I select an image to introduce my SEP. Among the many photos of destruction, chaos and suffering in Gaza to choose from, I have chosen one of a little girl from Rafah. The photo draws me to her face because I see both her vulnerability as well as her sense of resolve and inner strength beyond her years as a result of her trauma - her trauma that now becomes the trauma of all the other children in Israel and Palestine and of war itself. The reality is that the photos and media coverage of the war in Gaza is traumatizing us all as we struggle to understand and process the raw brutality and horrors of this particular war. We can barely take it all in.

I will now try to limit further commentary on war on my weekly Saturday Evening Post. If you would like to continue to read my ongoing reflections on war and peace, please do sign up for my “Gyroscope” weekly blog as noted above.

Peace,
Tom