edited by Silvia Aldredge
Better Angels walk among us. They can be found in the form of humanitarian aid workers
staving off starvation in Gaza and the doctors working without medicines while being shelled. They are journalists bringing us the story even as the PRESS stenciled on their chest marks them for snipers.
They are the warehouse workers under fire, often wounded, as they load trucks clearly marked as relief aid. There is no cause, no morality more just, than that championed by the non-combatant warrior putting his life on the line for the innocent.
When World Central Kitchen workers were targeted and killed by Israeli Defense Forces this past month, the world mourned the senseless slaughter of volunteers whose goal was to save people from a man-made famine. Yet, the Trump campaign’s response was to encourage further attacks. The Biden Administration expressed outrage and about two hours later, sent more weapons. The Kennedy Campaign didn’t make a statement.
As participants in this campaign, we are the ambassadors for peace. We desire an end to the
forever wars and the unfathomable waste of lives and money caused by politicians. In just one weekend recently, the United States spent approximately $1.5 billion, and put our military personnel into combat, attempting to fend off Iran’s retaliatory attack on Israel. That attack cost Iran around $50 million. With the aid package now passing Congress, we will have sent Israel at least $17 billion in the last month to finance the war in Gaza. That is enough to feed the nearly 2 million Palestinians being intentionally starved, several times over. And have funds left over to start rebuilding the Gaza Strip. In short, for a fraction of the price we are paying for war, we can restore peace. That is if we allow our Better Angels to do the critical work necessary to change this situation and save lives.
We are answerable to God and history for what is happening on the ground in Gaza right now. We are the ones who cry out for truth and the truth is that a child doesn’t deserve our hatred. The wounded the neglect of our scorn. The environment, the poison of our bombs. What is being done is being done in our names. Those are American weapons. American dollars. Our names are on every piece of steel dropped and every piece of lead shot. My question is, where are our voices? I can hear the agony of the suffering but I can’t hear the outrage and disgust of those with the power to stop this: US- We The People.
If we are to be put at risk, then let it be for handing an orphan a food package and not for
raising a tattered flag over a shelled-out building. If my money is to be spent, let it be on
medicines to heal a wound. And if I am to have a political cause, then may I have the honor of
fighting on the hill alongside the Better Angels among us.
