Volume 26: TW: GENOCIDE
Take care of yourself; Take care of others
What is the Community Deathcare Digest, you may ask? What are our values? What do we do in moments like these? What do we stand for? How do we, as deathworkers, respond to the way certain members of our community die?
We always do what we have done from the beginning. We respond. We do not remain silent in what we think of as safety. Because we know this is not real safety. Not for others and not for ourselves. We speak about deaths that need to be spoken about. It is what we believe in. As deathworkers. As caring people. As people who have hope.
Hope is a strange thing at a time like this. How to sustain it? What it even means? Perhaps this is a volume about hope more than it is about anything else. How deathworkers are among the most hopeful people I know. How in the face of death, how because of death we remain hopeful for all possibilities. Because we see the true capacity of humans when we are at the end. We see the beauty and full possibility of our potential when we work with those who are contending with endings. Endings of all kinds.
We believe in all of you. We believe in those who are struggling against all odds. We believe in those of you who are struggling with the end of belief structures that have been your guide for entire lifetimes. We believe in what comes after because we have seen what comes after death. After grief. It can feel like the fullest expression of our time on this planet. Of our capacities to love. We can only allow ourselves to change. To be moved by what happens around us. To be moved to a new world. We remain open to love. We stand with all of you. We stand with Palestinians and believe in their struggle to survive and love and make beauty in impossible circumstances.
Death worker and artist Anjali Benjamin-Webb has written this loving statement and created the art below in solidarity of Palestinian people for our community of deathworkers. We hope it resonates deep within you. What would you add?
Deathworkers in solidarity with Palestine
◦ May my death not be decided by another. Let it be free from suffering, and far from the hands of the oppressor.
◦ May death to come naturally to me, a warm and welcome embrace.
◦ May I die on my ancestral land free from displacement and occupation.
◦ May my body be in the hands of my people. May some trace of me be left.
◦ May my people know life more than death.
◦ May I be surrounded by the comforts of home; be it a place, a feeling, or a hopeful destination
◦ May I have dignity even after the end. A door, four walls, an old tree, a hole dug in the ground, a hill to die on, a song to carry me home
WHAT IS GOING ON
8,000+ Palestinians have died in the last three weeks from Israeli violence. Almost half of these deaths belong to children. What is going on predates the events of a few weeks ago. It is a 75+ year project of displacement, genocide, and settler colonialism rooted in Zionism and fueled by America. We must stay true to history. It is not Hamas who started this or Palestinians or Muslims or Iranians. We understand the history and the stories of the Palestinian people who are attempting to live their lives. We cannot imagine our own actions given scenarios which are beyond our comprehension. We do not know what we would do given decades of degradation, murder, land theft and terror. We should never find ourselves in the position of justifying murder, genocide, displacement. Never.
We mourn children who are dying. We mourn all children. They are all our children. We do not stop mourning children at borders, at religion, at culture.
We understand that learning is necessary in this moment. But also that falling back on this idea that things are too “complex” for our understanding is a tactic that is used by oppressive regimes. We can understand with our hearts what we know to be wrong.
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WHAT CAN WE DO
DEMAND A CEASEFIRE. However you can. Wherever you can.
PROTEST, everywhere, however you are able. It’s working. It’s changing things.
National March on Washington - Sat November 4th.
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SUPPORT THE PALESTINIAN-LED BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT & SANCTIONS MOVEMENT #BDS
CALL CONGRESS
TEACH OUR CHILDREN AND BE OPEN TO LEARNING YOURSELF.
ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT - Teaching about the Violence in Palestine and Israel
LEARN ABOUT THE US IMPERIAL WAR MACHINE AND HOW INTERCONNECTED OUR STRUGGLES ARE
FOLLOW PALESTINIAN VOICES. FOLLOW BLACK FEMINIST VOICES.
DONATE
We repeat the calls made for assistance from Volume 25: Falasteen Focus curated for us by our dear Sameerah.
The Palestinian Feminist Collective (PFC) stands with our people in Palestine and seeks to support their steadfastness. In partnering with Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA), the PFC upholds our collective and communal responsibility to sustain the basic survival and sumoud, courage, creativity, hope, love, selflessness, and determination necessary to realize liberation.
Join us for the PFC x MECA Uplifting Community: Fundraising Call which will support families directly displaced as a result of this assault on Gaza. We are raising funds for food, medicine, and women’s hygiene products. Donate here: bit.ly/PFCxMECA and please help spread the word!
TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF
