Fasting for a Ceasefire in Gaza

I have been fasting from sunrise to sunset on Thursdays since the beginning of the year for a ceasefire in Gaza. I mourn the victims of the October 7 attacks. I mourn the civilians killed in Gaza. My thoughts have been with Yazan al-Kafarneh, with Hind Rajab and the medics who tried to look for her, Youssef Zeino and Ahmed Al-Madhoon, with the three Isreali hostages killed by the IDF: Yotam Haim, Alon Shimriz and Samer Talalka, and many others. There are too many names, too many stories. When will this horror end?

If we have the ability to send people to Mars we should be able to feed people on Earth and give them medicine. We should be able to bring individuals to justice in courts of law. I wish schools could be schools, hospitals could be hospitals, homes could be homes, children could be children, mothers could be mothers and fathers could be fathers. I wish olives would ripen in Gaza, the West Bank and Isreal alike.

I am paying US taxes from the other side of the Pacific and grappling with the complicity of financing this war. I am still planning to vote in the presidential election. I will be looking for my ballot in the mail. This will be a difficult vote to cast.