Dear Friend of APN,
On this day in 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated at the age of 46. Anyone who is old enough to remember can still tell you exactly where they were when they heard the news. I wasn’t born yet, and still, the echo of both President Kennedy’s leadership and his death are such that, 61 years later, I sit here writing about it.
On this day 2014, Tamir Rice was assassinated at the age of 12. We never got the chance to see what Tamir would do in his adult life. We never got to hear his speeches or feel his leadership.
I started my message to you today with this because both of these tragic moments are powerful reminders of national pain, but also of our collective need for community and for action. In challenging times, and these clearly are challenging times, I immediately look for two things. Who are my people, and what can we do?
The good news is that I know the answer to the first question. You are my people.
And this week we, at least for now, answered the second question. When Senator Sanders and a group of his colleagues introduced three Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRD) that would block the sale of certain arms to the Netanyahu government, I took no joy in it. It saddens me to see it come to this. But we came together and supported the conditioning of US military aid because US aid must align with our policies and our values. And the way these weapons have been used in Gaza does neither.
And then yesterday, House Republicans once again brought to the floor a bill, HR 9495, that would grant unprecedented power to the president and Treasury Department to silence dissent by targeting nonprofit organizations, labeling them “terrorist-supporting organizations” and stripping them of tax-exempt status. They wrapped this bill in a false flag of “pro-Israel” and “anti-terrorism” but we were unwilling to accept their pretense and rallied our community against it, bringing large numbers of Representatives with us.
Meanwhile, the United States vetoed another hostage release and ceasefire resolution at the UN, and the International Criminal Court issued warrants of arrest for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.
And this is all just this past week.
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Public, Capitol Exterior, Pennsylvania Avenue[/caption]
For so many Americans, this is a time of national pain. And we know that there is more work ahead of us, as the new Congress and the new administration prepare their agendas. And we are prepared, knowing that it will take hard work and commitment to move the needle on any of the issues relating to peace and justice. It will require truth-telling in difficult spaces.
It will require APN at our best. And it will require you.
We will not back down. And with you as our partner in peace, we will persist, we will remain determined and we will keep asking what we can do for our country.
Please support APN today. Your gift lights the way for us as we enter these darker days.
Thank you for supporting APN and for your commitment to peace.
B’shalom,
