Thanks to https://www.azquotes.com/ for this image!

We know there are children in Gaza who wish they had died along with the rest of their family. Being aware of the horrors of war, the genocide, can make it hard for us to feel joy and gratitude, yet we know these are needed for a better world.

Even if I [Jan S.] can’t wish that anyone else would self-immolate, to end their complicity with the horror of war, I can still feel deep gratitude for Aaron Bushnell. He challenges us: “Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now,” he wrote.

A friend he met in the Air Force, who became a conscientious objector, Levi Pierpont, said he would have begged Aaron not to go ahead with his extreme act of protest. Now he asks that we, who are still alive, honour the message that Aaron left.https://www.democracynow.org/2024/2/28/aaron_bushnell_self_immolation_gaza_protest

One way to do that is to question the whole institution of war. When we say no to war, what can we say yes to? There is the power of nonviolence. For example, Julia Bacha’s film, Budrus, shares the story of how local factions, including Hamas and Fatah, also Israeli supporters, succeeded in the early 2000’s in saving villages, including Budrus, nonviolently. [Julia Bacha’s 10 min. TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F_qwKbgmNs

Julia Bacha reminds us that we give energy to what we pay attention too. Let’s remind our media to share the uplifting stories of community building and nonviolence, that are the true antidote to war and injustice. (There are many sources for such news, including: https://nonviolentpeaceforce.org/

Although there is no draft to recruit soldiers, our governments still use our resources, including taxes, to push violence here in Canada and abroad. One first step to ending our complicity in this injustice is to withhold the military portion of our taxes or we can simply declare our conscientious objection. Conscience Canada offers its Peace Tax Return as a useful tool to this end. Check out the PEACE TAX RETURN to learn more: https://www.consciencecanada.ca/?page_id=132