A Statement Denouncing Political Violence
Friends,
Like many of you, I was disturbed this weekend by the political violence.
Specifically, I was disturbed to see that Israel had bombed a designated safe zone at al-Mawasi, killing 90 and injuring 300 more. Toddlers suffered amputation of limbs, and other children were paralyzed. They also intentionally targeted a family home, killing five people including children. The weapons used in these attacks were paid for with my tax dollars - itself an incredibly disturbing fact.
I was disturbed this weekend by the political violence that is causing more Indianapolis residents to be forced from their homes at gunpoint and sent out into the streets to beg for help. While walking in the park on Saturday, my wife encountered a family with two young children who were extremely skinny and mentioned feeling faint in the 90 degree heat. They were living with their mom and grandma in a car. I was incredibly disturbed that the richest society in human history leaves children to starve and sweat.
I was disturbed this weekend by the political violence that leads to politicians supporting gun policies that kill our children again and again and again.
I was disturbed this weekend by the political violence that uses the force of law to police women’s healthcare decisions, resulting in infants and mothers alike suffering death to protect politicians’ religious beliefs and cozy relationship with conservative donor groups.
I was disturbed this weekend by the political violence that forces children to wear clothes and use pronouns that fly against what feels right to them. This widespread anti-trans political violence would rather see children die than feel comfortable.
Most of all, I was disturbed this weekend by a culture of cowardice among my fellow elected officials. Rather than look inward at the ways we all tolerate and enable the culture of violence in our country and world, many politicians acted as though political leaders alone should be sacrosanct, without acknowledging the blood-soaked context in which we legislate and govern.
Our system of enforced wealth stratification is a system of political violence.
Our system of producing a flood of guns and exporting them onto our streets and into military bases across the world is a system of political violence.
When politicians center themselves and act as though they alone should be safe in this horrifically violent system that they take money to protect and defend, this is nothing but rank cowardice and hypocrisy.
All political violence is abhorrent to me as a Christian, as a socialist, as a pacifist, and as a human being. I will never celebrate or praise anyone pointing a gun or training a bomb at another human being. And I’ll say prayers for the safety and well-being of all people on Earth - but you can bet your life that politicians are the very last names on my list.
No one is free until we are all free.
No one is safe from political violence until everyone is safe from political violence.
In love and solidarity,
Jesse