(Editor’s Note) Our ace reporter’s column last week about protesting the Gaza situation while holding a sign that said “Nurses Against Genocide” has received quite a response.

After contacting the respondents by phone to get their approval, the Westphalia Staff decided to run them as Letters to the Editor.

If you missed last week’s column and want to see it, click on Archives in the Menu Bar above. The archives are still kind of a mess, but we’ve started listing them chronologically, so you’ll be able find it. To get back here, click on Thursday’s Columns.

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Letters to the Editor

Mary Anne O'Neil

Walla Walla, WA

Retired French Teacher

Mary Anne O'Neil

Did you and Culley Jane really go out there and do that? Well, good for you.

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Linda Servey

Denver

Retired Psychotherapist

Linda Servey

Thanks for sharing. I have genocide on my mind a lot. None of the things I do really touch the situation. 

I have contacted political leaders, marched, stood on street corners with signs, and donated to doctors without borders and other charities providing food and water. 

I have joined some actions, texted, emailed etc. with National Nurses United and other groups too numerous to list here. 

I’ve had a sign on my car, urging a cease-fire as the attacks against Palestinians amped up. It’s still there looking shabby and hopeless. Occasionally it prompts a thumbs up response. 

I’ve blasted Netanyahu on social media a lot. He is still in power because too many Israelis allow it. I no longer support Israel. 

I quit donating to certain Jewish charities here in the US that I previously supported because they have used their money and political power to encourage Zionism. If any sympathy for Palestinians is interpreted as antisemitic, their priorities are not mine. (I also abhor White Christian Nationalism and any religious movement that demands their way is the only way.)

Just like with the Vietnam War, the average citizen then had, and now has, no power. I resent taxes being used for things that are deplorable.

I fear our country, and most of the world are too far into oligarchy and fascism for us to do much about it. I don’t want to give up, but I think it’s time for younger generations to step up. 

I know I am privileged. I can afford to lie back into my insulated comfort. I can shut off actually doing anything or even thinking about genocide, world hunger, climate crises, and the plight of refugees, I can ignore it. Unfortunately, that is only temporary respite that rebounds into more angst and guilt. 

A thought sickness indeed.

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Annick Pratberon

Denver

Retired French Teacher.

Annick Pratberon

Good for you nurse against genocide. Is there anything one can do about the trillions of dollars in arms the US is planning to send to the Israel Zionist government so they have plenty of bombs and stuff to "protect" themselves from the parents and children of Gaza, Palestine, Lebanon?

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Walt Marston

Grand Rapids, MI

Retired Urban Planner

Walt Marston

I appreciate your bravery and determination to do this. Nice sign, too. I am the kind of Quaker who has never done any demonstrating. I tell myself I am better at spiritual discernment for myself and others. I think that's true, for me. But, good for you for being true to your leadings.

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Good for you for protesting, but I fear that it will have no effect. The fools who voted for Trump thinking that he would end the war in order to protect the Palestinians were fools indeed.

I feel terrible about what is happening in Gaza, but of course helpless to do anything about it. But then, I feel helpless to do anything about the horrible things that will start happening here on Jan. 20th. The worst, in my mind, will be the promised deportations. What cruel insanity!

I think we can assume that Trump will be in favor of leveling Gaza and letting the Israelis do whatever they want, wherever and whenever. And many other countries are turning far more right-wing as well. The world is going mad.
 
In short, I have never been so depressed in all my life about politics. The feeling of helplessness is agonizing. Maybe if I were back in my 20s, I’d be out on the street protesting another war. But here I am, dealing with complications following my June 3 retinal detachment surgery and my cataract surgeries on Oct. 31 and Nov. 5. Inflammation in my left eye is requiring eight weeks of medicated drops many times a day, and I need two more minor surgical procedures. Only after all that will I be able to get glasses for distance vision. At least I can read and work on the computer. So right now, I am a nearsighted person with no glasses.

But I can still see what’s going on. This is my protest.

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Jerry Gilbert

Denver

Retired Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Jerry Gilbert

Prudy Planet

Chambery, France

Retired Teacher

Prudy Planet

Joan Hug-Valeriote

Guelph, Ontario

Filmmaker,

French Teacher,

Quilting Artist

Joan Protesting in Canada

Regarding your column about protesting… I think I understand.

Shortly after our Ontario premier Ford was elected in 2018 (a bully like Trump), he wanted something that went against our federal Charter of Rights and Freedoms, so he invoked the "notwithstanding clause" in the Charter.

It's sort of a "yes, but-not-in-this-situation" clause put into the Charter by Pierre Trudeau when he finally managed to get us off the Queen's apron strings. Up until 1982, any changes in our Parliament's "constitution," which was a British law called the "Canada Act," had to be rubber-stamped by the British parliament. So he repatriated the Constitution and instituted the Canadian “Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” similar to America’s “Bill of Rights.”

In Article 23 of that document, there are rights to minority language education, for example, and certain rights to Quebec to give them some leverage to protect their unique cultural and linguistic heritage.

In Premier Ford's case, it was not (in my humble opinion at the time) such a case, so I did what you did with your Nurses Against Genocide sign and made my placard, which said "SHAME," and I went to Toronto to stand in front of the legislature for a day.

I doubt I had much, if any, effect on Mr. Ford, but apparently a lot of other people told him the same thing.

Since then, I've been protesting other issues through organizations like the Retired Teachers' Organization and calling the Premier's office with my complaints against his off-the-cuff insanities (sound familiar?). Apparently, if he hears the same thing from enough people he backs down… (can't piss off the voters, you know)…

So yes, I understand your plight. I have another friend who suffers from it. After writing me a very long email detailing her despair and sense of futility, I took a cue from you and told her she had enough material in her email for at least five different letters to the editor and to her representatives in government. I told her to take one of her anti-anxiety pills and go write to those people who might actually be able to do something about it.

As my sister in New Zealand would say..."Good on you!!"

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Gabriella Bertelmann

Denver

Writer, Poet,

Translator, Author

Gabriella Bertelmann

Good deed! Good column! Good ideas! Well said! Thanks!