What can I say.

What is there to say? I need you to believe with every desperate cell of your body that war can be stopped. It is not a “necessary” evil. It is just an evil that is almost mundane it is so typically human. 

You might think that means that we are destined to always do it. And I am telling you we aren’t (or at least that we can do it a different way than the way we do it now, you know maybe going back to spears and face to face combat).

This problem, like so many human problems, is in part caused by the idea of scarcity. That we don’t have enough. Not enough land. Not enough food. Not enough money.

I want to promise you that we have now shown 10x over with our productivity that we have enough. More than enough. (Read the Nature article on feeding everyone by 2050). 

Fear is not enough. I am sorry, I know your fear feels scary. I know trusting other human beings when this is happening feels scary. You put your boot on the throat of someone else and you are certain that if you take your boot off their neck they will do the same to you. It has to stop. We have to try for the sake of ourselves. No one gets to be human when we indiscriminately allow for groups of people to die because its ‘war’ (or in some cases we convince ourselves its war when its genocide). 

Fear, like any emotion (including pain), is not an indication of something real. Fear is your mind’s attempt to keep you safe. Safety, just like scarcity of resources, is also made up. Unfortunately even if we assure ourselves we are ‘safe’ we are very much doing just that, assuring ourselves. Danger, however, is very much real. And for some of us is far, far more present than it is for others. Our fear is not worth other human beings' real danger.

We have convinced ourselves that the culture of war and money and scarcity is just ‘the way it has to be.’ I am begging you to imagine better. Not just for your sake. Not just for your children’s sake. For all of us, here and now. We deserve it, collectively. You as a child deserved it. Palestinian people deserve it. Jewish people deserve it. 

All folks deserve to live in relative peace with enough food, water, and shelter to live comfortably. With people they love surrounding them. We can make this a reality. I have studied human nature now for over 10 years. I have not had a single doubt over that time span that we are capable of this.

We have to do this together though. One, and even some (150 countries out of 192 and conservatively 200 million United States citizens) is not enough. It has to be all of us. We have to make a concerted effort. Voices heard, money not spent (taxation without representation is theft, remember), money paid forward in support of those suffering, and some discomfort experienced to demonstrate that we are willing to do something for someone else. 

I believe in all of us to eventually get there. Please start taking steps toward that now. Start by prioritizing the love and care of other people over your fear. 

I think all of us have a sense of loving and caring for other people being important to us. Your discomfort is not real pain, you can endure it for the sake of another. You may even feel better afterward. More present, more fulfilled, and maybe even more safe than you felt before. I am not claiming to know everything, but I want to try something, anything different to stop seeing war and death and hunger and destruction happening to people. Because it always happens to people, not their governments.

Please come make that world with me. I want to try. For Lebanon’s sake. For the world's sake. For you and me and our children’s children.

With all love,