I’m in tears. So beautiful and wrenching. I always feel so helpless when confronted with Gaza deaths. Thank you for giving us ways to help. The pieta is a perfect example of how to love and suffer the pain as we grieve a new Holy Week.
It is hard to fathom these atrocities are occurring right now, before our eyes, while we go about our daily lives. We wake every morning and start our day with coffee and breakfast, send our kids off to school, go to work and lunch then later watch TV and blot out the horror that that is being perpetrated before our eyes. Is this really happening? Where is the outrage?.
I so often think about exactly what you just wrote, and wonder (at the risk of seeming completely out of my gourd, if I haven't already come across that way in some of my previous Substack comments over the last few years... lol)... ...do I (or we, any of us) actually exist?!?
It is just so astonishing (and with fewer and fewer words to express myself to others) what I have witnessed over the past year and a half of this genocide (especially the willful-purposeful ignorance/obliviousness of so many people in this country, and so often solely because they simply don't want to allow anything into their consciousness which might in some way impede their political cheerleading for one of the two corporate "teams") that I can no longer help wondering if anything is real any more... including my own existence. (Of course, all it would take is to actually spend even just one minute in Gaza to dispel any of my, or anyone else's, notions of non-existence.)
Once you understand that we are ruled by sociopaths, high functioning sociopaths (in the sense that most can fake empathy when they need to), but sociopaths all the same, everything they do makes sense.
Yup, for sure… and I will occasionally wonder like how the sociopath, or the sociopathic mind, develops (or whether it just "is"), like what happened to that person along their journey here on this planet… and a bunch of other things I think about in that respect… until I leap off that train, always remembering, coming back to the fact that those gratuitous musings (probably) won’t help in addressing the core issue of sociopaths ruling us (but who knows actually… maybe it could?)… I mean there are tons of things I just don’t get (and perhaps never will) about human behavior… different strokes for different folks… and I actually embrace, often love, that… it’s what makes life interesting, at least to/for me anyway… BUT... being ok with, responsible for, the death of so many innocent humans worldwide... even just one!! (perhaps the definition of "innocent" is different for sociopaths, or varies significantly by individual), or even doing the actual killing oneself, is such a foreign thought to me that when I try to envision myself doing that, or being that way... I just can’t do it...anyway, just throwing stuff, a few things, out there, stream of consciousness… what does/would the “sociopath" spectrum look like… who decides when someone is a sociopath… what if professional opinion differs/varies with respect to an individual then are they sociopaths, or in limbo… is “sociopath” learned or genetically-wired… or both… and… and… and...
There are more than 220 million alleged Christians in the USA. There are also millions of Jews and Muslims in the USA. Of those among them who are not hypocrites, there may be a few million who may join your army.
I suspect that most members of the US Congress and SCOTUS are hypocrites. The entire office and staff of the POTUS are hypocrites. However, they consist of only 0.00018% of the US population. In addition, the total number of all law enforcement and military personnel consists of 1% of the US population.
If you can get the support of merely 3% of the US population to join you, you can overwhelm the opposition. Start by recruiting 10% of your friends, relatives, neighbors and enemies to support your position. Members of Congress fear their constituents and will answer to the loudest and most frequent voices.
Thank you Dennis. You poignantly describe the unconscionable cruelty and macabre nature of the U.S. endorsed and aided onslaught against the people of Gaza. Your work fittingly honors the exemplary resilience perseverance and transcendence of the people of Gaza. It also diagnoses the spiritual catastrophe faced by those directly and indirectly responsible for the hellish and historic bloodletting. How will we ever clean our hands? How can we achieve redemption? How can we atone for these sins? We have not learned the ancient lesson that hatred and ignorance are overcome through love; we have not taken Jesus' or Rev. King's or Eugene V. Debbs' assessment of injustice and the good society to heart. Your work challenges us to begin that spiritual-ethical-political journey.
What is happeneing in Gaza is heartbreaking. I am feeling pretty powerless. Our elections are a joke. The parties always nominate the worst of the worst and with the voting machines, there is no way to tell who the real winners are, anyway. We really need to have Venezuelan-style elections as those are the most accurate in the world. And each U.S... leader expands on the terrible policies of the last administration I wound up writing in my dog in the last election. Our leaders know we oppose what they are doing and they don't care..
The Trump Administraion and everyone in it is owned by Israel.. Trump is deporting permanent residents and others who raise up their voices There may just be a window in which we natural born citizens can speak out. He's looking for a way to deport us too. And most people who get that killing hundreds of thousands or children is psychotic are too lazy or too afraid to stand up. Then there are those who are into Trump Worship Syndrome, the other side of the TDS coin, justify everything the Admin does. And it doesn't help that Bernie and AOC are making this a partisan thing as opposed to a systematic problem.
Your suggestions are all great.. I just hope that those of us who care can make a difference.
"And it doesn't help that Bernie and AOC are making this a partisan thing as opposed to a systematic problem."
Not only is this true, Sanders and AOC conveniently forget the active and conscious support of the Biden Administration in the Israeli campaign of genocide.
And just how many ovations did Netanyahu get as he stood before our Zionist controlled congress. Excuse my cynicism but this current government - both parties - are complicit in this genocide and are very comfortable with it.
You are correct in everything you stated but I believe nothing will ever change until this government suffers a serious and unrecoverable defeat on the field of battle. We as a people have rivers of blood on our hands and that’s just since the end of the Second World War. That we support the ongoing destruction of Gaza and the mass slaughter of innocents should come as no surprise. Remember, we are stitched to the hip of that genocidal entity that calls itself a nation and separating us would be akin to trying to separate Siamese twins with one body and two heads. We think alike therefore we act in unison. Everything we have witnessed these last bloody months has been coordinated and agreed upon.
Thank you Dennis for your voice of sanity.My heart aches when I read these stories. Your "to do" list helps me feel a little less helpless.I have never felt this dismayed and helpless about our country that has become the poster child for a travesty of justice,
Dear Dennis, thank you for your heart felt words, but you should ask yourselves, is it really possible to stop a Genocidal monster without Physically confronting it?
The once dream of the jews has become their curse, a curse stained by the rivers of blood it has spilled.
That once dream place now turned into a nightmare by the insanity of the few, must be cleansed from the sickness which rules it.
And we must also face the fact that as long as israel will continue to be a segregationist and supremacist entity, a true peace will not be achieved.
The bully must be neutralized, removed, as well as not be allowed to remain and keep on bulling.
No fly zone and sanctions should be the final warning.
The regime must be forced to comply or face its disarmament and capture.
And even is some people are still trying do deny the evidences and blood which is already drowning them, history will remember how one israeli prime monster and a bunch of fanatics and Genocidaires which had taken the country, turned the name and flag of their own country, in the forever symbol of misery and hate.
Heart wrenching and written in love for all humanity. Will we humans ever reach a state of universal compassion? To do so will require us to be "well in body, mind, and spirit." An important step toward this is naming those things that make us sick, and acting on them for everyone everywhere. Thank you for this piece.
This is an excellent article. However, I wish Dennis (and other journalists, as well) would stop using the ludicrous death toll number of 55,000 (sometimes I've seen even lower numbers used, even recently). The highly-respected medical journal, The Lancet, estimated the death toll at something like 185,000... and that was nine months ago!!, way back in July, 2024. Anyone thinking about this logically must realize by now that the death toll has to be in the hundreds of thousands, probably far more likely nearing a half to 3/4 million. The entire area, that was basically an "open-air prison" for 2.3 million people, is completely demolished, in ruins of rubble, with probably tens to hundreds of thousands of human beings buried beneath it. It's just so obvious, even just by looking at the photos, that any rational thinker couldn't possibly deny it (and expect to be taken seriously, if they did). And this is very important because using completely ridiculous "official" numbers only benefits the perpetrators of this genocide (the U.S. and it's vassal state, Israel).
The Lancet intentionally used the most conservative figure it could, so as to avoid howls of bias from the usual suspects.
Now, compare the widespread condemnation of Russia, even though the most foaming at the mouth Ukrainian nationalists do not claim anywhere near the same number of casualties after three years, and Russia bending over backwards to avoid harming civilians.
Sadly the death toll from privation, lack of medical resources, clean water and sufficient nutrition is leading to the miserable death of so many. I do not wonder that people do not want to confront the reality of such suffering. Yet they are still tainted with this dark karma and at some point the reality has its way of reaching them where it matters.
Palestinians themselves have been in the streets protesting-not against Israelis, but against Hamas. One man interviewed says the Western protests do more harm than good, because they help Hamas. It is Hamas’ goal to kill every Jew on the planet, as they outline in their original charter. The land issue is secondary to jihadism. Hamas leaders are billionaires living in luxury homes in Qatar and backed by Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood. They have agency. They are highly capable. They started a war knowing full well what would happen. You guys act like it’s “resistance” or “freedom fighters” but this is just PR. Ask any ex-Muslim you may know. They are laughing at gullible Westerners who mean well but don’t understand what’s actually going on and what Islamists end goals are.
Amazing loving compassionate writing. The details of horror and destruction pierce the heart and soul. May peace and restoration come soon. Thank you. 💕🙏
First off, stop supporting "The parties of War and Wall Street" (as Jill Stein calls them) in your words, deeds and checkbook. Secondly, support every independent and third party candidate you can who stands for people, planet and peace. https://gp.org
In a nation that suppresses reports of these tragic crimes and encourages people to turn a blind eye or justify such cruelty, and a so called "government" that provides the instruments of destruction at the people's expense, it is good to know there are a few who continue to make an effort to expose the painful truth. I am ashamed of our churches for their willingness to justify the racism and hateful genocide by the leaders of the state of israel. "We must stand with Israel" they cry. I had to stop attending my little local church with people I care about, where I was pastor for fifteen years until the trustees insisted on complying with the 501 3(c) requirements. They turn their eyes and ears from the truth and are turned unto fables. I arranged to stop paying federal taxes after 911 because I cannot financially support murder for profit, although with the Federal Reserve financial scam they always can print enough fiat dollars to keep the killing going. I can't be a part of that.
"Awakened the moral conscience of people all over the world"? What a sick joke. What kind of "people" would watch genocide and do absolutely nothing to stop it. “Gaza is a live broadcast of humanity’s moral collapse.” To quote from Jim Kavanagh's excellent piece a few days ago, "This is the culmination of capitalist decline, imperialist defeat, and Zionist fanaticism. It is the American answer to the question: Socialism or barbarism?"
I’m in tears. So beautiful and wrenching. I always feel so helpless when confronted with Gaza deaths. Thank you for giving us ways to help. The pieta is a perfect example of how to love and suffer the pain as we grieve a new Holy Week.
It is hard to fathom these atrocities are occurring right now, before our eyes, while we go about our daily lives. We wake every morning and start our day with coffee and breakfast, send our kids off to school, go to work and lunch then later watch TV and blot out the horror that that is being perpetrated before our eyes. Is this really happening? Where is the outrage?.
Not only are these atrocities going on right now, our government is actively assisting.
Let us not mince words. Our government could stop all of this immediately, with a single phone call.
I so often think about exactly what you just wrote, and wonder (at the risk of seeming completely out of my gourd, if I haven't already come across that way in some of my previous Substack comments over the last few years... lol)... ...do I (or we, any of us) actually exist?!?
It is just so astonishing (and with fewer and fewer words to express myself to others) what I have witnessed over the past year and a half of this genocide (especially the willful-purposeful ignorance/obliviousness of so many people in this country, and so often solely because they simply don't want to allow anything into their consciousness which might in some way impede their political cheerleading for one of the two corporate "teams") that I can no longer help wondering if anything is real any more... including my own existence. (Of course, all it would take is to actually spend even just one minute in Gaza to dispel any of my, or anyone else's, notions of non-existence.)
Once you understand that we are ruled by sociopaths, high functioning sociopaths (in the sense that most can fake empathy when they need to), but sociopaths all the same, everything they do makes sense.
I'm afraid you're right. We are ruled by sociopaths. That's what I wrote about this week: Verify Your Humanity https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com/p/verify-your-humanity
Yup, for sure… and I will occasionally wonder like how the sociopath, or the sociopathic mind, develops (or whether it just "is"), like what happened to that person along their journey here on this planet… and a bunch of other things I think about in that respect… until I leap off that train, always remembering, coming back to the fact that those gratuitous musings (probably) won’t help in addressing the core issue of sociopaths ruling us (but who knows actually… maybe it could?)… I mean there are tons of things I just don’t get (and perhaps never will) about human behavior… different strokes for different folks… and I actually embrace, often love, that… it’s what makes life interesting, at least to/for me anyway… BUT... being ok with, responsible for, the death of so many innocent humans worldwide... even just one!! (perhaps the definition of "innocent" is different for sociopaths, or varies significantly by individual), or even doing the actual killing oneself, is such a foreign thought to me that when I try to envision myself doing that, or being that way... I just can’t do it...anyway, just throwing stuff, a few things, out there, stream of consciousness… what does/would the “sociopath" spectrum look like… who decides when someone is a sociopath… what if professional opinion differs/varies with respect to an individual then are they sociopaths, or in limbo… is “sociopath” learned or genetically-wired… or both… and… and… and...
I don't know which is worse:
The fact that the honored country I grew up in has facilitated the destruction of the Middle East
or
The Americans cheering on and supporting its destruction.
I hope the mindset of Americans will change, but as of now I feel like an army of one... which is no army at all.
An army of one is a good start.
There are more than 220 million alleged Christians in the USA. There are also millions of Jews and Muslims in the USA. Of those among them who are not hypocrites, there may be a few million who may join your army.
I suspect that most members of the US Congress and SCOTUS are hypocrites. The entire office and staff of the POTUS are hypocrites. However, they consist of only 0.00018% of the US population. In addition, the total number of all law enforcement and military personnel consists of 1% of the US population.
If you can get the support of merely 3% of the US population to join you, you can overwhelm the opposition. Start by recruiting 10% of your friends, relatives, neighbors and enemies to support your position. Members of Congress fear their constituents and will answer to the loudest and most frequent voices.
Pray for peace. Invoke his army. And know that you are not praying alone.
The army of one is multiplying, rapidly; you are not alone.
No more war!
Nobody cares what the populace thinks or wants.
Well, I think Dennis does, and that's why he did what he could (which was way more than I could with my attendance at 'protests' ).
I perhaps should have said that nobody with authority cares.
Or
Nobody with the mass media “on” switch.
A lot of people care. We don’t control the wat profiteering mass media.
Dear Dennis
Excellent, thank you. I will publish as my lead on Good Friday.
Pieta by Michelangelo.
I saw this blessed masterpiece at the 1964 / 1965 New York World's Fair as a six-year-old boy, and was awed by it.
May you and Elizabeth have a blessed Holy Week.
Love Is The Answer
Mark R. Elsis
Thank you Dennis. You poignantly describe the unconscionable cruelty and macabre nature of the U.S. endorsed and aided onslaught against the people of Gaza. Your work fittingly honors the exemplary resilience perseverance and transcendence of the people of Gaza. It also diagnoses the spiritual catastrophe faced by those directly and indirectly responsible for the hellish and historic bloodletting. How will we ever clean our hands? How can we achieve redemption? How can we atone for these sins? We have not learned the ancient lesson that hatred and ignorance are overcome through love; we have not taken Jesus' or Rev. King's or Eugene V. Debbs' assessment of injustice and the good society to heart. Your work challenges us to begin that spiritual-ethical-political journey.
What is happeneing in Gaza is heartbreaking. I am feeling pretty powerless. Our elections are a joke. The parties always nominate the worst of the worst and with the voting machines, there is no way to tell who the real winners are, anyway. We really need to have Venezuelan-style elections as those are the most accurate in the world. And each U.S... leader expands on the terrible policies of the last administration I wound up writing in my dog in the last election. Our leaders know we oppose what they are doing and they don't care..
The Trump Administraion and everyone in it is owned by Israel.. Trump is deporting permanent residents and others who raise up their voices There may just be a window in which we natural born citizens can speak out. He's looking for a way to deport us too. And most people who get that killing hundreds of thousands or children is psychotic are too lazy or too afraid to stand up. Then there are those who are into Trump Worship Syndrome, the other side of the TDS coin, justify everything the Admin does. And it doesn't help that Bernie and AOC are making this a partisan thing as opposed to a systematic problem.
Your suggestions are all great.. I just hope that those of us who care can make a difference.
Thank you for all you do
"And it doesn't help that Bernie and AOC are making this a partisan thing as opposed to a systematic problem."
Not only is this true, Sanders and AOC conveniently forget the active and conscious support of the Biden Administration in the Israeli campaign of genocide.
And just how many ovations did Netanyahu get as he stood before our Zionist controlled congress. Excuse my cynicism but this current government - both parties - are complicit in this genocide and are very comfortable with it.
You are correct in everything you stated but I believe nothing will ever change until this government suffers a serious and unrecoverable defeat on the field of battle. We as a people have rivers of blood on our hands and that’s just since the end of the Second World War. That we support the ongoing destruction of Gaza and the mass slaughter of innocents should come as no surprise. Remember, we are stitched to the hip of that genocidal entity that calls itself a nation and separating us would be akin to trying to separate Siamese twins with one body and two heads. We think alike therefore we act in unison. Everything we have witnessed these last bloody months has been coordinated and agreed upon.
Thank you Dennis for your voice of sanity.My heart aches when I read these stories. Your "to do" list helps me feel a little less helpless.I have never felt this dismayed and helpless about our country that has become the poster child for a travesty of justice,
Dear Dennis, thank you for your heart felt words, but you should ask yourselves, is it really possible to stop a Genocidal monster without Physically confronting it?
The once dream of the jews has become their curse, a curse stained by the rivers of blood it has spilled.
That once dream place now turned into a nightmare by the insanity of the few, must be cleansed from the sickness which rules it.
And we must also face the fact that as long as israel will continue to be a segregationist and supremacist entity, a true peace will not be achieved.
The bully must be neutralized, removed, as well as not be allowed to remain and keep on bulling.
No fly zone and sanctions should be the final warning.
The regime must be forced to comply or face its disarmament and capture.
And even is some people are still trying do deny the evidences and blood which is already drowning them, history will remember how one israeli prime monster and a bunch of fanatics and Genocidaires which had taken the country, turned the name and flag of their own country, in the forever symbol of misery and hate.
Thank you for sharing
As someone wisely said, 'When peaceful change becomes impossible, violent change becomes inevitable."
Heart wrenching and written in love for all humanity. Will we humans ever reach a state of universal compassion? To do so will require us to be "well in body, mind, and spirit." An important step toward this is naming those things that make us sick, and acting on them for everyone everywhere. Thank you for this piece.
This is an excellent article. However, I wish Dennis (and other journalists, as well) would stop using the ludicrous death toll number of 55,000 (sometimes I've seen even lower numbers used, even recently). The highly-respected medical journal, The Lancet, estimated the death toll at something like 185,000... and that was nine months ago!!, way back in July, 2024. Anyone thinking about this logically must realize by now that the death toll has to be in the hundreds of thousands, probably far more likely nearing a half to 3/4 million. The entire area, that was basically an "open-air prison" for 2.3 million people, is completely demolished, in ruins of rubble, with probably tens to hundreds of thousands of human beings buried beneath it. It's just so obvious, even just by looking at the photos, that any rational thinker couldn't possibly deny it (and expect to be taken seriously, if they did). And this is very important because using completely ridiculous "official" numbers only benefits the perpetrators of this genocide (the U.S. and it's vassal state, Israel).
The Lancet intentionally used the most conservative figure it could, so as to avoid howls of bias from the usual suspects.
Now, compare the widespread condemnation of Russia, even though the most foaming at the mouth Ukrainian nationalists do not claim anywhere near the same number of casualties after three years, and Russia bending over backwards to avoid harming civilians.
Sadly the death toll from privation, lack of medical resources, clean water and sufficient nutrition is leading to the miserable death of so many. I do not wonder that people do not want to confront the reality of such suffering. Yet they are still tainted with this dark karma and at some point the reality has its way of reaching them where it matters.
Palestinians themselves have been in the streets protesting-not against Israelis, but against Hamas. One man interviewed says the Western protests do more harm than good, because they help Hamas. It is Hamas’ goal to kill every Jew on the planet, as they outline in their original charter. The land issue is secondary to jihadism. Hamas leaders are billionaires living in luxury homes in Qatar and backed by Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood. They have agency. They are highly capable. They started a war knowing full well what would happen. You guys act like it’s “resistance” or “freedom fighters” but this is just PR. Ask any ex-Muslim you may know. They are laughing at gullible Westerners who mean well but don’t understand what’s actually going on and what Islamists end goals are.
Amazing loving compassionate writing. The details of horror and destruction pierce the heart and soul. May peace and restoration come soon. Thank you. 💕🙏
If both of our political parties are pro-war now, what are we to do as a nation?
First off, stop supporting "The parties of War and Wall Street" (as Jill Stein calls them) in your words, deeds and checkbook. Secondly, support every independent and third party candidate you can who stands for people, planet and peace. https://gp.org
I have voted for Jill Stein every election since 2012.
In a nation that suppresses reports of these tragic crimes and encourages people to turn a blind eye or justify such cruelty, and a so called "government" that provides the instruments of destruction at the people's expense, it is good to know there are a few who continue to make an effort to expose the painful truth. I am ashamed of our churches for their willingness to justify the racism and hateful genocide by the leaders of the state of israel. "We must stand with Israel" they cry. I had to stop attending my little local church with people I care about, where I was pastor for fifteen years until the trustees insisted on complying with the 501 3(c) requirements. They turn their eyes and ears from the truth and are turned unto fables. I arranged to stop paying federal taxes after 911 because I cannot financially support murder for profit, although with the Federal Reserve financial scam they always can print enough fiat dollars to keep the killing going. I can't be a part of that.
The Pieta represents how Empires use sectarian violence to advance their imperialist agenda. Humanity is the collateral damage.
"Awakened the moral conscience of people all over the world"? What a sick joke. What kind of "people" would watch genocide and do absolutely nothing to stop it. “Gaza is a live broadcast of humanity’s moral collapse.” To quote from Jim Kavanagh's excellent piece a few days ago, "This is the culmination of capitalist decline, imperialist defeat, and Zionist fanaticism. It is the American answer to the question: Socialism or barbarism?"
Collapse URL to article: https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/04/14/collapse/
Posted By Jim Kavanagh On April 14, 2025
Can we admit how completely fucked we are?
P.S. Socialism or Barbarism? Give us Barabbas!