“It’s a Systematic Slaughter That We’re Funding”

I’m 55-years-old and in my time on this earth I’ve never experienced a more brutal, direct video-taped, in-you-face slaughter of people. Ever. In my life. It’s fundamentally changed me. Seeing this has taken the politics completely out of it for me. I don't want to hear about what elections are going on. . . . I mean, when I saw that girl with her jaw all hanging off, I thought to myself, if that was my son, what would I do? . . . So I don’t care about the election. All I care about is ending [this] genocide. Let’s call it what it is.

It’s a systematic slaughter that we’re funding. . . . And when I see a Democrat [at the National Democratic Convention] grabbing [and trying to remove an anti-genocide protester’s] sign, it tells me all I need to know about the morals and the direction of that party. It tells me everything I need to know about the selection [of Kamala Harris]. They’re not concerned [about what’s happening in Gaza]. And, quite frankly, everytime I think about this, all I can envision is, really, I have no power here. Voting – great, wonderful. But how do you stop this thing?

We saw campuses across the country filled with students and with teachers risking tenure, risking their careers, [protesting against what’s happening in Gaza and our complicity] and getting bludgeoned by cops. If we are not already in a fascist state, I don’t know what one is.

– Steve Grumbine
Excerpted from “Ben Burgis and Steve Grumbine
Throw Cold Water on DNC Good Vibes”
Status Coup News
September 9, 2024

Related Off-site Links:
How Long Can U.S. Lawmakers Ignore These Images of Child Carnage in Gaza? – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, September 9, 2024).
The Live-Streamed Genocide in Gaza Exposes U.S. Complicity for All to See – Omar Suleiman (Common Dreams, September 10, 2024).
“Another Unbearable and Horrific Massacre”: U.S.-Armed IDF Kills Dozens in Tent City Bombing – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, September 10, 2024).
Tariq Ali on U.S. and U.K. Arming Israel’s War on Gaza, Pakistan Protests, and Macron’s Embrace of the Right – Democracy Now! (September 10, 2024).
Forging Peace in Gaza Would Also Help Harris Defeat Trump – James Zogby (Common Dreams, September 9, 2024).
The Horror of It All: The Unbearable Tragedy of a War That Does Not End – Marianne Williamson (Transform, September 1, 2024).
Poll Shows Voter Support for Harris Would Grow If She Backed Arms Embargo on Israel – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, September 6, 2024).
A Last Chance for Harris to Win Back Voters Opposed to Gaza Genocide – Basim Elkarra (Common Dreams, September 6, 2024).
I’m Still Hoping to Vote for Kamala Harris – Benjamin Moser (The Nation, August 30, 2024).
Muslim Voters Evenly Split Between Jill Stein and Kamala Harris, New Poll Finds – Umar A Farooq (Middle East Eye, August 29, 2024).
Democrats Dismiss the Pain of Gaza at Their Moral, and Possibly Political, Peril – James Carden (Common Dreams, August 25, 2024).
“You Must Do Better”: Harris Rebuked Over Failure to Change Course on Gaza – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, August 23, 2024).
Harris Urged to Take “Clear Stance” Against Weapons Sales for Israel – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, July 22, 2024).
“Where Is the World?”: Gaza Mourns Victims as Israel Continues to Target Humanitarian Refuges – Democracy Now! (July 17, 2024).
“Unfathomable”: Lancet Study Estimates Gaza Death Toll May Exceed 186,000 – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, July 8, 2024).
Drafter of Leahy Law Says It Was Never Applied to Israel – Connor Echols (Responsible Statecraft, May 7, 2024).
How U.S. Violates Its Own Leahy Law to Ensure Military Support for Israel – Ali Harb (Al Jazeera, May 2, 2024).
“Genocidal Actions” Persist in Gaza as Israel Blocks Aid and U.S. Weapons Flow – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, April 12, 2024).
Journalist Abby Martin Explains Why She Considers Israel’s Actions in Gaza to Constitute Genocide – Middle East Eye (April 3, 2024).
“A War Machine Out of Control”: Israel Keeps Attacking Aid Workers as Gaza Faces Famine – Democracy Now! (April 3, 2024).
How Do Leahy Laws Apply to U.S. Support for Israel? – An Interview with Charles Blaha, Former Director of the State Department’s Office of Security and Human Rights – Leila Fadel (NPR News, March 26, 2024).
Draft U.N, Report Finds Israel Has Met Threshold for Genocide – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, March 25, 2024).

UPDATES: Trump’s Bonkers Dog Eating Immigrants Claim, Kamala’s Neoliberal Nonsense: An Interview with Steve Grumbine on the Presidential Debate – Status Coup News (September 11, 2024).
Much Ado About Nothing: Tim Walz’s Empty Words on Gaza – David R. Weiss (Full Frontal Faith, September 16, 2024).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Yousef Munayyer: Quote of the Day – August 30, 2024
• Chris Hedges on the End of the American Empire
• Breaking Down Kamala Harris’s DNC Speech on Gaza
• Progressive Perspectives on the Presidential Nomination of Kamala Harris
• John Cusack: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2024
• Phyllis Bennis: “We Can Never Give Up Hope”
• Nina Turner: Quote of the Day – July 24, 2024
• Something to Think About – June 28, 2024
• Kyle Kulinski: Quote of the Day – May 23, 2024
• Judith Butler on the Ongoing Student Protests Against the Gaza Genocide
• Naomi Klein’s Powerful Words on Israel’s and the West’s Ongoing Gaza Genocide
• Outrage and Despair
• “This Is a Genocidal Project”
• “A Genocide Has Been Normalized”
• Voices of Reason and Compassion on the Crisis in Israel and Gaza
• More Voices of Reason and Compassion on the Crisis in Israel and Gaza
• Josh Paul: Quote of the Day – March 28, 2024
• Phyllis Bennis: Quote of the Day – March 28, 2024
• Michael Fakhri: Quote of the Day – February 27, 2024
• Sabrina Salvati: Quote of the Day – January 2, 2024
• Christmas 2023 – Reflections, Activism, Art, and Celebrations
• Jehad Abusalim: Quote of the Day – December 8, 2023
• Ta-Nehisi Coates: Quote of the Day – November 2, 2023
• In the Midst of the “Great Unraveling,” a Visit to the Prayer Tree
• Prayer of the Week – October 16, 2023
• Something to Think About – October 12, 2023
• Eric Levitz: Quote of the Day – October 11, 2023
• Phyllis Bennis: “If We Are Serious About Ending This Spiraling Violence, We Need to Look at Root Causes”
• “Nothing About Today is ‘Unprovoked’”
• “The Mistreatment and Discrimination Against Palestinians Is Not Unprecedented. It’s Baked Into the Foundation of the Political System in Israel”
• Progressive Perspectives on the Ongoing Israeli-Palestinian “Nightmare” (2021)
• Something to Think About – July 29, 2018
• Noura Erakat: Quote of the Day – May 15, 2018
• For Some Jews, Israel’s Treatment of Palestinians is Yet Another Jewish Tragedy
• Remembering the Six-Day War and Its Ongoing Aftermath
• David Norris: Quote of the Day – August 12, 2014

Image: Twelve-year-old Mazyouna, who was injured in Al-Nuseirat by an Israeli missile attack that tore her jaw from her face. Screencap from a video posted on X by Sarah Wilkinson.