The Wild Reed: “This Is a Tragic, Heartbreaking Moment in the History of Humanity”

Above: Palestinian student Shaban al-Dalou (right) with his family in Gaza before the Israeli genocide began. (Photo: Instagram via @shabanahmed19)

At right is Egyptian artist Abdullah Wgih’s depiction of the death of Shaban al-Dalou, a 19-year-old Palestinian who was burned alive in an October 13 Israeli airstrike on a refugee tent encampment on the grounds of Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Palestine.

Notes Wikipedia:

The area had been designated as a safe zone and as a result was densely populated with patients as well as refugees who had set up camps around the hospital. Shaban’s story gained widespread attention when a video began to circulate online of him trapped in his hospital bed by the IV drip to which he was connected while trying to get out and burning alive. Shaban’s mother was also burned alive in the fire. Shaban’s younger siblings and father survived but were severely burned in the attack. A few days after the attack, on October 17, 2024, Shaban’s younger brother, 11-year old, Abdul Rahman al-Dalou, died after succumbing to his severe burns. [10/21/24 Update: Farah al-Dalou dies in hospital days after her brother Sha’ban al-Dalou burned to death.]

Shaban al-Dalou (2004-2024)
“He was a hafiz. I pray Allah made the fire ‘cool’ and ‘peaceful’ for him, like he made it for the prophet Ibrāhīm when he was thrown into the raging fire. Ameen.”
– Mossun Riaz

Green Party vice presidential candidate Butch Ware referenced the death of Shaban al-Dalou in a recent campaign speech. He said we should be outraged by the video footage of this young man being burnt alive, but noteed that there’s a difference between outrage (a response that has the potential to propel us forward in constructive ways) and rage (a reaction closely associated with momentary anger and fury).

Ware also talked about the importance of cultivating an inner life of groundedness in love so as to model and embody a society “built in love and abundance and prosperity and goodness, and honoring that which makes us unique and distinct, while also honoring that which we all share in our basic humanity.”

It’s an inspiring call to action, to be sure. And one sparked by outrage over Shaban al-Dalou’s death and the many other atrocities and horrors we see on a daily basis as the Israeli government continues its genocidal assault on Gaza.

It is of the upmost importance that we root ourselves in our meditative traditions, our spiritual traditions, our ancestral traditions. If we do not understand that we are going undergoing cosmic harm as a human family every single hour that this genocide drags on, then our hearts are asleep. This is a kind of cosmic warfare against the human spirit itself. Lean on each other. Love one another. What is really going to get us free is love.

. . . The reality is that in our movement space right now, we have a lot of people who have been traumatized and harmed by white supremacy and are still unhealed. And so we move in the space from a place of anger and rage and fury and even hatred. And we think that this is contructive of something. We must as a community learn to cultivate in our inner beings a distinction between outrage and rage. Outrage, that which propels us forward. We should be outraged when we see such images [of Palestinian people being burnt alive]. Our hearts should bleed and our eyes should weep for the suffering of our brothers and sisters in humanity.

But instead of simply venting that anger and frustration with momentary expression, a moment of anger, let it simmer, let it cook. Cultivate that outrage. Live in that space where you live for your brother and sister in humanity, to stop harm from reaching them.

Hurt people hurt people, and we have a lot of unhealed people in the space. Take care of one another. Connect with the resources of your own tradition. Because the most important thing that we can be thinking about now, if we know all empires fall, is What will replace it? What are we planning to construct? What are we going to build? Are we going to see one another through the revolution with care, with love, with empathy, with community, with solidarity? Because if we are then that has to start in the revolutionary struggle itself. It will not come if it waits till freedom day. Because [if we don’t start it in the struggle itself] we will build patterns and institutional structures that wire our brokenness into them. We will become the next oppressor. We will become the next imperialist if we do not engage in this radical act of love, this radical act of solidarity.

This is a tragic, heartbreaking moment in the history of humanity. But I believe that we will look back on this tragic and heartbreaking moment as the beginning of a new age in human history. With God as my witness, we have everything that we need for all of us to live an existence of prosperity and abundance.

If we had spent the last 40 years trying to maximize benefit instead of trying to maximize profit, human beings would be working about two hours a day, right now, all of us, across the whole planet; and everybody would have what they need to eat. If we actually model the society we want to build, one that is built in love and abundance and prosperity and goodness, and honoring that which makes us unique and distinct, while also honoring that which we all share in our basic humanity, then I know that freedom is coming. Freedom is promised. And may we be alive to see it. May we be the instruments that deliver it. May our children grow and flourish in it.

Say Ameen

– Dr. Butch Ware
Green Party 2024 vice presidential candidate
Excerpted from a speech delivered
on Thursday, October 17, 2024

The Wild Reed

Sunday, October 20, 2024

“This Is a Tragic, Heartbreaking Moment in the History of Humanity”

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