Giving Thanks
This Thanksgiving I am grateful that the Detroit City Council passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The resolution asks for an “immediate, durable, and sustained ceasefire” to “protect and save human lives. It condemns “all acts of violence aimed at Israeli and Palestinian civilians and mourns the loss of all civilian lives.” It also recognizes that a ceasefire is an essential first step for peace, saying that “a lasting resolution can only be achieved by peaceful means and diplomacy.”
With this resolution Detroit joins a growing number of cities and towns that are stepping up to put moral pressure on Federal officials. Akron, Atlanta, Ypsilanti, Providence, Seattle, Hamtramck, Dearborn, Richmond CA and Wilmington, Delaware, Joe Biden’s hometown, are among those places where people have come together to push local officials to act in the face of inaction on the federal level.
In Detroit, as in other cities, these municipal votes were initiated by people looking for ways to express the growing collective will that violence stop. They reflect a deepened understanding of the specific role the US is playing in fostering the military destruction of Gaza and in enabling the Israeli government to engage in acts that many international organizations are now labelling war crimes.
Over the course of three weeks, as efforts to stall the resolution emerged, hundreds of people attended City Council meetings, offering testimony in support of the resolution. Many people spoke of ties to family and friends in Gaza, others to the importance of their Jewish heritage encouraging them to question government policies of violence. Others talked about US tax dollars, in the amount of roughly $9 million a day, going to Israel for aid while US cities suffer. Most encouraging were those who spoke to the legacy of Detroit as a leader in human rights struggles and who called upon the Council to act with courage to “stand on the right side of history” and provide clear moral leadership.
I am grateful for all those who organized the fact sheets, talking points, info graphics, and ideas that helped people write to council, call their representatives, and clarify their own thinking. And I am grateful for how these actions represent the emergence of new and renewed political energy to challenge the dominance of the US military and the use of force as an acceptable means of settling international conflicts.
I am also grateful to all the people who are turning out by the hundreds of thousands in the streets to demand a Ceasefire and a Free Palestine. I am grateful for those who are demanding an end to the US role as arms merchant to the world and who are rallying to insist that killing and destruction will not be normalized.
And I am grateful for the announcement of a Ceasefire. Limited as it is. Weak as it is. It is a recognition made possible by the longings of people for peace, the willingness of people to act.
During such horror and grief, there are still moments for gratitude and grace.