A Break From Regular Programming ✌🏽

A side note I've been wanting to share with you.

Photo by Gabriel Dalton on Unsplash

Today’s post is a break from regular programming, but I feel I need to share. I'm recovering from a lull in posting lately and there is something that has been weighing heavily on me, which I want to share with you.

I believe the slowdown came about as the war in Israel started.

The shocking news of the attacks by Hamas in Israel on October 7th in which they killed innocent civilians as well as kidnapped children, women, and men. It was devastating to see the extent to which Hamas terrorized communities and did unrepairable harm. Watching the news, I had a sense of what was coming next, an eye for an eye, most likely. I had no idea the extent to which the Israeli Defence Forces would go. Each day up till today, there was news of massive genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian innocent children, women, and men.

Over here in the US, right on cue, we saw a sharp rise in anti-semitism and Islamophobia spread across the nation, giving white supremacists and hate mongers in both the government and the public an opportunity to vilify and terrorize Muslims and Jews.

On college campuses, Jewish students were targeted with hate speech and were attacked.

In workplaces and social media, the true meaning of freedom of speech became evident as any person calling for a stopping of the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people was accused of anti-semitism and, as a result, was canceled and even doxxed.

I could always just ignore these events, but it is impossible to see the war, all the death and destruction, and the rise in hateful speech take place and not let it affect you.

I hope peace and justice will prevail and, most of all, the loss of innocent civilian lives will stop.

This is a dark time for humanity, but hope for peace remains.

I know this is a challenging topic to talk about, but please feel free to share your thoughts as well.

I will continue with the Friday Gems issue tomorrow. Until then, please take care.

Peace ✌🏽

Rizwan