From our series on Israel and Palestine since the bloodshed began on Oct 7th, 2023. Since the bloodshed in Israel and Palestine began on Oct 7th, community leaders across the U.S. are responding with Revolutionary Love and organizing grief circles and vigils. On Sunday, those inspired by See No Stranger organized a powerful vigil in front of the White House to grieve together + call for ceasefire. They wrote: “We centered our grief and our empathy both for Palestinian lives and for Israeli lives. We refuse to place a hierarchy of value on human life. We know that violence cannot build peace. W ..read more

If you are finding it difficult to function, it’s because we have not witnessed children massacred on this scale, this efficiently, in this short a time, in our lifetime. 3,500 Palestinian children have been killed in the Gaza Strip in 3 weeks. More than the number killed in all armed conflicts across the globe, in more than 20 counties, in a year. The moral injury of watching and doing nothing exceeds the risk of speaking out. What to do: Call and email your representative. It is a numbers game. Tell them you want a ceasefire resolution and a release of all hostages. Tell them you grieve the ..read more

If you are finding it difficult to function, it’s because we have not witnessed children massacred on this scale, this efficiently, in this short a time, in our lifetime. 3,500 Palestinian children have been killed in the Gaza Strip in 3 weeks. More than the number killed in all armed conflicts across the globe, in more than 20 counties, in a year. The moral injury of watching and doing nothing exceeds the risk of speaking out. What to do: Call and email your representative. It is a numbers game. Tell them you want a ceasefire resolution and a release of all hostages. Tell them you grieve the ..read more

The state of Israel called the attack by Hamas its 9/11 — and has used it to justify overwhelming retaliatory violence in Gaza. And this is before the ground invasion begins. Even our President asked Israel to consider the “mistakes” the U.S. made after 9/11. Here’s what I wrote about our nation’s response to 9/11: “Before Americans even had time to process our shock and count our dead after 9/11, our energies had been redirected for war. On the very night of the attacks, President Bush declared a ‘war against terrorism’ and divided the world into us and them: You are either with us or again ..read more

I know your heart is already processing grief. I know the images of hurting children have been relentless. This is a face I need you to see, a name I need you to know. His name is Wadea. He is six-years-old. He is a Palestinian American child in Plainfield Township in Illinois. On Saturday, his landlord came to his apartment; his mother opened the door. The man attempted to choke her, then stabbed her, yelling, “You Muslims must die!” She ran to the bathroom to call 911. When she emerged, she found her son stabbed twenty-six times. Wadea Al-Fayoum is dead. His mother Hanaan Shahin is in crit ..read more

Horror like the ones we are seeing in the Middle East tears a hole in our hearts. It’s like a black hole that sucks in all language and meaning and sense. There are no words for horror such as this. If we keep staring into the abyss, frozen in front of the screen, we might fall in too. Too numb to feel. Too hopeless to do. Who can hold you steady so that you don’t fall in? Who can breathe with you? Only when there is enough breath in our body can we push. You don’t need to do all the things, only the one that’s yours to do. 1. DONATE. If you have resources, send it to the families and childre ..read more

Our most powerful response to the horror in Israel and Palestine is to refuse to surrender our humanity. You will be told by some: The deaths of Israeli children are unfortunate but inevitable, because Israel’s occupation of Palestine is brutal and wrong. You will be told by others: The deaths of Palestinian children are unfortunate but inevitable, because it is the only way to keep Israel safe from terror, and Hamas brought this on its own people. You will hear: Our aggression is the only response to their aggression, our fear more justified than their fear, our grief more devastating than t ..read more

Dear Family, Happy Vaisakhi! Vaiksahi is the springtime harvest festival celebrated through India. It’s also the day that Sikhs around the world celebrate as the birth of the Khalsa, a beloved community committed to the path of the sant-sipahi, the sage-warrior. Let me share what Vaisakhi means to me — and how it’s part of the origin story of the Revolutionary Love Project. As a little girl growing up in the Sikh tradition on the farmlands of Califiornia, my grandfather was my sage-warrior. He saw the world through the eyes of wonder, listened to kirtan with hi ..read more

When I was a law student, there was no one who looked like me on the walls. Then Heather Gerken became dean — the first woman to lead @yalelawschool — and she put up portraits of living alumni in the halls. We brought Kavi here when he was three— and he found Mommy! Last weekend, I was invited back to speak to alumni on the movement we are building for revolutionary love. This is how I started my address: “Being back in this classroom brings back memories. I remember sitting right here and wanting to disappear. That first year, learning the law was like drawing close to a language of p ..read more

The summit at the White House was extraordinary! The first time a US President has brought survivors of white supremacist violence to the White House for a summit. I’ve often felt we’ve been toiling in the dark since 9/11, trying to wake America to how white supremacy was breaking our bones and ripping our country apart. But on this day, our pain was witnessed — and our work uplifted. President Biden gave a national address and recognized 16 leaders as “Uniters” healing America. It was among the greatest honors of my life. AND my heart ached for the grief in that room. For you who have ..read more