as we step into 2025 (an arbitrary threshold with just one meaning at this moment – the shattering reality that a holocaust has been enabled and supported for more than a year in full view of the world), i feel unsettled. the cognitive dissonance that many of us have experienced since october 2023 (or since forever) seems heavy. on the one hand, i am thankful for my family and friends and the fact that we live in relative security, on the other, i am intensely aware of the suicidal gluttony, violence and vulgarity that underpin all systems promising safety in exchange for genocide. the brutal murder of robert brooks in a graphic video that’s impossible to watch, reminds me of the bodies being starved, exploded, pulverized, and piled into mass graves in gaza. i want to write something about the racial dynamics of it. the word ‘dehumanization’ is so overused, it’s lost all meaning. what is truly happening when the black or brown body is savagely penetrated, its skin broken, its borders breached? the mind boggles at the viciousness embedded in white supremacist colonial ideologies, and the widespread silence, convoluted justifications, and hardcore denial they entail. i have no faith in any of these systems – capitalism, the nation state, settler colonial logics, imperial bs, or international ‘rules’ and pompous political rhetoric. the only thing that makes sense is community, resistance, and indigenous/ palestinian ways of living in concert with the land and its inhabitants, with respect and generosity. may 2025 be a year of peace and connection. may 2025 be the year we celebrate palestinian freedom.