I fear nothing but fear itself. And the fear of letting go of what we know in place of embracing what happens when we stand firm on principle will continue to be the barrier to progress.
There is no choosing a lesser of two evils, only the rejection of evil. You do not have to support one evil to avoid another. That is a false choice and a game of manipulation that kept slaves in the United States from fleeing the plantation for fear of a worse fate if they abandoned the oxymoronic “good slave master.” Fear of a worse fate keeps those with a compromised self-worth feeling beholden to an abusive relationship. Fear of a worse fate keeps people silent when they see abuse. Fear of a worse fate makes us comfortable with the colloquial devil we know.
But what happens when we turn our back on that familiar devil? What happens if we replace fear with hope and principle?
One of the most beautiful quotes that a friend who was a member of the Dream Defenders relayed to me was that it takes optimism to be a revolutionary—not cynicism. It requires envisioning a reality outside of what we’ve been given, a level of faith that the masses can do the right thing.
I have no crystal ball to tell you what will happen between now and November, but as of today, I have seen that President Joe Biden has funded the massacre of at least 40,000 people in Palestine, most of them children. More will die from malnutrition, and more from bombs. Even by Biden’s own admission, Israel must do more to “protect the lives of civilians.” Still, there’s a simple answer: Stop the bombing. He hasn’t asked that of Israel. Biden is writing the checks for bombs continually and then lightly scolding Israel for doing the same thing over and over again.
What makes those children who suffer in Palestine any different from my own child? What more worst-case scenario is there than the loss of life? What if I lost my child? How would I stomach hearing someone say they support the person who paid for the bomb that blew off my child’s limbs because the other has a scarier agenda? I would resent them for believing they have no power to change the binary of a choice between Biden and Trump.
At times, I’ve thought of the image of Mamie Till sorrowing over the mutilation of her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, and I wonder how many people deluded themselves into believing that that reality was the best version of life that existed.
I’m in great company with the 14 percent of Durham voters who cast Democratic ballots and voted “no preference” in this year’s primary. I’m in great company with the protesters who successfully agitated for a ceasefire vote at the Durham City Council.
The only way we can change anything is to start changing ourselves—our thinking, our actions, our principles. When we say “abandon Biden,” we name his candidacy specifically because there was a point where we were made to believe that Biden was decent for the world. Massacres later, we learned it wasn’t true. We don’t have to say we are abandoning Trump, because we were never there, and there is no connection to abandon.
But Biden is the placeholder for the word “fear.” We’re abandoning the fearful false choice that justifies support for a man who sends money to an operation to kill and remove a people. We’re at peace with the decision to detach from that wielder of pain, at peace with being principled and focusing our money, energy, and solidarity on those with a conscience and a plan to make this world better.
I am a person of faith. God has never indicated to me that turning my back on evil will create more evil. But God has shown me that if I want a world like Jesus desired, there’s no place for settling for any version of evil. There’s no place for fear, only love. It is out of my love for Mamie Till’s baby Emmett Till, and the Palestinian mother’s baby I don’t know, that I will not associate myself with anyone who is indifferent to another mother’s baby dying in the name of an alliance.
I am not naive. I, like many in this movement, in the Triangle and throughout the world, am very informed. We understand how this works.
To align with this movement isn’t to zero in on one issue. It’s an acknowledgement that our continued financial and military support for the massacre and removal of Palestinians is a connection, reflection, and intersection of every issue we as oppressed people see at home. Food insecurity of children domestically, starvation of children abroad. The militarization of police domestically, the militarization of police abroad. The reproductive injustice at home, the sterilization of reproductive systems abroad. The immigrant crisis at home, the refugee crisis abroad. The low wages, student debt, lack of health care, underfunded school systems—the competition between funding the quality of life at home and pledging funding for military operations that destroy life abroad.
If it’s easier for critics to reduce our analyses and firm principle to “one-issue voting”—genocide being the issue at hand—I’m fine with that being where I draw the line.
In November, if you vote out of what you consider to be fear for what may happen in the future, that’s on you. If we abstain, based on the current situation and our principles, that’s on us. If Joe Biden loses because he ignored the cries for an end to human suffering, that’s on him.
Full stop.
Special thank you to Dr. Burhan Ghanayem, Dr. Rania Masri, and Dr. Ajamu Amiri Dillahunt Jr. for their scholarship, local organizing, and activism for Palestine here in the Triangle.
Desmera Gatewood is a neurodivergent, Black, non-binary writer and organization development practitioner. They get joy from parenting, sudoku competitions, and group facilitation.
Voices: Why I and Others in the Triangle Didn’t Bend for Joe Biden on Super Tuesday
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I fear nothing but fear itself. And the fear of letting go of what we know in place of embracing what happens when we stand firm on principle will continue to be the barrier to progress.
There is no choosing a lesser of two evils, only the rejection of evil. You do not have to support one evil to avoid another. That is a false choice and a game of manipulation that kept slaves in the United States from fleeing the plantation for fear of a worse fate if they abandoned the oxymoronic “good slave master.” Fear of a worse fate keeps those with a compromised self-worth feeling beholden to an abusive relationship. Fear of a worse fate keeps people silent when they see abuse. Fear of a worse fate makes us comfortable with the colloquial devil we know.
But what happens when we turn our back on that familiar devil? What happens if we replace fear with hope and principle?
One of the most beautiful quotes that a friend who was a member of the Dream Defenders relayed to me was that it takes optimism to be a revolutionary—not cynicism. It requires envisioning a reality outside of what we’ve been given, a level of faith that the masses can do the right thing.
I have no crystal ball to tell you what will happen between now and November, but as of today, I have seen that President Joe Biden has funded the massacre of at least 40,000 people in Palestine, most of them children. More will die from malnutrition, and more from bombs. Even by Biden’s own admission, Israel must do more to “protect the lives of civilians.” Still, there’s a simple answer: Stop the bombing. He hasn’t asked that of Israel. Biden is writing the checks for bombs continually and then lightly scolding Israel for doing the same thing over and over again.
What makes those children who suffer in Palestine any different from my own child? What more worst-case scenario is there than the loss of life? What if I lost my child? How would I stomach hearing someone say they support the person who paid for the bomb that blew off my child’s limbs because the other has a scarier agenda? I would resent them for believing they have no power to change the binary of a choice between Biden and Trump.
At times, I’ve thought of the image of Mamie Till sorrowing over the mutilation of her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, and I wonder how many people deluded themselves into believing that that reality was the best version of life that existed.
I’m in great company with the 14 percent of Durham voters who cast Democratic ballots and voted “no preference” in this year’s primary. I’m in great company with the protesters who successfully agitated for a ceasefire vote at the Durham City Council.
The only way we can change anything is to start changing ourselves—our thinking, our actions, our principles. When we say “abandon Biden,” we name his candidacy specifically because there was a point where we were made to believe that Biden was decent for the world. Massacres later, we learned it wasn’t true. We don’t have to say we are abandoning Trump, because we were never there, and there is no connection to abandon.
But Biden is the placeholder for the word “fear.” We’re abandoning the fearful false choice that justifies support for a man who sends money to an operation to kill and remove a people. We’re at peace with the decision to detach from that wielder of pain, at peace with being principled and focusing our money, energy, and solidarity on those with a conscience and a plan to make this world better.
I am a person of faith. God has never indicated to me that turning my back on evil will create more evil. But God has shown me that if I want a world like Jesus desired, there’s no place for settling for any version of evil. There’s no place for fear, only love. It is out of my love for Mamie Till’s baby Emmett Till, and the Palestinian mother’s baby I don’t know, that I will not associate myself with anyone who is indifferent to another mother’s baby dying in the name of an alliance.
I am not naive. I, like many in this movement, in the Triangle and throughout the world, am very informed. We understand how this works.
To align with this movement isn’t to zero in on one issue. It’s an acknowledgement that our continued financial and military support for the massacre and removal of Palestinians is a connection, reflection, and intersection of every issue we as oppressed people see at home. Food insecurity of children domestically, starvation of children abroad. The militarization of police domestically, the militarization of police abroad. The reproductive injustice at home, the sterilization of reproductive systems abroad. The immigrant crisis at home, the refugee crisis abroad. The low wages, student debt, lack of health care, underfunded school systems—the competition between funding the quality of life at home and pledging funding for military operations that destroy life abroad.
If it’s easier for critics to reduce our analyses and firm principle to “one-issue voting”—genocide being the issue at hand—I’m fine with that being where I draw the line.
In November, if you vote out of what you consider to be fear for what may happen in the future, that’s on you. If we abstain, based on the current situation and our principles, that’s on us. If Joe Biden loses because he ignored the cries for an end to human suffering, that’s on him.
Full stop.
Special thank you to Dr. Burhan Ghanayem, Dr. Rania Masri, and Dr. Ajamu Amiri Dillahunt Jr. for their scholarship, local organizing, and activism for Palestine here in the Triangle.
Desmera Gatewood is a neurodivergent, Black, non-binary writer and organization development practitioner. They get joy from parenting, sudoku competitions, and group facilitation.