Lindbergh baby

John Paul Getty III

Patty Hearst.

Munich

Entebbe 

Iran 

Lebanon

Gaza.

Black September

Idi Amin

Ayatollah Khomeni

Hezbollah

Hamas.

Gilad Shalit

Daniel Pearl.

What could be darker

than kidnapping

and holding

hostages?

This fall 2023,

Hamas’ kidnapping 

of 250 

people

of all 

ages,

has the world

reeling.

Somehow,

the conversation 

quickly shifted

from unspeakable

atrocities

on October 7th,

and the hostage

taking

for nearly a month

now,

to the deliberately

triggered,

hideous

war,

conceived

to decimate

innocents—

the ones 

just trying

to live

above

the tunnels—

the innocents 

who are

supposed

to be liberated

and recognized

to live in

a self-determined

nation state—

intentionally 

doomed 

to suffer 

and die

at the hands

of the

enemy

(Israel),

subjected

to the brutality

of war

just

as Hamas

calculated

along with

massacring 

a kibbutz,

a peaceful

community

across 

the border.

As the world

watches

the horror

in horror,

and diplomats

quietly

seek

negotiations,

profound 

destruction

and devastation

persists

in retaliation.

Hostage taking

works

to call attention

and change

the narrative,

to gain

status,

power,

money.

How quickly 

the conversation

has become

about 

Israeli brutality

against innocent

Palestinian

people

living 

now suffering

and dying

in Gaza. 

Even nonviolent

hostage taking

works:

Tommy Tuberville

Matt Gaetz

Donald Trump.

Who wouldn’t

do anything

to save

lives

and restore

families

and normalcy

and peace?

Hostage takers.

So much 

of politics

is hostage 

taking.

The gun lobby.

As profoundly 

broken

and helpless

as 

we feel

right now,

real

hostages

kidnapped 

from their homes

are still 

in captivity

as bombs

drop

around them.

To those

who struggle

with 

the politics

of everything,

channel

the struggle

to release

and support

those

kidnapped

and held

in captivity

and the families

of the massacred

and hostaged.

Insist on

and contribute to

humanitarian

aid

to innocent

civilians.

We need 

to fall back

to daylight

not add

to the darkness

with political

slogans

and hostile

rhetoric.

I get it.

Our world

feels

out of control

and spiraling

further

away

from all 

that we 

cherish.

Indeed,

too much

is too 

awful.

But we 

have to

begin

to figure out

less damaging

resistance

and build

greater

resilience

because there

will always

be turbulence.

It’s Daylight

Savings Time.

It always 

starts

in the middle

of the night.