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News
Oct 11 2024
As we pass the anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, we are witnessing the predictable horror that unfolds when the arithmetic of revenge – “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” – is taken as an exponential license to crush and exterminate.
The Hamas attack killed 1,200 people, and 254 people were taken hostage from Israel. As of today, 70 of the hostages are known or believed to be dead, and 101 are still in captivity. More than 40,000 Gazans have been killed in the retaliatory attacks by Israel, Gaza’s infrastructure has been decimated, and famine is unfolding. The conflict has recently widened geographically to involve Lebanon, and politically and militarily to Hezbollah and Iran.
Last week, Liam Minielly published an opinion piece in The Record, our student newspaper, detailing how arms deals from the United States are enabling the Israeli attacks. Without debating the disparate words being used to describe this war effort, which include terrorism, counter-terrorism, self-defense, and genocide, there is no possibility that the ongoing violence is bringing about a solution.
The question before us, on this anniversary of anguish, is how we might act for peace. I offer you these beginning ideas. Please add to them.
We cannot succumb to the illogical arithmetic of violence and hatred. Even small actions for peace are a source of hope.
Rebecca Stoltzfus, president
We are in a big social experiment with technological replacements for real human service. I waver on the emotional knife edge, and sometimes I add to the inhumanity. But I realize that there is another choice. What if each time I encounter technology replacing human customer service, I would choose to create a new and positive interaction with someone?
As we celebrate the birth of this nation 250 years ago, to be followers of Jesus is to be a community of loving and liberating people, whose only weapon is love.
I am learning eagerly and rapidly about AI and how it might change our work at Goshen College for the good. At the same time, I want to bring into clear focus what it means to be human. At GC, we are followers of the way of Jesus, who was God expressed in human form: born into a body, living among us and experiencing physical death. My word for the year is human.