Where’s your big voice? Representatives urged to call for a permanent cease-fire | Opinion

Alone in a simple room, in a simple house, in a simple Kansas City neighborhood, a little girl stands in front of a mirror. She touches her hair — it’s ratty — and her freckles — they’re strange. Her skin is soft, but something is wrong with it. Something is wrong with her.

She’s Black, but she’s too light. She’s light, but she’ll never be white. Strangers speak to her in Spanish, but she knows nothing of her Mexican heritage. The roots she knows sprouted long ago in the South, enslaved to the Chickasaw Nation, then they traveled along the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma. Once they were freed from their chains, they planted mixed-blooded seeds with those of the native tribes, but she’s not Native enough either. She stares into her own dark eyes and whispers, “What am I?”

Do you recognize her, Rep. Davids? She’s like the little dreamer in your book, “Sharice’s Big Voice.” Just like you. Different. And she’s got a big voice, too. She’s screaming. I’m screaming. I won’t stop, not even when fear wraps its icy hand around my neck and squeezes. I’ll scream until my throat is raw, until my lungs shrivel, until my heart stops. I’m the warrior like the heroine in your book, making the choice to stand for humanity and liberation. Now, the little lonely girl is no longer alone. She’s but one of millions fighting for a permanent cease-fire in Palestine, and she’s holding out a hand for you to join her.

For all congressional leaders of Kansas and Missouri to join her.

People are dying. Innocent people. Mothers, fathers, the young, the old. Doctors, academics, journalists. In fewer than 90 days, more than 22,000 lives have been stolen in Gaza, up to 8,000 or more presumed lost beneath the rubble by some accounts, and most are children. Children whose hopes have been spilled in red on devastated roads, whose dreams have been burned down to the bone, whose big voices have been smothered and crushed beneath the rubble of places they loved — schools, mosques, churches, hospitals. Places they once called home, now reduced to dust around them.

These are children like we all once were, only they never had to ask the question, “What am I?” They knew. From birth, Palestinians carry their people’s history within their souls. A history not unlike our ancestors’, full of death, destruction and displacement at the hands of colonizers. The only difference: Our history was then. Their history is now. We know how it ends, but this time we have a chance to stop it, if only you and your fellow U.S. representatives would stand up and speak up.

Kansas and Missouri constituents have spoken with a collective big voice through calls and emails, office visits, letters and meetings, but we have been met with a mostly collective silence. Silence is the loudest statement of all, and representatives are shouting it at the tops of their lungs.

We demand action.

It’s time to be open to the challenge, to learn and to fight. It’s time to come together. Humanity needs you. Gaza needs you. Your Palestinian community needs you. We need you.

Remember your courage. Remember your big voice.

Call for a permanent cease-fire.

This story was originally published January 3, 2024 at 9:26 AM.