Dear Congressman Ryan,
Thank you for hosting a meeting with us today on zoom. I was only able to stay for two hours and never got a chance to speak, partly because I didn’t know how to raise my hand on zoom for the first hour and then because I had to work at 1:00. And also because you took up the majority of time talking yourself.
I can see that you are genuinely disturbed by what Israel is doing to the people of Gaza.You also seem genuinely confused as to what to do. My solution is to cut off ties to Israel until they stop the slaughter. The idea that Hamas has to agree to a ceasefire also is absurd given the outsized response to their ground invasion. I do not hear you expressing a clear understanding of why Hamas got into power in the first place and how bombing Gaza to smithereens would never stop this cycle of anger and destruction. Your recent votes to stop extra military aid to Israel is too little too late. It is time to do something big right now.
You must speak up loud and clear on this or none of us will believe you have any intention of jeopardizing your campaign funding from AIPAC. This is a core issue for us, as was the war in Iraq that you still seem to carry as a badge of honor even though it was wrong to ever be there. You can only claim allegiance to the flag as a cover for ignorance for so long before I wonder why you are not educating yourself. The situation in Gaza was already brewing before the Hamas attack and you would not listen then. If you had you would have known just like we did that Israel would wage a full scale genocide if given any leeway, and we were proven right, so it would be good to listen to your constituents who have historically been right on all these issues. I did not hear a false word spoken by the people who showed up to speak to you today. It would have been to your better good if you would have talked less and listened more.
Given that this is an atrocity that outweighs any local problems that you may be focused on I think you could arrange another meeting in which you answer briefly all the questions and then let people talk. The idea of the meeting today was good, but I am pretty sure it left most of us frustrated, and it is hard to tell if you actually learned anything.
Sincerely,
CARY KITTNER