Amanda Palmer Instagram – It’s a tragedy and it’s a mess. Kids burning, their youth extinguished in the darkest acts of humanity, horrifyingly echoing the halls of Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau…and meanwhile, here in America: we have lost the conversational plot. We don’t know how to be. We don’t know how to deal with conflict. We don’t know how to have painful and nuanced war discussions without ghosting, punishing and canceling one another. We are losing our minds. I was talking to a local mom friend yesterday, she has a 2 and 7 year old. She told me that her neighborhood – in our little hamlet in upstate New York – is socially falling apart because of simple posts like this. She said: I don’t know anymore. This neighbor and that neighbor are no longer speaking; this parent is telling this child never to speak to that child; this house has cancelled that house. I imagine the past. Again and again I find myself coming back to my German studies degree and seeing shades upon shades of 1932. The conditions that gave rise to the unimaginable. Wie geht’s weiter? What would you do? 🎹 I haven’t been posting relentlessly about this situation; I find myself thinking I can add more to the world by creating art, sharing feelings, making space for others to cry, to laugh, to sing. I don’t know. I know there’s no easy answer. I know my heart hurts. I call upon you, as you comment, to speak to me and to one other with compassion and mercy. Reposted from @unicef: We repeat. A military besiegement and ground incursion in Rafah, Gaza, poses a catastrophic risk to the children sheltering there. Many of the children cramped in Rafah have been displaced multiple times and have lost homes, parents and loved ones. Thousands are injured, malnourished, traumatized or living with disabilities. They must be protected, along with the few remaining basic services and infrastructure they need to survive. For over seven months, we’ve witnessed this tragedy unfolding, resulting in thousands of children killed or injured. UNICEF continues to call for an immediate ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and an end to the senseless killing of children.