More than four thousand.

More than four thousand children killed in Gaza in one month.

Three thousand children killed in all wars around the world last year. 

Religious leaders at Williams sounded the alarm. 

They held a vigil against violence. They turned Silence into Hope. 

But the children of Gaza continue to die. 

The bombs haven’t drowned out their cries. 

And the hopeless Silence has returned. 

Heavier.

More crushing.

Students for Justice in Palestine pierced the blackout. 

With a teach-in and appeals made to confront our conscience.

Not a war, a genocide, they tag our walls.

A genocide? some ask.

The truth?

Politics will tell. 

History will judge. 

Law has no say.

Muslim Chaplain Sidra Mahmood called us to our duty as thinkers.

To unveil the purple fog that weighs on our campus.

The Silence that censors each one of us. 

Professor Magnús Bernhardsson gave a clarifying lecture. 

He warned us of the fury of a crisis too long calcified.

Then came learning in action:

Shaina Adams-El Guabli and Anna Moriarty-Lev led a Shabbat to call for a ceasefire.  

A clarion call in favor of what the Silence ignores: 

That science without conscience is but the ruin of the soul.

Rabelais reverberating for centuries.

A cardinal humanist principle, a liberal-arts commitment.

Williams is a vibrant voice frozen:

With no urgent call to save the last of the Gazans,

Do we truly pay honor and respect to the Mohicans?

Souhail Chichah is a visiting lecturer in American studies from France.