“When it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this”.

Omar El Akkad wrote this on Oct 25, 2023 as Gaza was being bombed. He's an Egyptian-Canadian journalist who covered the war in Afghanistan and the Arab Spring. As he sheds light on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, what reflects onto us is the power to fight injustice wherever it exists. 

Pay attention to what your government is doing, El Akkad says. 

Recognize what they want you to believe.

Like in America, where we're told that immigrants are the problem. Where we're asked to “just for a moment, for the greater good, cease to believe that this particular group of people are human“. Where we're all on Native Land yet it's ok to tell them to go back to where they came from?

Recognize what they want you to do.

Like in America, where freedom is celebrated until speech becomes too powerful. Where peaceful protest is met with a show of force. Where civilians are threatened by ICE agents in masks, police with tear gas, and troops from the National Guard. Where the administration “wants violence, because in that playing field it maintains every advantage, from bigger guns to total immunity“.

Recognize, so you don't get played.

But say something, do something. Stand on the side of justice.

“Have you heard?” is our way of sharing another point of view on commonly held beliefs. Through this we hope to encourage curiosity, dialogue, and tolerance of diverse ideas.