The following are Kirkridge-community-member Bill Wylie-Kellermann’s words at a press conference on Tuesday, August 26, 2025.

I confess that for a press conference I find myself at a loss for words. So let me begin by reading something of a journal entry from the beginning of this fast…

“my friend Hassan, 84,

remembers in his family’s forced walk, the Nakba,

and works without rest

decades relentless

in the name of free

Palestine, now

drops his hands to his side.

all but spent, at wit’s end 

and the body’s powerless seem,

he begins, nothing left 

to lose,

a fast. 

at least he can refuse to eat. for and with the people.

when tongues grow thick and dry, limbs thin

as they starve.

nothing for him but liquids and the heart’s pain. 

the medicos watch 

his weight, clock his vitals.

a personal counting and a call,  

love become pure grief.

me? a doc charts my own ailments and 

warns, parses, permits.

so. I am along for the collective rolling fast.

a day at a time and limit certain.

something foregone as intercession,

the solidarity of spirit. 

tuesdays for the heart’s rhythm 

ache upon ache upon ache.

always before, time to break, to take that first

bite, simple and sweet with gratitude 

the mouth wells and waters ready, but now

I can barely swallow, thinking 

of children’s faces, the huge 

beaten and empty pots

held out. toward me. where I am in this world

I read this partly because this morning I’m at a loss for words.

In a month when we remember the US bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 

What do say when Gaza looks so much like a Hiroshima rubblescape.

Maybe nothing more than recognizing that the US and Israel have dropped

The equivalent of six Hiroshimas on Gaza.

What do you say when “food aid stations” are designed as razor wire corridors of death,

Lined with American mercenaries firing automatic weapons.

In my own Christian tradition, bread is a sacrament of community and the very presence of God.

In Judaism it is a sign of liberation, of walking free.

In Islamic tradition it is the emblem of hospitality, of love, justice and extended table.

So what do you say when bread is used as a weapon, an instrument of genocide.

At least you say it is not only a violation of international law, a crime against humanity,

Not only an assault on the most basics of human moral witness,

You say it is a blasphemy against God

Leaving us all but speechless.