Image by Mohamed Nohassi.

Every spring, someone in my town posts hand-drawn TURTLE CROSSING signs near the roads where turtles lay their eggs. I’d never actually seen one crossing and used to wonder why anyone bothered with these signs.

But then yesterday, I spotted a small painted turtle inching across the road, likely returning to the pond after burying her eggs. I considered moving her, but worried I’d throw off her inner compass.

Then today, on a morning bike ride, I saw a massive snapper the size of a watermelon, slowly making her way across the asphalt. I got off my bike and paused the podcast I’d been listening to: Peter Beinart’s interview of Israeli journalist Gideon Levy.

Levy said many Jews, both in Israel and the U.S., shut their hearts to Palestinian suffering. They skip the disturbing images of destruction and starvation, avoid the headlines, ignore the unbearable. His words brought to mind The Zone of Interest, the Oscar-winning film about an Auschwitz commandant’s family unmoved by the screams beyond their walls. What’s chilling is how ordinary people adapted, how they built lives alongside atrocity by refusing to see the victims as fully human.

As........

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