01/03/2026
Today we mourn.
We mourn the still-unidentified Venezuelan civilians killed.
We mourn the siege mentality overhanging the world
We mourn the long ago death of whatever conscience once existed in the US military.
We mourn the lack of any plausible way to hold these monsters accountable.
Today I mourn
I mourn the slow death of Venezuelan sovereignty and democracy under US sanctions, smuggling, and terrorism, to which today's crime is merely the rancid cherry atop the s**t sundae of empire.
I mourn for every Venezuelan mother who thought her children would grow up with a right to housing, a right to employment, a right to participate in their society.
I mourn for everyone doomed to die in heaps of rubble because their government dared to try to build them homes.
I mourn for the Indians, that 8th star on the Venezuelan flag, which the expats in DC and Florida are so eager to erase.
I mourn for the battered and bloodied q***r workers of Caracas- the Bolivarian Revolution's slow turn away from liberation and towards Christianity has betrayed them, but now an unleashed church will exterminate them.
I mourn that we are forever unable to stop each new atrocity, from this violation to the barbaric cheering at the families iced in our very town.
I clutch my daughter tighter in a world I am powerless to protect her from.
The only hope I can see is in someday building a system of aid and support that will sustain us long enough to say "No more". Our only strength is that the gangsters of gold need us, both to make and to purchase whatever they want to sell instead of solving problems. I am still convinced that our best chance of building such a community is right here.
As ever, I thank you for making Ashland a home for me.
Elise Kehle- acting chair, CP Cheq Bay. Candidate for County Supervisor, ward 8
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