Ben Dinh
Mohammad al-Ma’sawani
Juan Carlos Ontivero
Ademović Sejdalija Muj
Osama Mohammad Shbeir
Joseph Ryan Allen
David Scott Agnes
Héctor Mario Patino
Sergio Guillermo Prado
John Jack Andreacchio
Ademović Adem Zulfo
Alberto Teodoro Noailles
Bit Buon
Carlos Alberto Oliva
Buk Pha
Jamal Abu Lebda
Janice Marie Ashley
Enrique Carlos Pecoraro
Alicia Irene Naymark Gabe
Mukul Kumar Agarwala
Enrique Pankonin Abis
Ademović BeaijHuso
Emmanuel Akwasi Afuakwah
Bassem ‘Ajjour
Víctor Hugo Paciaroni
Alberto Santos Ponce
Be Ban
Michael J. Armstrong
Abdurahmanović Sakib Idriz
Ademović Munib Huso
Gustavo Gabriel Olmedo
Richard Dennis Allen
Born Phan
Ademović Huso Adem
Eugenio Roberto Pedrozo
Celicia Podolsky de Bronzel
Rodolfo Ortiz Escobar
Telmo E. Alvear
Alicia Isabel Pérez de Astorga
Bou Phorn
Ademović Bajro Hamid
Bol
Doreen J. Angrisani
Diego Muñiz Barreto
Ademović Hamed Adem
Ana María del Carmen Pérez
Bou Y
Ben Dinh
Juan Carlos Ontivero
Ademović Sejdalija Muj
Osama Mohammad Shbeir
Joseph Ryan Allen
David Scott Agnes
Héctor Mario Patino
Sergio Guillermo Prado
John Jack Andreacchio
Buk Pha
Jamal Abu Lebda
Janice Marie Ashley
Enrique Carlos Pecoraro
Alicia Irene Naymark Gabe
Mukul Kumar Agarwala
Enrique Pankonin Abis
Angelo Amaranto
Mohammad Mo’in Abu ‘Ajwa
Anas Taiseer al-Hinnawi
Ademović Bajro Osmo
Bou Sor
Ademović Mustafa Ramo
Ademović Avdo Ševko
Mohammad Issam Jouda
Ademović Sadik Mustafa
Ricardo Poce
Ademović Avdo Nurija
Raúl Enrique Oxley
Victoria Alvarez-Brito
Bun Na
Hugo Reinaldo Penino
Mohammad Wa’el al-Khodary
Peter Craig Alderman
Antonio Pandolfino
David D. Alger
Elba Beatriz Pirola de Rivelli
Ademović Enver Adem
Bo Sok
Rafael Andrés Perrota
Julio Enrique Pérez Andrade
Ademović Bahrudin Behaija
Ademović Mustafa Mujo
Ezra Aviles
Ademović Sead Ramo
Hugo Alberto Parente
Boy Len
Mohammad Abdul-Rahman
Bun Sani
Bakk Try
Rubén Amadeo Palazzesi
Luis Alfredo Peralta
Nasser Abu Maraheel
Abdullah Jibril Abu Aser
David Lawrence Angell
Carlos Alberto Pérez
Nilda Graciela Peters
Félix Jorge Pérez
Lidia Neptalis Otarola
Jacquelyn Delaine Aldridge- Frederick
Christopher E. Allingham
Bun Ra
María del Carmen Percivati Franco
Héctor Germán Oesterheld
Craig Scott Amundson
Pablo Daniel Musso
Abidović Ibrahim Rašid
Anna S. W. Allison
Ademović Abid ΩRamo
Bun Run
Ademović Esed Mustafa
Francisco Gregorio Ponce
Bauy Suon
Carl Francis Asaro
Abdurahmanović Idriz Fehim
Mercedes Gerardo Ponce
Julio Poce
Osvaldo C. Paludi
Ban Ouch Nil Pich
Cesar Amoranto Alviar
Hayat Abed-Rabbo Abu Dahrouj
Suheir Abu Mdein
Jorge Luis Perón
Jorge Luis Piotti
Rosa Eugenia Novillo Corvalan
Guillermo Perot
Bun Vonn
Sophia B. Addo
Laura Angilletta
Michael A. Asciak
Abdurahmanović Hajrudin Šefko
Jorge Gabriel Pujol
Boc Pin Ban Sarin
Cristina Isabel Planas
Thomas J. Ashton
Ademović Avdija Šerif
Ademović Fadil Fajko
Shadi ‘Oleiwa
Alberto José Pargament
Mohammad Riyadh Abu Aser
Adriana Silvia Nieto
Armando Prieto Alonso
Ademović Suljo Šaban
Gloria Martha Olivieri Ramos
Janet Marie Alonso
Born Chheng Ny
Alejandro Víctor Pina
Ademović Nezir Alija
Mohammad Husam al-Breem
Patrick Adams
Eduardo Oviedo Morales
Banner Sarabad
Mario Daniel Oyarzabal
Brian G. Ahearn
Bun Kry
Eduardo O'Neill
Jorge Eduardo Pérez Brancatto
Bour Khammav
Ignatius Udo Adanga
Agustina Muñiz Paz
Mahmoud Suleiman Sheikh Eid
James M. Amato
Ademović Sinan Bajro
Eduardo Horacio Moyano
Trudi M. Alagero
Ana Maria Ponce
Héctor Osvaldo Polito
Ademović Azem Bećir
Carmen Liliana Nahs de Bruzzone
Lorraine Antigua
Bour ChBun Meng Ly
Alberto Marcelo Oro
Jorge Emilio Papetti
Silvana Parrile de Salinas
Ademović Ohran Adem
Bun Ry
Beatriz Haydee Neuhaus de Martinis
Anthony Alvarado
Bader Hashem Abu Mnei’
Michael Edward Asher
Kazuhiro Anai
Edward L. Allegretto
Joseph Amatuccio
Heinrich Bernhard Ackermann
Ademović Avdo Taib
Otilio Julio Pascua
Rosa Angélica Murno
Osvaldo Plaul
Ademović Ramiz Huso
Joshua Todd Aron
Frank Thomas Aquilino
Sauro Antonio Obreque
Ana María Piffaretti
Ademović Lutvo Nezir
Ademović Medo Uzeir
Ademović Mesud Suljo
Joanne Marie Ahladiotis
David Manuel Ostrowiecki
Ademović Hamid Adem
Born Ben
Victor Humberto Ovejero
Aurora Valentina Pico de Garbarino
Victor Hugo Nuñez
Ademović Samil Abid
Ademović Adem Osmo
Today
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
RE: Resignation
I cannot do this anymore.
Ever since I heard about her, I feel like I have failed.
I was the one who told her that she shouldn’t look away from the realities
of Others. That however distant strangers’ lives might seem,
it is her responsibility, her duty — as someone who has been born into a place with no war simply through dumb luck — to always look for ways to embody solidarity. Hope. Ally-ship. Empathy. Sympathy. Action. Compassion.
How can I not hold myself responsible for what she decided to do?
For the last ten years I have told my students that they need to become agents of change.
To work tirelessly for a world in which people learn from the mistakes of the past.
For a world that does not repeat patterns over and over and over and over again.
How can I be surprised, now, that one of these students chose a path which has left children without a mother?
I have instructed dozens of young people to imagine. To imagine a world in which governments
don’t squabble over terminology to delay intervention. A world in which youth become adults
who thrive in murky terrains of complexity rather than individuals who exist within
simplistic categorizations of “good” and “bad.” That the whole point of education is to ensure
that someday, in the not-too-distant future, young people will become architects of a world
that knows it must pause and shift when there is a threat to justice anywhere. Anywhere; not only in those places which are home to people who look like them.
Have there been others like her? Is she simply the only one I found out about?
I have made thousands of students stare at The Wall. My Wall of Names.
The Wall that I have painstakingly built. The Names that I’ve demanded — with every passing massacre —
that my students witness and recognize and mourn. So deeply, so intensely, that these disembodied
names become stories. Perspectives. Lives. So deeply, so intensely that these names seep into their skin. Their hearts. Their bones.
I made her like this, didn’t I?
If not entirely, in large part?
I tell my students, every day, that we are learning for a world that should be. That could be.
That must be.
A world that is beyond what is.
A world that wants to be beyond what is.
And by laying down her life for a land to which she is a stranger, she has done everything
I have asked of her. She made the Other part of her Self. She made her Self a part of the Other.
I can try to alleviate my guilt by saying that I never teach my students to choose violence.
Never have I ever told them that they should choose weapons to manifest change.
But, if I am to be completely honest, never have I ever told my students not to choose violence.
Did I make this choice consciously? Did I somehow intend to — by
not explicitly denouncing the use of arms —
give them permission? Did my silence serve to glorify the role that violence might play in
de-constructing world orders?
Did I kill her?
Am I responsible for two young children not having a mother?
I don’t know.
I don’t know what to do. As a human. As an educator.
I don’t know anymore.
I don’t know what to ask of my students.
I don’t know what to ask of myself.
Should I take down the Wall?
Ever since I heard the news of her death it takes every ounce of energy I have just to come here.
To walk through the doors and to look at my students.
What do I teach them now?
I go about my classes and pretend that I haven’t played a part in making a new kind of soldier.
A new kind of fighter. The kind that goes to faraway lands to kill and be killed while
surrounded by languages that she does not understand.
Should I be telling my students that solidarity has limits?
I walk home and see flags waving outside of windows. Flags that are hoisted in support of one war
but not another. In solidarity with some peoples but not others.
Should I be proud of her?
The home that I left in the morning to escape the wars raging inside me becomes, in the evening,
a refuge from my students. And the wars that rage outside.
Should I be ashamed?
I cannot silence the wars. Those that rage outside and within.
Should I absolve myself of responsibility?
Everything hurts.
Maybe my methods are not at fault.
Maybe she was just born this way.
Maybe her choice was hers and hers alone.
Maybe it was some other teacher whose teachings led her to her death.
Maybe her babies are actually proud of their mother’s decision.
Maybe the people she fought for/with will thank me, for playing
a part in creating the kind of human who goes to war for lands that are far from home.
Or maybe they will not even realize that the body whose fragments lie in their dust is made
from another land’s soil.
Maybe she will just be forgotten.
Maybe she will become another name on my Wall.
A new Wall that I build with the names of all my student warriors.
All I want to tell my students now is that they shouldn’t worry about trying to change the world
because the world isn’t going to change. History will repeat itself. In new forms.
With new weapons. With new victims. New perpetrators. And sometimes the old ones.
That maybe, contrary to everything I’ve told them in the past, they shouldn’t fight.
They should just accept.
Maybe acceptance is what I should be teaching my students to embody.
But I cannot tell them that.
What kind of educator would I be if I told them that?
I don’t want to tell them that.
What does it mean to be an educator who cannot teach for the world that is?
What does it mean to be an educator who wants to teach for a world that should be?
I don’t know.
What do I tell my students?
It feels like I don’t know anything.
Like I can’t say anything.
Like I cannot breathe.
I need it to stop.
I cannot do this anymore.
Osama Issam Jouda
Born Phan
Ademović Nurko Alaga
Félix Eduardo Picardi
Yahia Abu Daqen
Pedro Luis Nadal García
Shuja’eyya
Horacio Norberto Poggio
Mónica Susana Pinus de Binstok
Mohammad Majdi Za’anin
Ademović Ragib Idriz
Jorge Miguel Name
Miguel Angel Pincheira
Salvatore Privitera
Ademović Šefik Ševal
Susana Pertierra
Benjamín Pérez
Rawiya Ibrahim Jouda
Roque Miguel Nuñez
Yassin Ibrahim al-Biltaji
Bac Phan
Raúl Santiago Paz
Bun Phat
Alberto José Munarriz
Abdurahmanović Nisad Ismet
Edelmiro Abad
Joseph Angelini, Sr.
Graciela Pernas
Bun Sakhan
Coca Pablo
Terrance Andre Aiken
Ademović Hajrudin Suljo
Beu Bou
Bin Sambok
Alberto Armando Pruneda
Blanca Esther Ortiz de Murua
Bernard Harard
Julio Enzo Panebianco Labbe
Angel Alberto Prado
Graciela Pujol de Olmedo
Juan Carlos Pellegrini Druetto
Juan Carlos Parada
Josefina Teresa Pedemonte de Ruiz Vargas
Luis Roberto Pender
Rodolfo Ortega Peña
Andrew Alameno
Bun Than
María Dolores Muniz Etchemoun
Ademović Muamer Hakija
Myra Joy Aronson
Miguel Ángel Porta
Oscar Rene Nieva
Bun Choeng
Mohammad al-Ma’sawan
Ademović Adem Zulfo
Alberto Teodoro Noailles
Bit Buon
Carlos Alberto Oliva
Ricardo Adrián Pérez
María Luisa Piedra Gómez
Abdurahmanović Mehmed Nezir
Silvina Mónica Parodi de Orozco
Bun Sim Bou Chhean
Ada Victoria Porta
Bun Von But Chun
Ban Long
Bun Bengly
Bott
Susana Elena Pedrini
Jorge Edgardo Papadopulos
Griselda del Huerto Ponce
Paul W. Ambrose
José Carlos Prat
Walter Teófilo Pérez Loza
Ademović Mujko Mujo
José Horacio Olmedo
Segundo Oscar Porven
Ademović Bešir Bećir
Abdel-Rahman Hadayed
Claudio Norberto Nardini
José Alfredo Pareja Galviati
Juan Mateo Nieto
Ban Sarin
Bou Chhean
Gerald Thomas Atwood
Joseph John Angelini, Jr.
Mohammad Ibrahim ar-Reyati
Patrick Michael Aranyos
Ademović Adnan Avdo
María Cristina Otarola
Tasneem Issam Jouda
Bun Chan
Bun Say
Ademović Salih Ðulo
Samer Midhat Hamad
Marina Oesterheld
Abdurahmanović Mehmedalija Juso
María Ester Peralta de Zalazar
Oscar Alcides Peralta
Inés Ollero
Bin Nang
Ángel Mario Pinedo
Salah Isleim
Ernest Alikakos
Jean Ann Andrucki
Gustavo Ogando Gibello
Richard Anthony Aceto
Bun Sani
Ademović Kadrija Salčin
Michael Rourke Andrews
Tariq Amanullah
Liliana Pizá de Paira
James Audiffred
Beng Buch
Seima David Aoyama
Ademović Fadil Hu
Fernando Pablo Nolasco
Calixto Anaya, Jr
Alberto Paira
Hani Mohammad Yassin
Trudi M. Alagero
Ana Maria Ponce
Héctor Osvaldo Polito
Ademović Azem Bećir
Carmen Liliana Nahs de Bruzzone
Lorraine Antigua
Bour ChBun Meng Ly
Alberto Marcelo Oro
Jorge Emilio Papetti
Ademović Jusuf Ševal
Emilio Horacio Ogando
Ademović Senahid Sarija
Justo José Pelozo
Roberto Francisco Piasecki
Peter Paul Apollo
Eustaquio Peralta
Buth Phat
Cora María Pioli
Bo
Sandy Ayala
Manuel O. Asitimbay
Gladys Noemí Musante
Shabbir Ahmed
Hussein Khaled Ahmad
Ademović Remzija Salih
Rahaf Abu Jame
Eric Allen
Gary Nelson Olmos Guzmán
Ademović Asim Taib
Jesus Peña
Chris Anna Olson Latta
Siew-Nya Ang
Hayel Shihda Abu Dahrouj
Barbara Jean Arestegui
Bou Chan Tha
Jorge Eduardo Oshiro
Bin Soeun
Jeremiah Joseph Ahern
Bu Phat
Bun R
Silvana Parrile de Salinas
Ademović Ohran Adem
Bun Ry
Beatriz Haydee Neuhaus de Martinis
Anthony Alvarado
Bader Hashem Abu Mnei’
Michael Edward Asher
Kazuhiro Anai
Edward L. Allegretto
Joseph Amatuccio
Heinrich Bernhard Ackermann
Ademović Avdo Taib
Otilio Julio Pascua
Rosa Angélica Murno
Osvaldo Plaul
Ban Moeun
Juan Daniel Puigjané
Stella Maris Pereiro de Gonzalez
Eugenio Carlos Pérez
Ademović Senad Suljo
Susana Elena Ossola de Urrua
Ademović Jusuf Ševal
Emilio Horacio Ogando
Ademović Senahid Sarija
Justo José Pelozo
Roberto Francisco Piasecki
Peter Paul Apollo
Eustaquio Peralta
Buth Phat
Cora María Pioli
Bo
Sandy Ayala
Manuel O. Asitimbay
Gladys Noemí Musante
Shabbir Ahmed
Hussein Khaled Ahmad
Ademović Remzija Salih
Rahaf Abu Jame
Eric Allen
Gary Nelson Olmos Guzmán
Ademović Asim Taib
Jesus Peña
Chris Anna Olson Latta
Siew-Nya Ang
Hayel Shihda Abu Dahrouj
Barbara Jean Arestegui
Bou Chan Tha
Jorge Eduardo Oshiro
Bin Soeun
Jeremiah Joseph Ahern
Bu Phat
Bun R
Argentina
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Cambodia
Palestine
United States
It could just as well list names of/from: Ukraine, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Germany, Kashmir, Rwanda, Non-heterosexuals everywhere, Colombia, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Yemen, Iraq, Trans folks everywhere, China, Poland, Nigeria, Northern Uganda, North Korea, Chile, Mexico, South Sudan, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Syria, Paraguay, DR Congo, Indonesia, El Salvador, Kosovo, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, First Nations Peoples everywhere, Hungary, South Africa, India, Burundi Spain, Bhutan, Japan, Women everywhere.