Memorials take many forms - some are grand and iconic like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in DC while others exude power through their very simplicity.  During my trip Gaza last month, I noticed a series of colorful concrete benches placed along the beachfront as we traveled north along the coast from Rafah to Gaza City. My AFSC colleague Ali Albari noted the Arabic words on the backs of each bench, pointing out that each one bore the name of a Palestinian city or town that was forcibly depopulated by Zionist militias in 1948/49.

This week, state and local elections were held across the country. Here’s a look at some of the issues that dominated the races, and what that means for communities working for justice.

If you care about ending mass incarceration, look at what Philadelphia just did, by German Lopez via Vox

Christina Elcock works for AFSC as the QVS Friends Relations Fellow. She writes blog content and curates series of posts for the Acting in Faith blog. She supports the AFSC Quaker networks and other work of Friends Relations. Previously, she worked as a Fellow at Bread and Roses Community Fund in Philadelphia.

On September 6th I had the enormous honor of getting to talk with Chris Crass, white anti-racist organizer and Unitarian Universalist. We had a wide ranging conversation about faith, organizing white people for racial justice, the status of racial justice among Quakers and Unitarian Universalists, and a lot more. We posted the conversation as a series of 5 blog posts.

Chris Crass is a longtime organizer, educator, and writer working to build powerful working class-based, feminist, multiracial movements for collective liberation. He is one of the leading voices in the country calling for and supporting white people to work for racial justice.