We had shown up to this meeting really concerned about what was taking place in the Gaza Strip, and I'm glad that you mentioned that we were insisting that there not be any food there. It made no sense for us to sort of break bread while talking about a famine taking place.
I let him know that I am from a community that's reeling. We are grieving, and our heart is broken for what's been taking place over the last six months, and that the rhetoric that has been coming out of the Biden administration, that's been coming out of the White House, it's frustrated a lot of people, especially people who are Palestinian Americans, Muslim Americans, Arab Americans.
I was able to share that with the president and let him know that out of respect for my community, out of respect for all the people who have suffered and who have been killed in the process, I need to walk out of the meeting, and I want to walk out with decision-makers and let them know what it feels like for somebody to say something and then walk away from them and not hear them out and not hear their response.
You know, there wasn't a lot of response. He actually said that he understood, and I walked away.
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