Over the last few months, I have participated in protests with my pastoral colleagues at the Broadview ICE facility in Illinois. I have joined them because I believe strongly that the actions of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) have crossed a line between enforcing laws and committing sanctioned civil rights violations. The sacrifice of civil liberties constitutes a critical yield point in our democracy.

Every year, I choose a word that I believe will define the coming year. This year's word is patience.

With the refugee crisis in Gaza escalating, I wanted to share a short fiction story I wrote in 2016 called City of Thorns.