I try to stay engaged as a citizen. I try to write my representatives. They actually usually get back to me (!). I know there’s a suggestion to flood representative phone-lines with comments, but I believe in the written word, because having received a response it’s on the record.
Today I was inspired to write the State Department. , specifically about Palestine. I know the State Dept represents the current administration and is only somewhat culpable for the policies that are carried out over seas (the congratulations of blame fall on the chief of the executive branch). Nonetheless, I wrote. I wrote
Dear State Department,
I write to you with the reminder that the policies that are being pursued in the Middle East, especially with regards to financial cuts the UNRWA and the unilateral negotiations, is the opposite of peace. To create peace the needs of all parties must be listened to and met with full fairness and an effort to make all people feel that they feel secure in the present and the future.
I encourage you to include the Palestinians as a partner in the negotiations of their future without first making demands of them, and to restore all humanitarian funding for people until such time as they are able and allowed to provide for their own well-being.
Please work to end the siege of Gaza and to restore socio-economic opportunities for all people.
Although the conflict in Israel is based on culture and dispossession, religion plays a part and as an American Jew recognizing the centuries of racism against Jews and other people I find it especially important that my government works to end oppression and to stand for liberty and justice for all both home and abroad.
Thank you for your tireless work,
[NAME]
It’s a representative democracy. Make your views known.
This day will live in infamy. No, wait, that’s not quite right. We attacked with nuclear weapons to end the war, not to start it.
For the first time and the last time. Yes, that’s it. But they still exist. Some madman might use them in his theory. Translation: On Aug. 6 and again on Aug 9, 1945, the United States dropped nuclear bombs on Japan; although this was the only two times (two times too many) that nuclear weapons were used in war the most destructive kind of weapon ever made has increased in number throughout the world. Nine countries have nuclear weapons, some of which are led by people (men, mainly) promoting a not-so-nouveau version of the madman theory of international politics.
Nuclear deterrence is not a viable policy. I’m not a fan of deterrence at all – weapons do not lead to peace – but the use or misuse of a nuclear weapon is frequent and a danger to everyone.
The list of nuclear weapons ‘mishaps’ that might have led to war or other destruction is numerous. A list of lost weapons or almost-accidentally-fired over the last 60 years by the United State is here.
Agencies and organizations that work to end nuclear weapons and nuclear power capability should be commended. It’s time to save ourselves.
With little imagination it could assumed that Shakespeare was writing of Donald Trump. In Henry V, preceding the memorable St. Crispin’s Day speech by several scenes, King Henry finds three traitorous men “hired to kill him here in Hampton”. At least as the story goes, the noblemen were hired by France to kill their king. “Vasty Tartar back,” is Russia.
May it be possible, that foreign hire
Could out of thee extract one spark of evil
That might annoy my finger? ’tis so strange,
That, though the truth of it stands off as gross
As black and white, my eye will scarcely see it.
Treason and murder ever kept together,
As two yoke-devils sworn to either’s purpose,
Working so grossly in a natural cause,
That admiration did not whoop at them:
But thou, ‘gainst all proportion, didst bring in
Wonder to wait on treason and on murder:
And whatsoever cunning fiend it was
That wrought upon thee so preposterously
Hath got the voice in hell for excellence:
All other devils that suggest by treasons
Do botch and bungle up damnation
With patches, colours, and with forms being fetch’d
From glistering semblances of piety;
But he that temper’d thee bade thee stand up,
Gave thee no instance why thou shouldst do treason,
Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor.
If that same demon that hath gull’d thee thus
Should with his lion gait walk the whole world,
He might return to vasty Tartar back,
And tell the legions ‘I can never win
A soul so easy as that Englishman’s.’
Today would be Nelson Mandela’s 100 birthday He died in 2013. Born July 18, 1918, Nelson Mandela became an inspiration for justice in its best form – that of forgiveness and transcendence of all our woes into a better world.
Thanks for the (Facebook) article below:
One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.
On July 22, 1946 Irgun terrorists (one could say activists because they acted but they also terrorized) blew up the King David Hotel, Britain’s administrative headquarters in Mandate Palestine.
See Anonymous Soldiers or an article about an Irgun member and a worker in the Hotel, among others.
Sadly, we remember people in death perhaps as much as in life.
This day is the anniversary of the death of Jo Cox, Membeer of Parliament, who was killed at too young an age.
She both advocated for Britain to remain in the EU and for Palestinian rights.
To disagree. To object. To act against. To protest!
Protestant, Reform, middle-of-the-road, Reconstructionist – thy do protest!
Do thy act in protest, or is your protest to act not? Either is an act, but one is protest by passive submission to thy won or lost cause.
I do protest. I do protest with thee, or against thee, depending on what you stand for. For justice? For liberty? For corporations? For people?
Protest against injustice. That’s what we think we do. I think it’s unjust to subjugate.
You’ve claimed your land. The land was theirs and still is. Now you both and neither have the land, for one has lost it to oppression and the other cannot claim it justly so.
Put into clear words: Israel has claimed Israel. The land was Palestinian and still is. Neither Israel (or Israelis) or Palestinians have the land, because Palestine lost the land to more than seventy years of a continuous Nakba (catastrophe) and Israel cannot morally claim land by unilateral decision.
But wait! White man cometh to the new world and taketh land. And see, we struggle with that still.
Now do we oppose oppression, and do we protesteth?
Without scientific studies to back me up, I will observe that Jews in this mighty New World (specifically the U.S. of A.) are mighty quiet about white Jews oppressing Others in Israel.
The Others, specifically, are Palestinians which include Muslims, Christians, Druze, and non-white Jews. Do thee protest? Passing judgement on myself, I say I do try.
Now there be exceptions to the rule of being mighty quiet. Commendable. And do ye support these exceptions? Do ye notice them?
To protest. To boycott. To divest. To sanction.
Does it matter? All protest matters.
What dost thou protest? How do thee protest? Do you take action? Do you stand against injustice?
Act now. Protest now. Protest against injustice.
The best [mainly non-political] blog I know, Futility Closet, just shared a gem.
“[T]here’s a whole wiki for “Anglish,” including recastings of famous texts:,”
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this greatland, a new folkship, dreamt in freedom…
I’ll let you read the rest.
We Americans have the right to bear arms. The common refrain is that we need increasingly advanced weapons in our residences for the purpose of self-defense, or, perhaps, as a last resort tool to keep the government in line – or even to be used to overthrow the government.
Admirable, of course. Even understandable from a rational and historical view. Governments, we know, understand force of arms and its power derives from the use of weapons against other countries and against its own populace. While weapons exist, the citizenry inherently accept subjugation as a form of government.
Countries that have disarmed the populace – but not disarmed itself – have done terrible things to their citizens. We could take that to mean that weapons (increasingly advanced) must also be in the hands of the citizens. But we should never jump to just one conclusion. Countries that have disarmed – forcibly, as in Japan, and voluntarily, as in Costa Rica, Australia, and others – neither suffer nor disintegrate nor lose the sought-after notion of sovereignty.
Disarmament is a key element of peace. (For those of you keeping score at home, that’s both a negative and positive peace, although I prefer the latter and intended its use with that statement).
It is not enough to have an admirable buy-back program. It is not enough to demilitarize the police. It is not enough to end overseas wars. These, along with others, are definitely essential elements of disarmament and of working toward peace. Not only is a disarmed populace desirable for obvious reasons involving the loss of life, but the government and its agents must completely disarm – probably at the same rate as the citizens – both “light-arms” and tanks and missiles and nuclear weapons.
We have a choice of course. Ending the use or threat of use of weapons means an end to endless wars and endless shootings. Even the necessary removal of all weapons will not prevent a right to bear arms, but it could lead to a government by the living and for the living. It’s past time for full disarmament.
Subtitle of the article: Munther Amirah is the chairman of the Palestinian Popular Committees in the West Bank. The terms of his sentence will make it impossible for him to continue organizing non-violent protests against the occupation.
The Dole Blog 