Category: Beloved Community

For What Its Worth

Young people are at it again. Stirring up trouble and making us think. How dare they have peaceful protests about genocide. How dare they demand an end to their college’s funding of militarism and the slaughter of innocents. The hubris. The arrogance. Challenging the United States’ long held worship of war is not easy. Just ask those who stood up in the 60’s. Or at least ask the ones who remember how good it felt to be on the side of humanity.

Once again young people are forcing us to remember the creeds we extol. Freedom of speech being among them. It’s very hard to reckon how any of us can still believe the self defense claims of Netanyahu while we watch the horror unfolding and the lies exposed.

Now we’re learning that the Israeli claims of terrorists in UNRWA have no foundation – this after the US led the charge to defund the only consistent humanitarian aid available to Palestinians. And how long will it take Congress to reenact that aid?

Remember the pier the US was building to bring relief? Whatever happened to that? Yet the international humanitarian flotilla carrying 5500 tons of aid may not be allowed to leave Istanbul. And children starve to death.

What must it be like to be a Palestinian in this moment when revenge is promoted on a grand scale and the western world silently utters thoughts and prayers and watches. We were lied to from the beginning of this slaughter, both by the ranking Israeli government and by our President. 

But too many of us are saying, “Don’t rock the boat”, not realizing the boat sank a long time ago.

“It’s time we stop”. Listen to the youth. Remember our humanity.

For What Its Worth. This picture is of Jewish students enjoying and celebrating Passover Seder – while protesting the slaughter of innocent Palestinians at the hands of the extreme right wing government of Israel.

It is worth a lot. we must keep overcoming our ignorance to uphold our humanity.

Please take some time to listen to my conversation with Alan Chavoya on militarized police, the need for community control over policing and humanistic activism. It holds groundbreaking information for those ready for change.

From the River to the Sea

“From the River to the Sea” has become the latest casualty in the war of indoctrination. Congress has enacted a resolution calling the words “from the river to the sea” anti-Semitic, while adding millions to Israel’s defense and robbing United States citizens of proper care. But more significantly it comes as Congress supports the ongoing genocide of Palestinians and repression of pro-Palestinian voices grows. 

Lazy thinking. That’s how we’ve arrived here. 

Post WWII western countries wished to be rid of the Jewish refugees. The refugees were relocated to Israel and a Jewish state was recognized by the UN in 1948.

What could have possibly gone wrong with that decision?

Already a hotbed of division, Israel expanded its territory with violence and displacement of the indigenous Palestinian people. May 15 is known as Nakba, the day of observance of Palestinian “ethnic cleansing” and land theft that occurred then and continues now.

True to their imperialistic nature, the US, Great Britain and others, supported Israel to engage in resource grabbing. This included oil and soon will be for the natural gas off the coast of Palestine – that they have just acquired through removal, and killing of Palestinians and destruction of Gaza.

“Keeping the peace” meant condemning the Palestinians to brutal occupation, because Israel is a nationalistic state, not a democracy. Palestinians who live in Israel do not share the same freedoms as Israelis. Checkpoints, water rationing and illegal Israeli settlers’ ongoing violence to Palestinians and their land have only escalated over the past 16 years. Like the apartheid state of South Africa – that the US was reluctant to see abolished – we have continued to pour billions yearly into the defense of Israel and have been willing to witness the eradication of Palestinian lands and lives.

The brutal attack by Hamas on October 7 was anexcuse for more land theft and genocide. These are not empty words. Look at the reality, not the smear campaign of corporate media, not the profiteering war mongers and their congressional lackies.  I have never condoned the violence of October 7, and I will never accept the genocide that has been perpetrated by Israel since that day. 

“From the River to the Sea” is used by both sides. Israel has been able to dominate the narrative – both there and here in the US. It is time to turn the narrative around. It is time to pursue peace and stop listening to the voices of hate.

We have some unlearning to do…

And for some levity in the chaos.

The Play Goes On

We lost a local visionary. Unlikely that many knew of her unless you read her stinging commentaries and delighted in her unrelenting attacks on all things foolish. I feel the bite of sorrow but it has given rise to thought.

The play goes on. And that is how it should be. I often wonder why we don’t stop the madness, why so many of us choose unfulfilled dreams and chaos over the brilliance of being human. 

Out of laziness or mischief, we’re content with words that will never touch our hearts and we fall prey to blind belief too easily. We forget that life’s a game we’re meant to win. Winning is not success with dollar signs attached. That, my friends, is a lottery not a life’s win. 

Fear drives our choices, both individually and collectively, and we accept it as truth. We engage with puppeteers who hold us captive with fear. We give full attention to their musings and seldom question their legitimacy. Our understandings of what is precious in life and what is not meant for us have become twisted. From the touchstone of fear, we allow the domination of greed and power. We succumb to war as our only remedy whether at borders, offices, schools or churches. We play the parts of “us and them” and we act as if it is who we truly are… 

We’ve forgotten the brilliance of being human and forsake the reality of our connectedness. 

Life is our connector. Breath and being on this precious earth are what we share. I cherish those who help me remember. I honor those who refuse to let their candle dim in the darkness of ignorance that parades so triumphantly today. 

In this play of hide and seek with Reality, it’s ours to win. Don’t cower before ignorance. Shine.

“Boldness be my friend. Arm me, audacity, from head to foot.” From Shakespeare’s Cymbeline

Some of us must overcome timidity to have our voices heard. Some of us come into this world determined to be heard. Some of us are born for the struggle. Karen played her part magnificently.

Kindness and Sanity

Ramadan is the most cherished of Islamic holidays and begins on March 10 and continues to April 9. During this time members of the faith fast during daylight hours. It’s a time devoted to prayer and contemplation. 

With this as a backdrop, South Africa has urged the International Court of Justice to order Israel’s compliance with measures issued in January. These measures ordered Israel to halt acts that may be deemed genocidal against Palestinians. The new South African request noted “The threat of all-out famine has now materialized” and asked the court to order Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” ensuring humanitarian assistance reaches the starving masses. 

In Cairo, ceasefire talks continue between Hamas and Israel – with intermittent stalls. This as children are dying of starvation due to shortages of food, clean water and medicine.

Also, in acknowledgement of Ramadan, Britain is circulating a United Nations ceasefire petition for both sides of the Sudanese civil war that has raged the past year with thousands being killed and displaced. At this time, the United States seems poised to agree with this Sudanese ceasefire request.

Yet our country has been a holdout in demanding ceasefire in Gaza. We remain in staunch support of the horrific actions against the Palestinian people. We’ve allowed Israeli characterizations of Palestinians as less than human to enter our discourse. We believe the false narratives of Hamas using Palestinians as shields and ignore Israel’s outright murders of Palestinian civilians and even of their own. 

We’ve allowed hatred and retribution to win.

There’s still time to do the right thing. Cities and counties are passing ceasefire resolutions and Democrats are voting uncommitted in a united voice against Biden’s support of genocide. As in reference, in Wisconsin the primary vote on April 2 is for “uninstructed”, if someone wants to voice a call for ceasefire.

Sanity must prevail.

South Africa to bring the US and Britain before the ICJ for Complicity in committing genocide.

The Challenge

I get it. No one wants to hear about the slaughter of innocent people day in and out. No one wants to hear that women and children are the highest casualties of the nearly 27,000 dead and 66,000 wounded. 

No one wants to believe the United States could be on the wrong side of this devastation, even as the International Criminal Justices’ nearly unanimous decisions to deter Israel may implicate us in acts of genocide. We still want to believe we’re the good guys.

And on top of the slaughtering of innocents with our bombs, the United States government has led nine of its allies to halt funds to the UN agency, UNWRA, that provides supplies to six million Palestinians in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and those who are refugees in neighboring countries. Our government took no time to consider if the allegations leveled at the agency were true or not, nor did we consider the suffering we would be subjecting to innocent lives.   

Seems we are unable to slow Netanyahu’s reign of terror, but are quite capable of derailing food and life saving provisions to survivors.

And while the cries for permanent ceasefire echo around the world, there’s still a deafening silence in the media of our country. 

So here’s the challenge. Its time we stop waiting for our government to do the right thing. Its time we demand of our clergy and all humanitarian agencies and organizations to unite in one voice denouncing this senseless violence. 

We must break free of the propaganda that allows us to sleep walk through this blood bath. If you recognize that you have a voice and that every life counts, step up to your humanity and find a way to say, “No more”.

Here are some things that you can do:

If you are of a Christian faith, urge your clergy to help save lives. Here is a petition by Mennonites that welcomes all Christians to stand in conscientious objection to the violence of war.

If you live in Wisconsin, learn about and participate in the rallies, press releases, and actions happening around the state at the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine. With over 60 diverse organizations educating about and uplifting Palestine while demanding ceasefire and an end to occupation.

Learn from Palestinians, not the media. Friends of Tent of Nations. FOTONNA provides grassroots support through the Tent of Nations, a peace project located on Daher’s Vineyard – a 100-acre farm located about six miles from Bethlehem in the West Bank. 

Listen to my interview with Akram Abed on WDRTCommunity Radio show, Conversations, to understand life from a Palestinian point of view.

Sign petitions calling for ceasefire by Amnesty or OXFAM or a host of local and national organizations that are working towards that end.

Challenge your own personal beliefs and the indoctrination that allow us to go immediately to war and violence. Challenge your legislators to find peaceful solutions. We can do this. But it will take everyone who cares to speak up.

Olive fields in as-Samu. Photo compliments of Wikimedia Commons share alike license.

Who Will We Be?

I sat out Martin Luther King Day this year. Beyond Vietnam plays in my head plenty, as does his revulsion of the silent left*. The debates on social media were traps: would Martin be on the side of Israel or on the side of Palestine?  Equipped with quotes of justification we reduce the genius of the man to a snapshot designed to serve our needs.

No I couldn’t urge the day of service this year. I wasn’t touched by Biden feeding the poor after serving up a speech marking 100 days of bombing Gaza – and only being able to talk about the hostages still held by Hamas, not a word about 24,000 Palestinian dead and counting.

No, I wasn’t able to scroll through the memes inviting us to our higher angels. One though, did catch my eye. It asked, “Will you live up to the quote you are posting today for the rest of the year?”

Martin paid for his wisdom. He took the hits and continued to follow his path of nonviolence. He refused to succumb to power and wrote some of his most important understandings inside the walls of jails.  He watched as the friends deserted him for his too much caring for the poor or for victims of a rich man’s war. 

They buried his work for years, thinking they might snuff out the humanity, the urgency, and the recognition that we had indeed gone to far into our materialism and too far from our hearts. I think people spend too much time pondering MLK and not enough time putting knowledge to task.

He showed us how to live; how to examine; how to be forthright and above all how to be human.

And now it is our turn. Who will we be?

  1. “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Indoctrination of Choosing Sides

It doesn’t seem to matter how high the numbers of dead, or how many are women and children. The statistics of war crimes committed don’t seem to budge the dial of compassion. We treat the threat of broader war breaking out in the region as if it’s anticipated. I’ve thought a lot about it and I’ve come to this: we’re stuck in the indoctrination of choosing sides. We’ve been groomed to be pro-Israel; therefore we are immune to any criticism of their most right wing government. 

I’ve tried to understand our willingness to be the loudest and most powerful opposition to a permanent ceasefire. The best I can come up with is this: we are stuck in the indoctrination of choosing sides. From an early age we compete and the duality of “us and them” is drilled into our being. And if we are the praying types, we learn to ask god for his/her/their blessings as we attempt to defeat our opponents – as if any god would be inclined to chose one side over the other. Do we think that god is tallying up the prayers and the one who gets the most will win? 

I was taught to be a critical thinker and so it’s my nature to follow arguments to their conclusion. This is not a conclusion that makes any sense.

And then there are the intellectual arguments to justify our choice. I witnessed it when Putin decided to invade Ukraine with people dragging up history to defend the slaughtering of innocents. And now again with Netanyahu and his accomplice Biden, we are witnessing the same ridiculous arguments as these war criminals carry on their bloody conquests. 

Perhaps it is time we choose the third side: being human.  

There are those fighting back against genocide.

Before people get their knickers in a twist, I have nothing against Little League or sports in general. It is the heightened fervor of competition and “us and them” that I question.

Photo of Little League World Series 2007 compliments of https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ruhrfisch

A Wish for Us

Another year ends and wishes for good will and peace abound. So I will add my wishes for each of you, those I know and love and those that I don’t know but together we share this earth, her abundance, the air, water and our human kinship.

My wish is that we take time away from busyness and remember how precious is each moment; that we appreciate silence and its simplicity.  And that we cultivate the inherent wisdom we hold to transform the world anew.

My hope is that as we come to love and respect ourselves we will realize the interconnectedness of the human family, realize we are one race and end the ignorance of separation and superiority.

That we will find the courage to break the chains of belief and allow for new vision and dreams to manifest.  And that we challenge the stories that keep us locked into war as a resolution of conflict and the ideas of scarcity that lead the powerful toward conquest.

That we listen to marginalized people who are facing the destruction of the earth and their ways of life and find the determination to end the use of fossil fuels. This we must do in loving recognition for those who will come after us.

Ultimately let us find creative ways to break our silence and speak power to justice recognizing we can do more than pray.  We’ve been given all the tools we need to make life on earth better for everyone. Let’s do it.

Mostly I wish for us to discover the gifts that lie in our own hearts and to ignore the doubts that tell us peace cannot be. 

If we can throw off the shackles of belief. 

If we can feel even one drop more our humanity. 

If we can challenge the lies we have been told.

If we can recognize our comfort should not be bound in another’s sacrifice…

If and only if… 

We will make this world a better place for everyone.

In 2024, find the courage and the clarity to be human.

Sign on to the numerous petitions demanding a permanent ceasefire and an end to all financial support of Israel’s war on civilians.

Amnesty International

US Campaign for Palestinian Rights

Take time to read more than US propaganda. Think about it. And act.

Hear other voices like Democracy Now.

We can make 2024 the year we move towards peace.

Here’s to Human Dignity

On Monday, we drove to Madison for Laborfest. It was a celebration of workers rights and a call for workers’ justice. Though the temperatures were in the nineties, the place was bustling with unions, students and organizations all championing labor, all trying to impress upon us the very real need to respect and give dignity to those who are the ones keeping it all going. 

I enjoyed seeing old friends, all activists striving for a better day.

And I appreciated meeting new friends, most young and passionate. It reminded me of younger years as I challenged our government’s choice to war with Vietnam and as I allowed myself to question our role in the overthrow of Salvador Allende. Signing up for socialist information made a lot of sense. Still does if you need a dose of new possibilities.

I grew up in a union enclave. My father and uncles worked union jobs and we lived in the midst of steel mills, glass, paint and lumber factories. Much of that came tumbling down in the late 70’s when the mills left the area for cheaper labor abroad. A lot more changes followed. The playgrounds, swimming pool and other amenities available to blue-collar families disappeared.

The camaraderie that had been forged in our little neighborhoods began to shift as fear of other and “Keeping up with the Joneses” took on whole new meanings. 

It’s not a new story. It’s boringly old. The rich get richer and the poor are told they are poor because they are lazy, or because that’s the way God planned it. There’s nothing new here.

But being with earnest people who know better days are still before us, and that better ways are still possible stirred my thinking and fueled my hope.

Here’s to the rise of human dignity. And to all who champion it!

Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice

Family Farm Defenders

Worker Justice Wisconsin

Try To Care

On September 30, federal child-care support ends. It’s projected over 70,000-child care programs will close due to lack of funding. More than three million children will lose their care. The effects of this lack of funding will reverberate throughout the workforce as parents make the harsh choices of needing to leave work altogether or to dramatically cut their work hours. Facilities will close and worker’s livelihoods will be terminated.

And who will suffer most? The children. Yes, studies show that businesses will suffer, our economy will suffer, but our future will suffer the greatest threats as we abruptly halt the lifeline of support to those who are the neediest: our children.  

This is something we cannot afford. Far too many of our children are still rebounding from the effects of the pandemic. To force them into further hardship at this time is inhuman.

Our federal defense spending is greater than all of our programs to assist low-income people. These include: SNAP, school meals, low-income housing and childcare assistance. We spend more on military might than on ensuring everyone can pay their energy bills or on programs to aid abused children.

Now on September 30th we will end childcare support. What signal are we giving the future leaders of our land? We are effectively saying, “We do not care about you”. When the youngest are abandoned surely that is a sign that the society has truly gone mad. 

People squabble over the two party system, which is the better party? Which approaches are the right ways to go? But I’ll tell you this: a government or lack thereof is the result of people who do not care.

“Kids at Daycare” is a Creative Commons, attribution 2.0 license

How can we not care?