Freedom to Exist....

These words are not my own. I reprint them here in an effort to effectuate wider dissemination -- read, step back, reflect...before you condemn....


Assaf Wohl
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3646169,00.html

Members of the United Nations,

Democracies, dictatorships, republics, and the honorable secretary-general:

Within a few hours, media outlets in your countries shall present horrific photos of blood, fire, and rubble from the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians will be screaming, in front of the cameras, about the massacre undertaken by the State of Israel. Initially, you may show understanding for our operations in the Strip, yet once the photos of wounded civilians reach you, you shall press us, as is your custom, to stop defending ourselves.

The first signs of this phenomenon can already be seen. Calls to "end the violence" from across the world are being heard loud and clear – yet they are only being heard now, after years of violence, and after Israel finally decided to respond. The European Union already rushed to declare that it condemns Israel's "disproportional use of force." Several news networks have brought together panels whose members are scrutinizing the law books at this very moment in order to ascertain whether the Jewish State violated some international law.

I do not intend to deal with the question of where were these condemners and critics for the past seven years, when Hamas' murderers set the timers of their rockets to coincidence with the end of the school day in Israel, because of a declared aim to kill as many children as possible. The question we should be discussing at this time is as follows: Why do the countries of the world and global media outlets obsessively engage in strict criticism that is only directed at Israel? After all, there is not even one country out there that is required to adhere to the moral criteria which the world demands of us – of us of all people, the ones who as opposed to the rest of the world face threats of extermination.

Our Arab neighbors are well familiar with this double standard vulnerability. On their part, they are not bound by any kind of moral code. And so, they learned to exploit the international strictness towards Israel. A long time ago, they already understood that they cannot face the State of Israel on the battlefield. Indeed, when it comes to photographs and videos, they boast uniforms and weapons, yet once the fighting gets underway, they are quick to take off their uniforms and assimilate among women and children used as human shields.

They also make sure to place their arms depots in hospital basements and to fire rockets at population centers out of schoolyards. Their great hope is to elicit an Israeli response that would unintentionally hurt a few children. Once that happens, they will wave their bodies before the cameras and cry out to the world for help. This was the case in Lebanon, and this may happen tomorrow in the Gaza Strip.

Easing Europe's conscience

The states demanding that Israel adhere to certain moral standards do not even dream of asking the same of her enemies. After all, we are dealing with theocracies and dictatorships, where homosexuals are publicly hanged, where women are regularly stoned for undermining their "family's honor," and where children suspected of theft have their arms severed. What do these states have to do with the value of human life? We should therefore ask representatives of global opinion: Be honest with yourselves - Do the lives of humans being butchered daily in Iraq, Afghanistan and Darfur arouse you into similar action? Reality indicates this is not the case.

My answer to the question regarding the obsessive preoccupation with the actions of the Jews is purely sociological. Many of you, the shapers of public opinion, and mostly the Europeans amongst you, are interested in easing your conscience: If only can only show that the Israelis-Jews are not so moral or innocent, perhaps they deserve everything you did to them before they were able to establish their state? After all, here they are, occupying and butchering the poor Palestinians; they are certainly no better than us!

To that end, you are willing to help out the lowliest terrorists. Therefore, you bought into their slanderous Mohammed al-Dura tale, and therefore you will rush to buy into various blood libels in the coming days. Those who launch missiles and mortar shells into kindergartens know that they will always enjoy a protective umbrella from you. They draw their self-confidence from the intolerable ease with which they enlist your public opinion in their favor.

Therefore, you would do well to think twice before you move to stop the punishment they lawfully deserve. After all, you are the only lifesaver that can spare this radical terror group the measure of justice hovering above it.

Serenity before Thanksgiving Dinner....

**errata

"me" = "we"
(God I hate errors....)

Recycling....

Around my neighborhood, I've noticed an increasing number of people making the trek to the Berkeley Recycling Center. Pulling their shopping cars behind them, sometimes two bungee-corded together, like a train. For a couple of years now, I see these people on a daily basis, all heading west, towards the Bay. But they stop short of the sparkling waters which lead out to the Golden Gate Bridge. Their destination instead is the Berkeley Recycling Center, where bottles and cans are turned in for a few dollars.

When I was so fortunate as to live "up the hill," I would hear the tumble of bottles in the night, breaking the dark quiet before the trash and recycling trucks came by. When I began to look, I saw people, the people who were raiding our trash and recycling bins. Some neighbors got angry -- "if they take all the recycling, the city can't afford curbside pickup!" Perhaps they weren't angry, just practical....Perhaps they were all just being practical....

After I moved off the hill, and my own financial situation was shrinking, (just ahead of the trend which has now overtaken most of us), I used to fantasize that if I needed to, I could collect discarded paper and bottles from the offices in the suburb where I worked -- and where the office buildings, incredibly, were not required to recycle -- and haul it in the back of my van to the Recycling Center in Berkeley. My job out there (in those removed suburbs) ended before I added "recycling" to my resume....

A while back I was going to pick up my daughter from her best friend's house. There was a young woman pulling a full shopping cart (filled not with food but with recycling); her baby -- toddler-age -- was perched on the handle. It was an unwieldy load and it brought tears to my eyes. I was just about to lose my job. I was supporting my three teenagers. I could see myself in that procession. Hastily I stopped my van. I had two single dollar bills and gave them to the woman; I briefly explained why I couldn't give her more. A few tears rolled down her cheeks. She told me how hard it was trying to take care of her child and earn a few dollars here and there. We agreed the only thing to do was keep on going, one foot after another. We shared a laugh (at the expense of people who didn't understand how hard it was to keep going) and then me made our separate ways down the street.

Recycler pushers now seem to travel in loose packs. People by the twos and tens, heading down little side streets and major boulevards, towing their precious scavenged cargo. Last week at dusk I saw a slim man who was dressed as BZ usually dresses for work: pants and a button down shirt, rolled up to his elbows. But this man wasn't going to an office, or to any other "regular" job. He was towing an overflowing shopping cart that must have outweighed him, making his way to the Recycling Center so he could get a few dollars for his dinner....

Sunday Evening....

I suppose I could have ended my Sunday by worrying about the economic crisis which looms (lapping at my door daily), or the fires in Southern California, or whether my children's teenage behavior is within normal limits, but instead I chose to do something I wanted to do...something I've been thinking about doing for months....

I went to my local garden store, (a family owned business), and wandered through the citrus area, (where the sweet scent of the lemon trees was intoxicating), and the native plants, (where even on sale I couldn't afford the five gallon toyons and other offerings), and then picked out red leafed lettuce and spicy greens. I also splurged on a sweet pea variety from 1898, which promises red/purple flowers and a strong fragrance, if I can keep them alive until spring....I got home just before sunset and abandoned myself to planting the tiny lettuces and stringy sweet peas, inhaling the deep earth smell as I worked.

As the sun was disappearing and the clouds in the western sky began to burst into orange and pink, I plopped down into one of my ripped garden chairs, leaned against the end-of-summer pillows and didn't covet any chaise lounge. I also didn't regret leaving all of the world's problems somewhere else for just a few minutes....

Dick Cavett on Language and Sarah Palin....

Just a quick post, because I have to get the word out, please, please, please read Dick Cavett's piece in the 11.14 New York Times, ("The Wild Wordsmith of Wasilla"). I'm laughing out loud over my breakfast (except, really, it's a bit of black humor).
So please, read it and pass it on....
http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/

Open Letter to Barack Obama

If I were going to write an open letter to P.E.B.O., it might read like this:

Dear President-Elect Obama,

First of all let me say how happy it makes me to add "Obama" to my Word dictionary....(I note that the 2007 Office already has it while the 2003 version does not.)

And I must tell you Mazal Tov -- Congratulations! You obviously worked hard for this victory and you deserve it.

Oh, and I voted for you (in both the primary and the general elections) and I made many, many phone calls to get out the vote on your behalf. So again, congrats!

Obviously you have your work cut out for you. There will be days that will not be fun or pleasant. Days when your family will not see you and you will barely acknowledge their presence because you're so busy (sorry to remind you of this unpalatable fact -- trust me, I'm a single mom and I know it's hard to have a demanding job and a family). You're bound to encounter days when you'd rather not be serving anyone, let alone our giant, problem-filled country. But I suspect that most days you will feel gratified and energized. (That is my hope for you anyway....)

Without a doubt you are going to have a lot of people and concerns pulling you this way and that. Unfortunately there are a lot of messed up things that need fixing -- and we've voted you as the best person for the job! I'm hoping that you can continue to use the good sense you seem to be blessed with and that you realize the intricacies of the word "triage." And, certainly, you won't be able to please everyone or fix every problem (ask any mom).

That's where being a thoughtful person with a high intellect will serve you well. (Oh, and on that note, let me also tell you thanks for being an unabashed intellectual. Truly I'm not sure I could have sat still for another four years of dumb....) Anyway, I hope that you can use your perspicacity to know what advisers to choose (because you can't know everything you'll need to know about every subject), what decisions to make, and how best to conduct your private and public life. (Oh, and speaking of your private life, it is certainly not my business what you do in your spare time, but I do hope that you do not succumb to the school of thought and behavior that seems to say "I'm famous and I can have sex with anyone I want, just because...." That would really suck for your family and your country and I have to admit that I was personally shocked when I read about John Edwards and I would hate to read the same about you....)

Everyone is telling you what to do...or trying to....I guess the point is, my wish for you is that you can stay true to yourself. (The same advice, really, that I give my three teenagers, especially the older when when he left this fall to travel 3,000 miles from home to attend college.) In other words, as I seem to recall people writing in my 7th grade annual, "Stay as cute as you are and have a bitchen summer...."

Hope Persists....

Day two after the election and maybe life is settling back into something routine....Maybe the goings on of my aging parents, hurting siblings, teenage children, et al. are looming a little larger than they did on Tuesday night....I don't know...but I do know that somehow things are different....

Last night I found myself on a moderately crowded BART train coming home from the City (oh, in case you're not out here, on the Bay, that's what "we" call San Francisco). I plopped into a seat next to a woman in her sixties. "How are you tonight?" I asked (conversation I usually make with strangers). She answered in no hurry, with relaxed conviction, "I'm excellent. How are you?" I admit I was somewhat taken aback by her exhilaration and I stammered a little, "Well, you know, I guess I'm excellent too," and we both laughed. Just then a young woman, maybe nineteen or twenty, took a seat opposite us and immediately joined into our conversation. She laughed and said, "I'm great....Obama won..." and she and I together said, "How could we not be great??" And at that, we rose from our seats, as the train pulled out, and high-fived and laughed and did a little hug and dance before returning to our seats on the lurching train.

From that opening, the three of us talked about hope and context and work to be done -- lots of work to be done (which is another good reason why we need eight years, not just four....). The older woman told us that her great grandparents were born in 1860 and they knew slavery and she knew them...and now look where we have come. The younger woman told us she wanted to go to D.C. for the inauguration -- exciting, we told her, but we're too old for that; we'll watch for you on t.v.... One by one, we exited the train at our respective stops and by that time, we were united in the hope of something better to come.

Over a bowl of yogurt and toast this morning, I spoke to family members about their troubles and mine. I told my stepmother about applying for jobs for which I'm under-qualified and over-qualified and for which there are hundreds of similarly situated applicants; she updated me on the health and well-being of my father and step-sister. The problems remain, but in the back of my mind, I'm hoping the context has changed....

Mid-morning found me in downtown Berkeley so that my daughter could sell some books she's outgrown. At the parking meter I inserted the dime I had and then another. I was standing at the machine, somewhat flummoxed about the "error" message that there was a 25 cent minimum and digging in my purse to find more change. Some man, a total stranger, walked up to me and said, "Do you need some money? Do you need some change?" I think I looked at him uncomprehendingly and he smiled broadly, reaching into his pocket for a handful of change, which he then poured into my hand. I was stunned and thankful and took the 46 cents he proffered to ease my parking woes.

What is this?
A world where people talk to each other and care about each other and help each other?
I'm going to persist in answering in the affirmative to all of the above....

The People Have Spoken....

Well...it's taken me all morning and a couple hours into the afternoon -- and a cup of black coffee and a decent run on some unfamiliar, cozy streets in my neighborhood -- to process what happened last night. Actually, I'm only beginning to process it....

Last night I watched the returns in the comfortable family room of a couple of friends, who date back to my youth, together with their lovely sixteen year old daughter, who I have known since birth. Also on my left was my thirteen year old daughter, eager and excited and full of the realization that she would remember where she was on this historic night. And holding my right hand through critical moments was BZ.

When Senator Obama gave his gorgeous, eloquent, brilliant speech (no bias in my adjectives!), I -- like most sane people around the country if not the world -- was in tears.

We have done it people. We have been given the chance to make our country great again. At one minute after nine (PST), one minute into the speech, my oldest son, (who had just texted me a photo of his student union, crowded with humanity), texted: "This is probably the first time I've seriously been patriotic...."

My fifteen year old son spontaneously created a shirt to wear to school on the first day of this new dawn. The front boasted: "Obama Yes We Can!" And the back had a detailed drawing of the American flag.

Ah yes...I return from my run with my head clear and happy and also fully cognizant that I still have all the same problems I had yesterday...but today, the world has hope....

Enjoy this moment...make it last...transmute it into something wonderful....

okay...here's the pic....

Election day...and so much more....

(my lovely photo of Mt. McKinley was supposed
to go here but there is an upload snafu....
Check back here later!)

The excitement about today started for me last night. I woke a few times and was aware that I was dreaming about election results....I suppose I should rather have been sleeping but the truth is, I'm excited. This is the first election that I really recall feeling excited about.

The air is charged with this electrical, wonderful, magical feeling. When I got out of bed, before my head had fully awakened (hell, I might not be quite awake even yet), I went into the bathroom where my thirteen year old daughter was showering. "Do you know what today is?" I asked her. Her sleepy voice came through the sound of the streaming water, "No...."

"It's election day," and no sooner had I finished my short sentence than she said, "Oh, that's right....Oooh, I'm so excited." I thought she was making fun of me, (not that any thirteen year old daughter would do that). And then I realized that she actually is excited -- what a delicious way to start my morning -- what could be better for a parent? -- full of pride and excitement for my thirteen year old, maybe enhanced by a dose of hope that her adulthood will see some betterment in the world....

When I walked down to my polling place, my fifteen year old son went with me. We talked about the historic nature of this election (more historic from my vantage point than his). I made him accompany me, but I don't think I had to twist his arm too hard. I wanted him to feel the inside of the polling place and to be able to recall it in years to come.

And when I came out, after voting (and restraining myself from making a little smiley face next to my ballot with the purple felt tip pen that we here in California vote with), I was giddy with excitement. There was a family taking photographs next to the American flag outside the door, (the same place I had taken my oldest son's photo last February, when he voted for the first time on his 18th birthday). The mother spoke to me in a lovely accented voice, the father beamed as his four children looked on. We spoke briefly of hope and change; my voice was nervous with the excitement of it all.

This is America....This is the America that I love....

It is in the air, I tell you....As a nation, (at least how that nation looks from out here, perched on the edge of the west coast...), we are excited and hopeful. Yes, yes of course there is work to come. Yes, of course tomorrow we will still wake up unemployed and hungry and without adequate health care (and trust me, two of the three of those adjectives wake with me every day). Our loved ones and neighbors will still be in dangerous circumstances overseas. But for today, we are excited and hopeful....

Let's enjoy that optimism for today...and put it to work for us tomorrow....

A recent Rolling Stone interview of Senator Obama (god willing, President-elect Obama), captured his sentiment about the acceptance of deceit which emanates from our highest offices. He is attributed with saying, "The level of irresponsibility that's taken place over the last eight years is breathtaking."

I was just railing about this disturbing phenomenon while BZ and I went up and down the aisles of Costco, after I read the ingredients of the Hershey's Chocolate sauce -- I'm not sure what propelled me to read the fine print...I wasn't even contemplating a purchase of the bottled brown liquid. Maybe what caught my eye were the words "Authentic Chocolate Flavor" -- "flavor" -- is that a euphemism for the actual stuff itself?

Indeed, the first ingredient was corn syrup and there was not a spec of chocolate in the whole concoction.

How, I wondered in the wide aisles of Costco, can it be alright to label a product as having "authentic flavor" when it does not actually contain that ingredient?

It is the same philosophy which encourages irresponsibility and liars and cheaters.

We see it now often in the marketplace. We see it in our politicians. Do we see it -- and accept it -- also in our loved ones or our business contacts?

Perhaps we have come to expect it and accept it. (Well, I haven't accepted it and hopefully never will....)

It is, I've said lately, because this environment of deceit is what we get from Washington on down. The message from D.C., from George W. Bush and his cronies and constituents, is that untruths -- otherwise known as lies -- are okay, a-okay, an accepted way to navigate this world.

Let's try to gather some hope that truth and honesty -- for the sake of truth and honesty and the simple beauty of that -- will begin to pervade our country again....For heaven's sake, if you haven't voted already, go out and Vote for Obama tomorrow and let's be hopeful for our future....

Test.
Life is a test.
And here is mine for today, Sunday, November 2, 2008, two days before the most historic election in the memory of my life.