Lost in Spring Emerging

Welcome spring. Not sure winter is over yet, but welcome, Nawrooz, Easter and Passover, and this year at the same time, Ramadan. Ramadan Mubarak. May we all take the love professed in our sacred texts and share it with the world as we take it in. May our fasts and feasts open us to mercy and wisdom and help us to see one another in a truly positive light.

Embracing Fasting

Art by Rabbi Lynn Gottleib

Much gratitude to Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb for raising up the idea of fasting as a way to focus our attention and rededicate ourselves to truth, mercy and the anti-colonial struggle. It came up first in relation to the Jewish holiday of Purim (6-7 Mar 2023) and the Fast of Esther. Some of us took the opportunity to hold signs and vigil outside the Israeli consulate on Montgomery Street in San Francisco during the day of March 6.

These are “dawn’s early light” to sundown fasts, like during Ramadan, not 24 or 25 hours. I found my Purim fast helped focus my attention spiritually during the day.

Now I am looking ahead to the Fast of the Firstborn (even though I am not a firstborn child myself). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_of_the_Firstborn which I will observe on Wednesday, April 5 this year.

I Get Tired, Sorta

I am a month overdue for this Approximately Monthly Missive. I started one, but time, tiredness and work conspire against me. Being tired is weird. I feel it in some ways, but not in others. I work long days, just because. No one makes me, but I feel compelled to finish tasks rather than revisit them another day. I stay focused and energized when everyone else is ready to knock off. Maybe because I fear being told to do something else the next day and not closing the loop more than they do.

But I come home, and I don’t want to sit at my computer, working, creating, writing. I am ready to sit back and watch something instead of doing something. I want to dine with people, but I want to get this out more.

If spring has sprung, more water is on its way from sky, snow and stream. The other evening I was traversing the east side of Twin Peaks on Burnett when I passed the most amusing of juxtapositions in a dead-tree way. A large part of a tree came down on a home on the hill. It was rather dramatic to see. Not 150 ft down the road was this yellow dumpster with some debris inside. On the top, laying on its side, was a three month old Christmas tree! Did someone just come to realize that its time had come? They were probably just grateful for a dumpster in which at last to throw their holiday waste.

I have lived my life working more and socializing less. I used to stay late at the soup kitchen fixing this and that when I could have gone home or to a class at City College or out on a date. For several years I would eagerly head out to play Ultimate in Golden Gate Park after Tuesday lunch, but I tended to putz. I know that I can be a real out there person, but there have also been plenty of times when I almost left to go somewhere, but I laid down instead.

Two nights ago I laid down on my bed in the early evening, and I woke up in the middle of the night. I was working on this Missive and decided to lay down for a while. I am making progress, but I didn’t really get into a groove until mid-day Sunday, and then I had to host a film watch party of the documentary, My Tree on zoom for the Middle East Peace Committee. I am relieved and happy that the event went smoothly, and we had a good turnout. People are getting interested in Israel, and also Palestine, what with the increasing right wing pressures in/by Israel. But it also interrupted my work on this Missive.

I also was distracted by–and informed by–a Zoom report back from the Center for Jewish Nonviolence’s (CJNV) third “Hineinu” cohort currently in Masafer Yatta. It also featured Ali Awad, friend and Palestinian from Tuba, a village in the firing zone. My friend, Raymonda Tawil, the great Palestinian journalist (retired) pinged me from Paris, asking me if I were paying attention to what was going on in Tel Aviv. She appreciated that I was focused on Palestine, but she did get me to seek out news about the explosive, “revolutionary” feel from Jewish Israelis in the streets. The defense minister was removed for saying that he opposed the judicial interference by the executive and legislative branches there. Or rather, he just was pointing out that the country was not going to be secure if not governable. Remember, Israel has no constitution. There are therefore no constitutional strictures for a government to be constrained by. Lawmakers can rewrite the rules of governance relatively easily.

A good sign from Jerusalem “pro-democracy” demonstration. I am glad to know many of these were there; not nearly enough, of course, but it is important to remember that wherever there is oppression, there is resistance. Not all are lost. Not all is lost. Not all are lost. Not all is lost. A mantra for dark times: “Not all are lost. Not all is lost.”

Only the power of the people (At this point, only Jewish Israelis need apply.) may stop this coalition government from implementing its takeover of the judiciary as Haggai Matar of +972 Magazine said on the 27 March Democracy Now! It is Israeli’s own fault that they are in this mess, but I hope they find a positive road to follow for a change. And G-d save the Palestinians amidst this Jewish supremacist (un)civil war. Every day there are more intrusions and disruptions of Muslim prayers in the Al Aqsa area in Al Quds by Israeli (in)security forces as well as less iconic places. Inshalah, peace (not pacification).

I called my sister as she and friends were en route to a demonstration in Jerusalem. Later, she reported seeing quite a few signs at the Jerusalem demonstration on March 26 that said (in Hebrew), “There is no democracy with occupation.”

Love and Healing to Earthquake Victims Everywhere

Shortly after the devastating earthquakes began shaking eastern Türkiye I wrote my three incarcerated friends from the Holy Land Foundation. “Like a monk in a cave, your power can rise from your cell. As I watch news from Syria and Turkey, and in Palestine and elsewhere, I imagine all the good you would be doing right now. The loss of your efforts adds insult to injury. May the power of your faith and love help in some cosmic way. Inshallah.”

Ghassan Elashi replied: “Thanks for your comments about Palestine, Syria, and Tukeya. In the 1999 earthquake in Turkeya the HLF did provide immediate aid of over a million dollars. We also provided aid for Kosovo and Bosnia during the civil war there. The HLF has lost an opportunity in the last 23 years to raise half a billion dollars considering that in the last 2 years of business the HLF raised $13 million each year. With a modest 5% annual growth we could have raised close to $500,000,000. 🙂 The Palestinians we provided help for were in desperate need for help under the brutal occupation. Imagine the US government not providing aid to Syria because the area affected by the earthquake are in areas controlled by “Terrorists “and the Syrian regime has embargoed. But the common sense says that when it comes to charities, politics should be put aside. That is the case except for the Palestinians because the Israeli government and Israeli lobby in the US wanted to cut all aid to Palestinians unless it is money paid to the PA to protect Israeli security.”

Shukri Abu Baker posted the following to his “Notes from Shukri” blog on 17 February:

————- Earthquake ——– An Urgent Appeal————

It doesn’t shake earth and just leave us alone strewn among the ruins searching
for evidence of life among the dead. It doesn’t visit once and leave us behind
to no return. It stays hunkered down in our bone marrow, in our unsettled dreams,
in a daylight powdered with dust, smoke, and despair.
Nothing we can do may resurrect the departed and put them back in their aromatic
kitchens and cozy bedrooms. We cannot undo an earthquake, that mighty power
of nature. We cannot glue the rubble back into dream homes. But we can show love.
We can carry the load of a heavy day for those who are overburdened with sorrow.
We can come together with hands willing to dig through debris and find gems of light
lingering against the gravity of dark. We can salvage hope from the jaws of loss.

The Holy Land Foundation was there in the 1999 earthquake. I dispatched my best
team. We stayed behind even when every other relief organization had left the scene.
All I can do now is pray to God and urge you all to act. Give generously. Take part in
the rebuilding effort. Be part of the survivors new life. Every human loss is a tragic loss,
but what is even more tragic is the loss of human conscience, empathy, solidarity, and love.
That is what we will overcome. That what we will challenge. That what we will reject
full heartedly. This is the time to ACT. Build. Give. Overcome. Be Human.

I have contributed money to the earthquake relief effort through the International Rescue Committee and the Middle East Children’s Alliance.

Ghassan also brought to my attention Mohammed Al Halabi of World Vision. Check the following link: https://www.fosna.org/the-fosna-blog/journey-with-jonathan-entry-11 Ghassan wrote, “Al Halabi was sentenced in Israel on February 16, 2023 for 12 years for allegedly siphoning millions of dollars to Hamas through the European charity “World Vision”. He was the head of Gaza office of the charity. He was arrested in 2016 so he has less than 5 years to be free. He is now in prison in Israel. He denies the Israeli allegation. His trial was secret and he was not shown the evidence to prove the Israeli allegations.”

Mufid commented briefly, “It is really sad to see what is happening in Turkey and Syria. I ask Allah to have mercy on the souls of these who died and give relief and peace to those who are lost their loved ones and suffering. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason and I never question that. I have belief in Allah and his wisdom and that belief sustains me during difficult times.”

I am humbled and challenged by the grace of these monk-like prisoners. I hope I meet them some day. Mufid, inshallah, will be released NO LATER than 2025. I would rather meet them all on the outside than through the enlargement of the carceral state which seems hell-bent on attacking nonviolent freedom fighters.

A Couple of More Items and Updates

My friends in A Tuwani are building a dairy factory. They need your help. Please be generous: https://www.nonviolenceinternational.net/donate_cjnv_solidarity

Lara Sheehi is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at the George Washington University. She is co-author with Stephen Sheehi of Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine. She has also been targeted professionally and threatened physically through “lawfare” because she is a woman of color and because she is a Palestinian academic. She recently wrote “My anger at an Israeli who threatens to have me raped and beaten angers me. My anger towards an Israeli male who threatens to hit me if I do not listen angers me. My anger against an occupying army and occupying state that has stolen so much from me, my people and my Palestinian siblings is not contextless, capricious or religiously based. It is a political anger. Any anger that I express also pales in comparison to the violence of colonial, settler colonial, and imperial forces that have decimated the Middle East in the course of my lifetime.” -Lara Sheehi, https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/02/03/on-targeting-an-arab-woman/

Last fall I shared that I testified before the San Francisco Unified School District in support of Muslim students’ efforts to have the two major “Eid” holy days made into holidays in the SFUSD school calendar. The school board is continuing to backslide on their agreement last August to make the Eids into official holidays. This San Francisco Examiner article is good for background, but right the school board decided at their next meeting to move the 2024 spring break to coincide with one of the Eids so as to delay a real reckoning with the board’s internal Islamophobia and cow-towing to offensive Jewish and white supremacy.

Dennis Duvall, Pacific Life Community Stand Against Nuclear Suicidality

On March 23, 81-year-old Dennis DuVall became the second American to enter a German prison for actions demanding that U.S. nuclear bombs stationed at Germany’s Büchel NATO base be withdrawn. 

Photo by Michelle Shiloh

The long-time nuclear disarmament activist (who attended past Pacific Life Community gatherings), U.S. Air Force veteran and member of Veterans for Peace said, “It is my right and my duty to work toward the abolition of nuclear weapons, and it is the responsibility of the German government to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and to ensure the prompt removal of U.S. B61 thermonuclear weapons from Büchel NATO base.”

You can write to him during his 60 day sentence at JVA Bautzen, Breitscheid Str. 4, 02625 Bautzen, Germany.

More information (and future updates if he gets moved to another prison) at www.bit.ly/DennisDuVall

Dennis being arrested/detained at the Nevada Nuclear Security Site in August, 2012.

I met Dennis twelve or thirteen years ago demonstrating against torture manuals written there for use at the School of Assassins (SOA or later WHINSEC). He came through Las Vegas often during my tenure there with the Nevada Desert Experience. We were even escorted out of a “Night to Honor Israel” held by Christians United For Israel for being disruptive, and then we stood with banners at the exits. (Where IS that picture?!) He has a vibrant spirit despite all of his years. Thanks for pushing hard for peace, Dennis!

Meanwhile, I joined my Pacific Life Community pals for a weekend in rainy Cambria, and we took the opportunity of being on the central California coast to vigil outside of Vandenberg Space Force Base. Forty years ago it was at VAFB, not VSFB where I got permanently turned on to being an activist. No one was arrested this year, but I would say it was busy for a Saturday; more traffic on Hwy 1 than I expected. We got some birds, but we got more positives than I expected as well.

Just for fun!

I continue to enjoy anything I find by the Canadian band Walk Off the Earth (WOTE). They are touring this year with some U.S. dates, but the closest to here is Bend, Oregon. I am newly fond of this cover of Britney Spear’s song “Toxic.” It takes me back to a dance mob-like troupe I had a playful time with a few years ago that did this song (as well as Michael Jackson’s “They Don’t Care About Us”). They way WOTE share and toss around instruments of all types is a joy to behold. Do those guys really need to don helmets to use their heads to strike the cymbals near the end of this song? Of course they do! https://youtu.be/rlPzLfe0vJI

After I showed off some of the political t-shirts that I tend to wear all the time, I felt that my necklace of spiritual amulets deserved some attention. It does attract attention.

Starting on the right and moving to the left: The Green Man connects me to my pagan “roots.” It is also a precious reminder of my friend, Glimmer.

I got the hamsa next to it at the recommendation of a wise friend, the late Rose May Dance, at a time when I was feeling vulnerable. Many Jews claim it, although it is not of Ashkenazi/European origins. I think of it as Persian. It is found among artifacts from Mesopotamia in general. I think of adding a Star of David or a menorah, but they also symbolize Israel too much for my taste, to wear around my neck. I keep looking for the right addition.

Next is a medal of St. Martin de Porres. Martin is the patron saint of people who sweep, hair cutters and Lima, Peru. He is also remembered as the Latin American St. Francis. He was half Black and half Spanish. He lived in the late 16th century but was only made it to sainthood once Vatican II in the early 1960s overcame some of the church’s historical racism and allowed for black saints. “Martin’s” is the popular, San Francisco soup kitchen I helped run from 1986 to 2007 and still feel connected to. I am very grateful for the many lessons I learned there and from the Catholic Worker movement still. I will forever be challenged by Martin’s great humility and gentleness.

The torus of lapis lazuli reminds me of my Afghan friends and the 2011 peace delegation I joined to Afghanistan. I got this piece there, and I am touched and impressed by the young friends I made on that trip. Kathy Kelly who led the delegation and Voices in the Wilderness is now chair of the board of World Beyond War. Please support them (and sport their great messages on a t-shirt or something).

The colorful Yin-Yang pendant was a stocking stuffer some years ago. (Thank you, Adissa!) I love how often the little bit of “other” is present in the mix, and how opposites can balance each other out. How polarities need each other. How things can remain distinct and yet be surrounded, hopefully in a sea of love. There is a lot to contemplate in a Yin-Yang.

Finally, my Peace Bronze. At the end of our annual Pacific Life Community weekends in early March, we demonstrate against nuclear weapons somewhere in the western United States. In 2011 or 2012 we were at Vandenberg, and I got arrested blocking the entrance to the base with fourteen friends. When we were released in a parking lot in nearby Vandenberg Village, someone stopped who wasn’t at our demonstration. We kinda stood out, and he wondered who we all were. Amazingly, he was the person who started Peace Bronze, so he gave us all necklaces.

This necklace helps me remember my connection to things beyond myself; to things I don’t understand; to the cosmos; to my spiritual center. It helps me ground when I touch it, calming me when I am frustrated or when I need help.

Interim Eamon

I will be visiting again in April, so more pics with us together next time!