I AM A PALESTINIAN

Monday, January 21, 2019

On MLK's Birthday, I remember how he spoke out against the Vietnam War. His advisors told him, the civil rights movement for black would be crippled. He did it anyway. His voice with many others made the government move toward ending the war. Keeping silent injures the oppressed.

Most of us Christians, Episcopalians and liberals fail to yell out about the plight of the Palestinians who suffer mightily against the Israeli government’s cruel and illegal policies and actions against them. Politicians and the media fail to speak out fearing the reprisals of powerful American Jewish organizations who have enormous political clout.

The Israeli government has allowed Palestinian homes to be bulldozed as people wept, children’s toys strewn over the demolished site. Ancient olive trees have been destroyed. Palestinian land are confiscated for new illegal settlements subsidized by Israel government and the military. Discrimination against Palestinian include streets for Jews only. There has been a forced displacement of 750,000 Palestinians since the establishment of Israel.

The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights has spoken out, there are a number of other Pro-Palestinians rights. We liberals need to get into the fight. See PALESTINIAN HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS COUNCIL (PHROC). The United Methodist Church withdrew its pension funds from Israeli banks. Many groups call for a boycott of Israeli goods.

A Palestinian child is as precious as a Jewish child. We need solidarity with the people of Palestine.

Such bullshit!   As if Israeli children’s lives have not been impacted. The Israelis are not cruel nor are they acting illegally-rediculous! 

Israelis are not cruel nor are they acting illegally-rediculous!"

As I said  earlier I do not expect you or others to agree with me on political matters. I have expressed my opinion carefully. 

Be clear that I am very careful to say that the Israeli government is cruel and illegal in their treatment of the Palestinians. I did not say the Jewish or Israeli people are cruel and acting illegally.

Always with love,

DAD

BECOMING MICHELLE

Friday, January 25, 2019

Becoming

Michelle Obama

Crown 2018

A fine book. Let’s all read it. I did. It’s a tale of a middle-class family whose daughter became the wife of the President of the Unites States. Her dad worked for the Chicago Water Company and her mother a housewife who later worked as a secretary. Hard working Michelle went to Princeton and Harvard Law. Her teen years are told with winsome delight, with the pains sorrows and joys of an African-American or any American kid. 

The trajectory from urban Chicago to the White House is well known and aptly described in the book.  From high salaried lawyer to legal services for the non-profits is illustrated by taking a $60,000 pay cut is a case in point. Her courtship with Barak Obama is sweet and her efforts to be a careful devoted mother of the two daughters is moving. The White House years are kept humorous battling the ever present and necessary secret service protection and creating a vegetable garden on the lawn. There is so much more worthwhile entertaining, political and historical information in the book.

I have a quibble. The religious and theological life of the Obamas is superficial if not absent from the book. Michelle’s family apparently were not church goers. There is scant mention of the Jeremiah Wright scuffle in the Chicago Church. The Obamas attended, but Barak and family left when Dr. Wright became too strident in his political attacks. But there is nothing about what they believed about God, Jesus and prayer. Mrs. Obama mentions that they prayed in national crises, but nothing about what prayer meant to them.

That aside. Becomingis a powerful and wonderful book.