(Artwork: BDS: Justice through Solidarity) As the 2020 election approaches, advocates of Palestinian rights have a seemingly difficult decision. On closer examination however, I think our course should be pretty clear. On one hand there is Trump, whose Middle East policy in general, and with Palestine in particular, has been an atrocious “outsourcing” of US... Continue Reading →
Some Thoughts on Empathy and Imagination and a Poem for Palestine (Testing Day)
(Artwork: A Child's Nightmares in Gaza) We are in a time when we are charged with the task of resisting racism and injustice of all kinds. Before we can do that effectively, we need to better understand what it feels like to be over-policed, discriminated against, subjected to humiliation, and deprived of basic rights and... Continue Reading →
A Clear and Present Danger
We still tend to think that election day is November 3rd. Actually, the voting will begin in little over a month and a half. It is time to take stock of the Trump presidency. By almost every important measure, we are far worse off than we were four years ago. Obama left the country in... Continue Reading →
The Mask Project: Art as Political Satire
The Monkey Mask (#1) Masks are on everyone's mind these days. I thought I would post a series of mask design ideas from my old ceramic days. I think these could be transferred to fabric patterns and printed. Since Trump has made monkey's out of the whole country, I thought I'd start with this. (and... Continue Reading →
Essential Readings from the Literature of the Muslim World: A Personal List
I recently posted these short book and author recommendations on Facebook. My reasoning was pretty simple: though we are now obsessed with the coronavirus and the re-emerging recognition of how pervasive racial injustice and inequality still is in America, it is only a few short years ago that we were obsessed with a quite different... Continue Reading →
If (a poem)
This Poem is dedicated to all people everywhere who work for a more just, peaceful, and compassionate world. It is about persistence in the cause of seemingly forlorn hopes, seemingly quixotic quests, and seemly lost causes. Stay true! Don’t give up the ship! Carry on! And if the world isn't roundMere noise at the rootInstead... Continue Reading →
Peter Beinart’s Unremarkable Letter (AND A LITTLE UNREMARKED ISRAELI TERRORISM)
In recent weeks I have received a barrage of “alerts” about an article by Peter Beinart entitled “I no Longer Believe in a Jewish State.” There have been follow ups like an article by Joshua Leifer which refers to the “Two-State Solution” as a “Liberal fiction.” After reflecting carefully on what they had to say,... Continue Reading →
A Rebuttal to Peter Beinart’s recent article “I No Longer Believe in a Jewish State”
I am writing this piece in response to the recent article by Peter Beinart and a follow-up by Joshua Leifer who both try to drive a final stake into the heart of a “Two-State Solution.” At the risk of offending well meaning (but I think somewhat misguided) fellow activists who have tried to support the... Continue Reading →
Our Pandemic Angels*: A Note on Re-opening Schools Too Soon
I think some basic truths need to be faced squarely as we struggle with how to keep our schools open in the midst of a lethal pandemic. Before I begin, I should make my position quite clear: I am not a parent. My experience with children is partly from my own memories and partly from... Continue Reading →
Trump’s Tulsa Travesty
It seems like a lifetime, but it was only two weeks ago that Trump conducted his travesty in Tulsa. In a recent post about “America’s Great Evasion” I pointed out that America’s “frontier experience” had helped create in our nation a tendency to: “view groups of people that we deemed ‘others’ as fair game for... Continue Reading →
Mind-Cast 