March 20th, Saturday morning, I rolled over sleepily unwilling to rouse myself from the comfort of bed. I had planed to attend the Peace March in San Francisco that morning, marking the one-year anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, making clear my resistance to policies of preemptive action. Now that the time had come to act, I really didn’t feel like going. My friends Caroline and Andre had asked me to go hiking that afternoon – promises of single unattached women sparking my interest. It would be easier to lie in bed, do some reading and go hiking in the afternoon – why bother with the trek up to the city.I had never attended a public demonstration before, and I didn’t know what to expect. I recalled television news reports over the years, brief images and sound bites of angry people filling the streets. I felt strongly that our countries actions in Iraq were not just, but wasn’t sure I wanted to express my opinion in this way. The previous day I heard a radio report that the city was going to be a mad house due to the demonstrations, the announcer warned people to stay away.

I hadn’t planned to meet anyone at the march, so I was free to blow it off without letting anyone else down. I roused myself out of bed and wondered into the living room of Andre and Caroline’s house to check my email. My van was in the shop for repairs and I was staying with them for a few days while it was being fixed. I booted up my laptop and logged on.

One of the messages was from the Dennis Kucinich presidential campaign – I had voted for Dennis in the California primary. I agreed with his message and plans, happy that a candidate was taking an idealistic approach. I tried to stay in touch with the campaign through their email list; they usually sent so many that I never read them all, but I read this one. (more…)

The following is a letter I wrote to the editor for Tikkun Magazine after reading an online article on Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ – A plea to Christians to Respond with a Gospel of Love and Hope in place of this new fundamentalism” You can find the original article here.
Michael,

Thank you so much for your article “Gibson’s the Passion”. I see the mainstream media’s portrayal of this movie as an effort to create controversy between Christians and Jews, to create a story that will drive ratings, with no thoughts to the consequences. I appreciate your efforts to try to channel this energy into a message of hope.

Jesus’ teachings were radical for their time – this created a fear based fundamentalist movement among the Jews that played a role in his crucifixion. The actions of the Christian fundamentalist in their persecution of Jews came from this same fear based worldview – just as now Muslim Fundamentalism strikes out around the world in acts of terrorism. These actions of small subgroups of any faith – never represent the feelings of the masses – and I believe the real evil portrayed in the movie is fundamentalism, not Judaism. (more…)