Valerie Saturen

Breaking down Citizens United

2012-01-21T17:29:00.002-07:00

Published January 18, 2012 in Real Change:

http://www.realchangenews.org/index.php/site/archives/6194/

There's no such thing as a corporate citizen; only people deserve the right to free speech

Should corporations have the same rights as human beings, and also the right to buy elections? Two years ago, in its landmark Citizens United decision, the Supreme Court ruled yes. An overwhelming majority of Americans, however, say no. In growing numbers, they are calling for a constitutional amendment to establish that corporations are not people and that the unchecked flow of cash does not equal free speech.

The undue influence of corporate and financial interests is deeply detrimental to our democracy. As we mark its second anniversary, the consequences of Citizens United are already painfully clear. The mid-term 2010 election saw record $4 billion spending, and the 2012 race is poised to leave this spending spree in the dust. Already, the parade of attack ads and toxic rhetoric has commenced its ugly march across our TV screens.

Overturning a Supreme Court decision is no easy process. It requires a constitutional amendment, which must be approved by three-fourths of state legislatures or by ratifying conventions in three-fourths of states. However, such an amendment would enjoy broad support across the political spectrum. According to a poll by Hart Research Associates, this support includes nearly four in five, or 79 percent, of Americans. This kind of popular backing has allowed for the swift passage of constitutional amendments in the past, including the amendments to end Prohibition and to lower the voting age to eighteen as teenagers were drafted into the Vietnam War.

Joining with state lawmakers across the country, Washington State Senator Adam Kline has introduced a bill to abolish corporate personhood. His Senate Joint Memorial 8007 states that Citizens United “has created a new and unequal playing field between human beings and corporations with respect to campaign financing, negating over a century of precedent prohibiting corporate contributions” to campaigns.

In the meantime, there are other effective ways to reduce the role of money in politics. One of these is to allow for clean elections, typically by offering public funds in exchange for an agreement to limit private donations. Clean elections already exist in several states, including Maine and Arizona. Modeling their proposal on these successful state initiatives, a bipartisan group of Congress members has introduced the Fair Elections Now Act (FENA) to create similar reforms at the federal level. With backers ranging from members of the Tea Party to the Sierra Club, the bill would allow federal candidates to run for office without relying upon large private donations. By freeing candidates from the pressures of constant fundraising, FENA would enable them to get back to the work of serving the people who elect them.

Transparency is another key part of the equation. After Citizens United, corporations and financial institutions can anonymously channel millions through Political Action Committees and 501(c)(4) organizations, which are classified as non-profit social welfare organizations. These groups—often with civic-sounding names like Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks, and Citizens United—can pool unlimited funds toward ads without disclosing where the money comes from. The DISCLOSE Act seeks to remedy this by requiring organizations involved in political campaigns to reveal the identities of major donors. Though the bill was blocked in the Senate, more progress can be found at the state level. In April 2011, the State of Washington passed legislation to enhance campaign disclosure requirements. Shedding light on money in politics will strengthen our democracy by helping voters to make informed choices.

In an era of angry partisanship, the poll numbers show that most of us agree on the need to take money out of politics. While ordinary Americans struggle to cope with the economic downturn, our nation’s capitol should not remain awash in special interest money. The more energy candidates spend pursuing campaign dollars and courting lobbyists, the further the needs and concerns of ordinary Americans recede into the background. By ensuring that our leaders are accountable to the people who elect them, not to corporate sponsors, we can make sure that they put the well-being of the people first.

Seattle Girl Raises Funds for Uganda Wells

2011-12-01T21:17:00.003-07:00

Published November 22, 2011 in Seattle's Child: http://www.seattleschild.com/article/seattle-girl-raises-funds-for-uganda-wells

Seattle resident Isabella Todaro was just eight years old when she made it her mission to bring clean water to other children across the globe. As a first grader at the Meridian School, Isabella was horrified to learn that many people lack access to this basic necessity. By the third grade, she decided to do something about it, and Drop Foundation was born.

Isabella is now a fifth grader, and her foundation has grown from a daydream into a project that has vastly improved the lives of rural villagers in Uganda. Drop Foundation has raised the funds to build desperately needed wells in two villages, Kamira and Mityomere.

Isabella launched her fundraising effort by recruiting her third grade class to make and sell homemade dog biscuits. Learning of the Ugandan children’s passion for soccer and lack of school essentials, she enlisted friends’ help in collecting soccer balls and pencils. Inspired by his sister's dedication, Isabella's brother Max, now 8 years old, began gathering donated books to build libraries in both villages. The siblings have become a fixture at Seattle’s annual Seafair, where they sell dog treats and water to festival-goers. Drop Foundation is now working toward its third $7,000 well.

The funds for each well are channeled through Concern for the Girl Child, a Ugandan-based non-profit organization cofounded by Ann Hayes, a friend of the Todaro family. The organization allocates the funds by locating communities with water shortages, conducting geological surveys to find optimal drilling sites, and hiring contractors to build the wells.

This summer, Isabella traveled with her family to Uganda to visit the people with whom she has developed a lasting connection. “They were the nicest people I’ve ever met,” she says. “No matter how little they had, they were so caring and generous.”

In Kamira, she met some of the 600 children whose crowded primary school is the site of Drop Foundation’s first well. Kamira Primary School students have little in the way of supplies, sharing pencils and close quarters, with approximately 70 children to a classroom. Compounding their educational challenges are the long hours they spend helping their families survive. Fetching water was one arduous task often shouldered by the children. Before the well was built in 2010, villagers had to trek a mile and a half to reach the borehole that they relied upon for all of their water needs, including drinking, bathing, cooking and washing.

Leaving the first village, Isabella and her family traveled to Mityomere to watch the completion of the second well. “We drove for five hours on a road that wasn’t really a road,” recalls Isabella. “Kids were popping out from the bushes.”

The students at Mityomere Primary School face even harsher conditions than those of Kamira, packed into a one-room schoolhouse constructed of cow dung, where cattle roam freely. Other classes are held outside under a tree. Isabella accompanied villagers to the green, brackish marsh that had previously served as their sole water source. Beginning at age five, the children made daily treks to and from the marsh, carrying jugs of water on their heads. Worse than this ongoing hardship was the health hazard posed by the contaminated water source, which villagers shared with their cattle. To keep their new wells safe, members of both villages have formed water committees and built fences to safeguard this vital resource.

Isabella’s goal is to build one well per year. She says that this experience has taught her “to consider myself extremely lucky. I’ll never take water for granted again.”

To find out how you can help, visit www.dropfoundation.org.

This article was made possible through collaboration with earthbongo.com, a social network to make the world a better place, one project at a time. If you would like to conserve water, visit http://earthbongo.com/project/507/shorten-your-shower.

Careers in the Culinary Arts

2011-11-11T18:19:00.004-07:00

Published in Next Step Magazine November 2011.
http://www.nextstepu.com/articlePage1.aspx?artId=3839&categoryId=4

Do your original recipes have your family lining up for seconds? If you have a passion for food, love to create and enjoy making others happy, you might consider a career in the culinary arts.

Culinary careers include chefs, cooks and restaurant or catering managers. Many chefs have a specialty, such as seafood or pastries. They may work in an assortment of settings: a restaurant, a hotel, or an institution like a school, hospital or nursing home. Others decide to open their own restaurants or catering businesses.

Education, skills.

It is possible to begin a culinary career straight out of high school, starting as a food preparation or line cook and making your way up the career ladder. However, most chefs and head cooks have completed training programs ranging from a few months to two or more years. Upscale establishments and higher-level positions often require two-year culinary arts degrees, which are offered at culinary institutes, vocational schools, some community colleges and the armed forces. These programs provide courses in cooking skills, restaurant management, health and sanitation and menu creation.

Chef Dean Massey earned his associate degree from Clover Park Technical College (www.cptc.edu ) in Lakewood, Wash. After spending 15 years working for Restaurants Unlimited and the Lobstershop Corporation, he joined the faculty at Clover Park. “There are plenty of chefs who have started at the bottom and worked their way up,” says Massey. “But it’s a long process. An associate degree will help you get in the kitchen at a higher level more quickly.” A bachelor’s degree in hospitality is beneficial for those who start their own business. Whether or not you get formal training, it is important to gain real-world cooking experience to find out if the culinary arts is for you. As a high school student, you can take cooking classes or get an internship or summer job at a food service management company or restaurant.

Typical day

A career in the culinary arts means working in a fast-paced, physically demanding environment. Fitness and physical endurance are important, since these careers involve standing for long hours, lifting heavy pots and kettles and working near hot stoves and ovens. “It’s very pressure-oriented,” Massey says. He adds that while you may have mornings off, you can expect to work evenings, weekends and holidays.

Is it for you?

In addition to being physically fit, cooks and chefs must be quick, efficient and good with their hands. They will be interacting with customers and working as part of a team in the kitchen. Natural cooking talent and a sensitive palette are a must. “You’re going to be working long hours, and you’ll be on your feet 10 to 12 hours a day,” Massey says.

If you can take the heat (literally) you may find a very satisfying career in the culinary arts.

“There’s a lot of creativity in it,” he says.

VITAL STATS

Salary: Earnings depend on the position and the establishment. On average, chefs and head cooks earn $37,000 per year, according to www.bls.gov.

Education: An associate degree will help you attain a more highly paid position.

Free Speech for Real People

2011-06-06T20:34:00.004-06:00

Published in Z Magazine Vol. 24, No. 6 (June 2011)

http://www.zcommunications.org/free-speech-for-real-people-by-valerie-saturen

What happens to democracy when corporations are legal persons with the right to free speech? And what happens when free speech is equated with the unchecked flow of cash? In a 5 to 4 decision that flouted legal precedents and campaign finance legislation, the Supreme Court in Citizens United v. FEC last year ruled that corporations have the constitutional right to spend unlimited money toward political advertising. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Democrat or Republican,” said Seattle-based MoveOn activist Patricia Daly, “Citizens United is turning over...our democracy in favor of corporations.” Daly is one of many people across the nation taking action to challenge the ruling, push for greater transparency, and promote clean elections.

The only way to overturn a Supreme Court decision is through a constitutional amendment. This is precisely what many democracy advocates are calling for. Amending the Constitution is not easy. A proposed amendment must be approved by three-fourths of state legislatures or by ratifying conventions in three-fourths of states. However, there is widespread bipartisan support for an amendment to overturn Citizens United. According to a recent poll by Hart Research Associates, this includes 68 percent of Republicans, 82 percent of Independents, and 87 percent of Democrats.

David Cobb, the 2004 Green Party presidential candidate, now travels the country galvanizing that support through “Move to Amend.” He points out that state legislatures from California to Vermont have introduced bills calling for a constitutional amendment protecting the free speech rights of people, not corporations. “This is really about a broad democratizing movement,” said Cobb. “Legal and electoral systems have been hijacked by ruling elites.”

In the shorter term, advocates want greater transparency. While the 2010 mid-term election saw unprecedented campaign spending, the public has remained in the dark about the full extent and sources of that spending. Further, many corporate interest groups hide behind civic-sounding names like Americans for Prosperity, Freedom Works, and Citizens United. Requiring campaigns to disclose the identities of donors helps voters make informed choices.

Steve Breaux, a WashPIRG public-interest advocate, urges support for the DISCLOSE Act. The bill, which passed the House, but was blocked in the Senate, would require organizations involved in political campaigns to reveal the identities of major donors.

Like other states, Washington has introduced a bill to shed light on money in politics that has passed the State Senate and now has to clear the House. In 2010, California passed similar legislation, requiring disclosure for political messages that appeal to voters to approve or reject a candidate or measure, even if the ad doesn’t use the “vote for” or “vote against.”

Another way states are promoting clean elections is by providing candidates with a public alternative to corporate campaign financing. Publicly-funded campaigns have worked in seven states: Maine, Arizona, North Carolina, New Mexico, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts. However, clean elections face a tough fight, since their popularity and effectiveness has drawn the ire of corporate interest groups. Legislation in Massachusetts was later repealed and Vermont’s was struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, which is now ruling on the constitutionality of Arizona’s Clean Elections Act, which levels the playing field by using public funds to match the corporate funding of another candidate.

At the federal level, the Fair Elections Now Act (FENA) calls for public funding of Senate campaigns. The bipartisan bill would allow federal candidates to run for office without relying on large private donations, freeing candidates from the pressures of constant fundraising.

Building the momentum for these efforts requires public education and consciousness-raising, according to John Bonifaz of Free Speech for People. Although voters overwhelmingly agree that corporations wield too much political influence, few have even heard of Citizens United. Hart Research Associates found that only 22 percent of voters were aware of the decision. Some groups are informing the public through teach-ins and forums. Others are taking a more dramatic approach.

Americans are demanding an end to the cynical politicking that has tainted our democracy for far too long. They don’t want to see their elected officials up for sale. In these challenging times, it is essential that our leaders focus on creating jobs, getting our economy back on track, fixing our broken health care system, stopping multiple wars, and addressing ongoing environmental degradation. Putting democracy into the hands of the electorate can help ensure that our lawmakers put these pressing issues, and the wellbeing of the people, first.

The Real Class War (Review of Winner-Take-All Politics)

2011-06-06T19:46:00.010-06:00

Reviewed: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class, by Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, Simon & Schuster, 340 pp., $17.46
Published May 25, 2011 in Toward Freedom: http://towardfreedom.com/americas/2405-the-real-class-war
When then-Senator Barack Obama called for reforms to "spread the wealth around," opponents labeled him a class warrior intent on stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. What they didn't mention, and what too few Americans realize, is that precisely the opposite pattern has unfolded over the past forty years. Winner-Take-All Politics details this dramatic redistribution of wealth and shows how it is no natural outcome of economic forces. It is the result of political decisions. Increasingly dependent upon campaign funds from well-organized special interests, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have legislated in favor of the extremely rich at the expense of everyone else.
Hacker and Pierson back up their assertions with striking data. For example, the share of the nation's income raked in by the top 1 percent shot up from 9 percent in 1974 to 23.5 percent in 2007. The figures are even more remarkable at the very upper echelons: the top 0.1 percent has seen a fourfold increase in their share of the pie, from 2.7 percent to 12.3. Meanwhile, wages for the poor and middle class have stagnated and failed to keep up with the rising cost of living.
Experts often pin the growth of economic inequality on the shift to a knowledge-based economy, which has produced a large gap between the educated and uneducated. But Hacker and Pierson point out that extreme income disparity exists even among the highly educated. Further, the same level of disparity is not found in other developed nations. Clearly, an additional force is at work.
That force, according to Hacker and Pierson, is American government and politics. Since the 1970s, the tax code has become progressively less progressive. Not only have the super-wealthy enjoyed large tax cuts, but they have benefited from loopholes such as the capital gains tax. Since capital gains like investment income are only taxed 15 percent, private equity and hedge fund managers end up paying "a dramatically lower rate than their secretaries." Often, policy decisions go quietly unnoticed in the form of "drift": the government simply fails to respond to changing economic realities. The minimum wage is never updated to keep up with inflation. Legislation fails to address skyrocketing executive pay, which now approaches 300 times the earnings of average workers.
So why, if our democracy is based on the principle of "government of the people, by the people, and for the people," have our policies so consistently favored the few? The answer lies in organization. In the past, unions provided a voice for the interests of working Americans. Yet while union representation has sharply declined (from 30% in 1960 to 13% in 2000), lobbyists representing corporate and financial interests have proliferated in the corridors of Washington. Unlike the fragmented and politically uninformed electorate, these special interest groups have banded together and pooled their vast resources to exert powerful political pressure. Hacker and Pierson describe the revolving door between Congress and K Street. Take Max Baucus, the Democratic chair of the Senate Finance Committee, who packed his office with pharmaceutical lobbyists. Or take John Breaux, former Democratic senator from Louisiana. After repeatedly undercutting progressive initiatives, Breaux made the smooth transition from elected official to lavishly paid consultant at a lobbying firm.
Despite the media spectacle that surrounds presidential elections, the growth of inequality has little to do with which party occupies the White House. In fact, it was under Carter that the dynamics of "winner-take-all" began to rapidly accelerate. Hacker and Pierson turn our attention from the presidential "horse race" toward the far more significant "politics of organized combat" that has consumed both parties. They describe a GOP that became incrementally more radicalized over the past four decades, most dramatically under the leadership of House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich in the 1990s. While the GOP shifted further to the right--a shift that would recur with the emergence of the Tea Party--the Democratic Party was forced by the fundraising arms race to become more business-friendly. In turn, business interests were keen to court Democratic leaders who could stall or water down reforms.
Meaningful reform is made even harder by the structural flaws of a system predisposed toward gridlock. Since states have equal representation in the Senate, conservative small states hold disproportionate sway over less numerous but far more populous states. The increasingly ubiquitous use of the filibuster poses another roadblock, making it easy for the minority party to--with the help of a few bought-off colleagues across the aisle--stymie legislation. Such obstructionist tactics always benefit the minority party that employs them, convincing the public that the majority party is inept and that Washington is broken. During Obama's presidency, this has given congressional Republicans an incentive to block any reform-minded legislation rather than engage in bipartisan compromise.
If the problem is organization, Hacker and Pierson conclude, then organization is the solution. And it will have to be sustained. "Political reformers will need to mobilize for the long haul," the authors write, "appreciating that it is not electoral competitions alone that are decisive, but also the creation of organized capacity to…turn electoral victories into substantive and sustainable triumphs."

Citizens United against Citizens United

2011-03-17T16:49:00.004-06:00

Local activists fight controversial Supreme Court decision

Published March 16, 2011 in Real Change (Vol. 18 No. 11)

http://www.realchangenews.org/index.php/site/archives/5424/

In a 5 to 4 decision that flouted legal precedents and campaign finance legislation, the Supreme Court, in Citizens United v. F.E.C., last year ruled that corporations can spend unlimited money toward political advertising.

What happens to democracy when corporations have the same rights as people, including the right to influence elections?

On March 10, the University of Washington hosted the forum “After Citizens United: What Now?” Enrique Cerna of KCTS 9 Public Television moderated the discussion, sponsored by Washington Public Campaigns.

Lynne Dodson of the AFL-CIO said Citizens United is part of the same “rapacious pursuit of profit” that caused the current recession. She said the ruling enables corporations to back candidates who support offshoring, deregulation, and fewer labor rights.

Several speakers emphasized that the issue extends beyond corporate free speech rights in the context of elections. Jeff Clements, general counsel of Free Speech for People, said the fundamental question is corporate power, including whether corporations should be treated as legal persons. He called for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United ruling and establish that corporations are not people.

Amending the Constitution won’t be easy, the speakers agreed. A proposed amendment must be approved by three-fourths of state legislatures or by ratifying conventions in three-fourths of states.

Free Speech for People Director John Bonifaz pointed out that “overwhelming majorities” across the political spectrum would support such an amendment. According to a recent poll by Hart Research Associates, this includes 68 percent of Republicans, 82 percent of Independents, and 87 percent of Democrats.

Advocates worry about transparency in the short term. Steve Breaux, a WashPIRG public-interest advocate, urged support for the DISCLOSE Act. The bill, which passed the House but was blocked in the Senate, would require organizations involved in political campaigning to disclose the identities of large donors. In Washington State, a similar bill (SB 5021) is scheduled for a public hearing at 8 a.m. on March 16.

To challenge Citizens United, people can attend hearings and town halls, contact senators and representatives, write op-eds and letters to the editor, and form grassroots groups, said Claudia Kauffman of the Minority Executive Directors Coalition of King County. Temple De Hirsch Sinai’s Rabbi Alan Cook encouraged people of faith to get their congregations involved in the effort.

Bonifaz told of the late Doris “Granny D” Haddock, who turned 90 while walking across the United States to advocate campaign finance reform. For 14 months, she walked 10 miles per day through wind, ice, rain and snow until she reached the Capitol.

“When she was born, the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote had yet to be enacted,” Bonifaz said. “In the name of Granny D, it is time for us to stand up and fight … to ensure that ‘we the people,’ not ‘we the corporations,’ govern in America."

Making a Difference with Americorps

2011-02-25T14:44:00.005-07:00

Published in the February issue of Next Step Magazine:

http://www.nextstepu.com/articlePage1.aspx?artId=3731&categoryId=43

If you want to have a positive impact on a community while earning money for college, then you may want to consider joining AmeriCorps.

AmeriCorps consists of three programs:

1) AmeriCorps State and National, 2) AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), and 3) AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps). AmeriCorps State and National members work with organizations to address community needs in education, public safety, health and the environment.

VISTA members serve with community organizations to build programs geared toward bringing low-income individuals and communities out of poverty. AmeriCorps NCCC is a full-time residential program for people aged 18-24, in which members work intensively in a particular community.

Benefits of service

AmeriCorps members receive health coverage, training, deferment for student loans, a modest stipend to cover living expenses and many also receive housing assistance. Full-time members who complete their service receive $5,350 to pay for college, grad school or existing student loans. (Those who work part time receive a partial award.)

Giving back

One of the most rewarding parts of working with AmeriCorps is the chance to create a positive impact on others’ lives. Robin Solash worked with AmeriCorps’ Northwest Service Academy as an environmental education provider in Toledo, Ore. She implemented environmental service learning activities for middle school students and ran an after-school program.

“I got to meet many different people, and I also got a chance to help out in a community that really needed it.”

Visit AmeriCorps.gov for more info about each of its programs.

March like an Egyptian

2011-01-29T22:15:00.003-07:00

Published on Middle East Mirror on January 29, 2011

It began in Tunisia, spreading like wildfire to the streets of Egypt and Yemen. Taking to public squares and defying brutal suppression, the people of these three Middle Eastern nations are demanding an end to the poverty, corruption, and repression they have long endured. For the sixth day, turmoil has continued to shake Egypt, with demonstrators defying curfew and forcing back police barricades. As the dramatic unrest continues, the 30-year Mubarak regime is in a tenuous state.

Under the Bush administration, "spreading democracy" in the Middle East was the oft-heard refrain. Yet when popular enfranchisement failed to bring results favorable to U.S. interests--as in 2006, when free elections brought Hamas to power in Gaza--the tenor began to change. While the administration issued cautious, general praise for aspirations toward democracy, "stability" had become the word of the day.

Now, in the midst of this historic uprising, Obama's rhetoric echoes that of his predecessor. Rather than condemning the autocratic regime, the president merely called on both sides to exercise restraint, mildly affirming Egyptians' democratic hopes and urging reforms. Obama's tepid response reflects a delicate balancing act. Rage against U.S.-backed strongmen fuels anti-Americanism and terrorism, yet democracy may pave the way for Islamist rule.

Obama's dilemma is not without legitimacy or historic precedent. While the demonstrations have had no singular leadership, and despite the prominent role of Nobel Peace Prize winner and former IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood has formed a significant presence within this movement. There is a possibility that this revolt will mirror the 1979 uprising that ousted the U.S.-friendly Shah of Iran. What we now call the Islamic Revolution began as an ideologically diverse movement strongly influenced by secular Marxism; only later did the religious fervor of Khomeini stand at its apex. If the people of Egypt are successful in toppling the regime, only time will tell what kind of replacement will emerge.

The Egyptian army will play a decisive role in the outcome of the unrest. Unlike the police force and security apparatus of the Interior Ministry, the army has not historically served as the boot of the regime. Not only has the army proved generally hesitant to use force on protesters, but there have been reports of soldiers stripping off their uniforms and joining in.

Egypt is a key U.S. ally in the region, receiving nearly $2 billion in annual foreign aid. In 2010, $1.3 billion went to military aid alone. Thus, the results of this uprising will undoubtedly have important consequences for U.S. relations with the Middle East. As the demonstrations continue, Obama's response will test the integrity of America's professed ideals. Will we fall down on the side of the tyrant we know, or will we risk uncertainty and support Egypt's people as they take their destiny into their own hands?

Heeding the Lessons of History in Rwanda: An Interview with Joseph Sebarenzi

2011-01-17T14:52:00.002-07:00

Dr. Joseph Sebarenzi was the speaker of the Rwandan parliament from 1997 to 2000. As a young boy, he hid under a neighbor's bed during an outbreak of violence as machete-wielding Hutu men pursued his family. Years later, he, his wife, and their young son fled a Rwanda on the brink of genocide. After this tragedy, he learned that his parents, seven siblings, and countless other family members were among the 800,000 Tutsi brutally murdered. As head of the parliament, Sebarenzi's advocacy for democratic reforms placed him at odds with then-Vice President Paul Kagame, and he was forced to flee the country once again under threat of assassination. Today, he lives in the United States and serves on the faculty of the CONTACT school at the School for International Training. His memoir, God Sleeps in Rwanda (Atria Books, 2009), tells his story and sounds a call for forgiveness and reconciliation.

This year, President Paul Kagame has secured another seven-year term, claiming 93% of the vote. Yet it was an election marred by the exclusion of candidates from opposition parties, a crackdown on critical media outlets, and violence against dissidents. Kagame claims no involvement in the latter. Could you talk about this?

The elections were marred by a crackdown on opponents, assassinations, and arrests of journalists to make sure the true opposition does not participate in these elections. For those of us who are familiar with Rwanda, it's not a surprise. It's something we expected, although some of what took place in recent months was unexpected to us. What was unexpected was, for instance, the assassination of the vice president of the Green Party, Mr. Andre Kagwa Rwisereka. What was also not expected was Kagame’s choice of his competitors, known to be close friends of Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front; the people who are part of the ruling class. And of course, the assassination attempt against the former General Kayumba Nyamwasa in South Africa, where he fled earlier this year. President Kagame is allegedly behind these violent acts. We did of course expect that these elections would be rigged, but none of us would have imagined the occurrence of these terrible violations. We knew well that Kagame was not ready to allow these elections to be free and fair, because - as you can read in my book - Kagame has many motivations to retain power as long as possible.

In your book, God Sleeps in Rwanda, you described how as speaker of the parliament, you challenged the autocratic nature of Kagame's government, and you ended up being exiled from the country as a result.

Yes, that's true. And it's from that perspective that I give my point of view on these elections. A democracy with fairness and transparency is what we needed in Rwanda. That is what we tried to do back then in the late 1990s or early 2000--to build strong institutions, to design a form of democracy that fit the socio-political realities of Rwanda in the post-genocide era. But instead of letting the country move toward strong institutions, Kagame stealthily built himself into a very strong man, an autocrat who basically would stay in power as long as possible, using semblance of elections to make the international community believe that he has a popular mandate.

How do you respond those who point out that Kagame has spearheaded Rwanda's economic development? He's created stability; he's created a large amount of female representation in government. What do you say to those arguments?

You know, I can't deny that, but you need to put those in context. For instance, the increased representation of women in state institutions is not something that was built over time. What it required was for Kagame to take that decision, and on the basis of that decision, everything followed. That's one. Second, having women as majority in parliament - and in the other branches of government - does not mean they have power to help ordinary women improve their situations. So what is the point of having many women in a parliament that is rubber stamp? Yes, we need to have a greater number of women in state institutions, but it’s meaningless if they don’t have power to impact policies. This is one example of the things Kagame does to mislead the international community.

With regard to the economy, I think that if you look closely at what is happening, you will find that at least 50 percent of Rwanda’s national budget is funded by foreign donors. Also, there are many international non-governmental organizations operating in Rwanda because of the genocide; this helps Rwanda’s economy. You also have Western countries that feel guilty for not preventing the genocide or stopping it, and that now show tremendous generosity to help the government build the economy, and so forth. So Kagame’s role in the economic achievements is overstated. These achievements do not reflect a replication of what heads of state in countries like Singapore or South Korea did in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. It is different.

You've also argued that the lessons of history must be heeded before it's too late. What are these lessons?

One is that as long Rwanda does not have political compromise between Hutu and Tutsi regarding how power is shared, there will inevitably be a renewal of violence. Rwanda has a very complex situation where Hutu are an overwhelming majority and Tutsi are a small minority. For the last 50 years there has been a power struggle between the two "ethnic groups," despite the fact that they share a language, they share a culture, and live side by side. As long as Rwanda lacks a consensus democracy to defuse the violent competition for power between the two communities, there may be another cycle of violence. And Kagame is doing nothing resolve this issue. Rather, his rule has kept or reinforced the tensions unresolved and alive – albeit buried under the carpet. So that's one. Second is the issue of justice. Rwanda has achieved some sorts of justice with regard to the 1994 genocide. Some of the perpetrators were arrested and tried in Tanzania by a U.N. court, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda; others were tried in Rwanda using domestic courts; and others were tried using traditional courts called the gacaca. But all those tried and convicted--and some have been forgiven--are the Hutu who committed the genocide. The problem is that virtually no justice has been done for the Hutu killed before, during, and after the genocide. As long as Rwanda’s authorities champion a one-sided justice, they are making possible another ethnic-based violence sooner or later. Without justice, victims may seek revenge; may pass on their grievances to future generations; and soon or later opportunistic politicians will misuse genuine grievances and stir up animosity in an effort to acquire or retain power. It is important to note that justice does not have to be retributive. Rwanda can explore a truth and reconciliation commission approach. There are many issues other issues, but those two are the most pressing ones.

I'd like to go back to the issue of ethnic tension that you mentioned. A couple of the opposition leaders, Ingabire and Ntaganda--both of whom were barred from participating in the election--have been charged with violating a law that prohibits "genocide ideology," or speech that promotes ethnic division. Do you feel that Kagame's policy of downplaying the distinction between Hutu and Tutsi is helping to move the country forward, or is it increasing the risk of future violence?

He's actually increasing the risk of future violence, because people like Bernard Ntaganda and Victoire Ingabire are not extremists at all and they definitely don’t advocate for genocide. They don't deny the genocide, contrary to what Kagame’s administration claims. They simply are victims of injustice. And such injustice toward them may be perceived by some Hutu as injustice against their community, which increases the likelihood of further violence in Rwanda. For now, it just creates frustration, anger, and resentment. I think Kagame is misusing the laws on genocide ideology. He's using them as political tools against opponents, including Tutsi opponents such Mushayidi, who is by the way a genocide survivor. These laws should be used to go after the people who truly deny the genocide, and people who advocate division between Hutu and Tutsi--not against innocent political opponents.

It seems like it would be sort of a fine line, though, to determine at what point somebody is actually advocating violence or genocide. How do you make that distinction?

You just need to look carefully at what people say; look carefully at what people write. And on that basis, you can determine whether or not someone is denying genocide or advocating division between Hutu and Tutsi. And I have not seen that so far from Ingabire or Ntaganda. These are some of the more moderate Hutu we have. I know we have Hutu extremists, and we have Tutsi extremists Tutsi. Any extremism is wrong and it should be eradicated through an impartial application of laws – and of course through extensive education in order to change peoples’ minds.

In your book and elsewhere, you've strongly advocated for the need for reconciliation. How do you envision this reconciliation taking place, and what components would it need to have in order to be effective?

In my book, I offer some details about reconciliation. I think that one component of reconciliation in a divided society like Rwanda is to have justice on both sides. Whoever is implicated in either genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, or any other human rights violation, should be held accountable, regardless of ethnicity. Impartial justice is essential in the process of reconciliation. I am however mindful of the fact that Rwanda has so many perpetrators in each community that punitive justice would simply jeopardize hope for reconciliation. As I mentioned earlier, we need to have a mix of prosecutions and a truth and reconciliation commission, where those who have the highest responsibility are punished, but others are encouraged to tell the truth. If they tell the truth and apologize, then we can encourage the community to forgive. The ultimate goal should be reconciliation and lasting peace. Another component is power sharing in Rwanda. I advocate for a consensus democracy, which means a democracy with all its attributes, but one that is suitable to the context of Rwanda: a history of interethnic violence, a small minority, an overwhelming majority, etc. We should find a compromise along the lines of what we have in the United States in which states are represented equally in the Senate, whereas in the House of Representatives, states are represented based on the size of the population. The other thing about reconciliation, which I mentioned in my book, is peace education. We need to educate young people from a very early age, and instill into them the ideas of love, forgiveness, and empathy; ideas of seeing themselves first as human beings, as God's creatures, before they see themselves as Hutu or Tutsi. If we do that--and of course we need to work on the economy, and we need the assistance of the international community--I am sure that Rwanda can firmly move toward reconciliation.

I'd like to switch gears a bit and ask you about the lessons that the international community can learn from what happened in Rwanda in 1994. In your book, you described the hate speech that filled the airwaves prior to the genocide, in which Tutsi were referred to as "cockroaches." In the U.S. one often hears dehumanizing rhetoric against immigrants, against Muslims, and against other groups, especially on talk radio. In one particularly striking example, the popular radio host Neal Boortz said, "Muslims don't eat during the day during Ramadan. They fast during the day and eat at night. Sort of like cockroaches." How concerned should we be about this kind of speech?

I cannot talk about specific rhetoric against specific groups, but suffice to say that any dehumanizing speech is dangerous. I hear some inappropriate speech in the U.S., and it makes me sad. But the good thing is that the U.S. has very strong institutions. There is a deep-rooted rule of law. If some of personal attacks or attacks against some groups happened in a country like Rwanda, you would see violence the next day. But those are the things people need to watch carefully. The international community should learn from what happened in Rwanda, because people don't wake up one day and take their machetes or their guns and go after their neighbors. It starts with words. It starts with what people write. So people should pay attention to all that, and prevent [violence] before it's too late. Anything can happen anywhere anytime if the seeds of violence are allowed to develop. And coming back to what happened in Rwanda, people should watch those early signs of violence, such as the pre-election violence, the suspension of independent newspapers, persistent exile of political figures, arrests without charges of military officers, etc. These are early signs of violence. When the international community stands by, it renders a disservice to peace in Rwanda and in the region. It’s imperative that the international community engage - without further delay- Rwanda’s authorities to ensure that democracy is build in consensus way, and lasting reconciliation is promoted.

History, Memory & Identity: A Conversation with Laurence Silberstein

2010-10-09T16:16:00.002-06:00

Published October 8, 2010 in Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture.
http://www.zeek.forward.com/articles/116995/

Laurence Silberstein is the Philip and Muriel Berman professor of Jewish Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. His book, The Postzionism Debates: Knowledge and Power in Israeli Culture (Routledge, May 1999) was nominated as a finalist in Jewish Philosophy and Thought by the prestigious Koret Jewish Studies Book Awards. In 2008, he edited the collection Postzionism: A Reader (Rutgers). I sat down with him to discuss the evolving relationship between history and identity among Israelis and American Jews.

Laurence Silberstein

VS: I’d like to start by asking you about the emergence of the so-called “New Historians” in Israel in the mid-90s and the role they played in changing how Israelis relate to history. Why is history so important, and why is it so contentious?

LS: Well, I think the importance is that, first of all, Israel is a young country. And so a lot of things are taken very seriously in a way they’re not necessarily taken here. And [Israelis] perceive themselves to be besieged. They have a certain victim mentality, as do the Palestinians. There are two victim narratives competing. In fact, until the late 1980s, the only story that was told regarding the Palestinian flight was that the Palestinians willingly left because they were promised by Arab leaders that they would come back. That was the story that I grew up on, and it was the story Israelis grew up on. So this is really very important to how they perceive themselves, how they perceive their country, and how they perceive the emergence of their country.

In the early 80s, there was a declassification of documents from the period of the founding of the state in 1948. Younger scholars had grown up in a different reality than their seniors. They had grown up and spent a lot of their adult years during a time when Israel was already occupying the West Bank and Gaza. That provoked certain kinds of questions. They lived through [the Yom Kippur War in] 1973; they lived through 82, the invasion of Lebanon. They lived through the Intifada. And they had a different kind of impression of what Israel was all about and the myths that had dominated in the earlier years. And so they began to ask questions that hadn’t been asked by scholars to any significant degree. Benny Morris, who is now a fairly right-wing Zionist, did this amazing research. He went to every Arab village, to every Arab community that had departed. He tried to analyze the factors that contributed to that and came up with a very complicated picture, but part of that picture was that at some times, the Israelis wanted the Arabs to leave and intimidated them into doing so. This was pretty radical.

A friend and colleague of mine, who’s a philosopher at Tel Aviv U, told me a story that he subsequently wrote up and published in a book I edited. He said that his father was involved with Etzel, the right-wing organization that many people have defined as a terrorist organization. And he always denied that anything happened at Deir Yassin, an Arab village where, on April 9, 1948, around 120 fighters from Zionist paramilitary groups killed roughly 600 people. On the day of the September 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre during the Lebanese civil war, when Lebanese Phalangist militia murdered a disputed number (400-3,500, according to various sources) of Palestinian refugees in the two camps while while the area was surrounded by Israeli forces, his father said to him something like, “This reminds me of something that happened many years ago.” He was referring to Deir Yassin. My friend was shocked, because his father had lied to him.

I’ve sometimes given talks in which I’ve compared the Israeli atmosphere at the time to how Americans dealt with what we learned since I was a kid about how African Americans were treated here, about Native Americans and the genocidal practices that we had. I can understand how Israelis felt, because I had no idea that any of that had happened. Now, we’re a country a couple of hundred years old, which is not the case for Israel. We could take it in stride. We could integrate it into our curriculum. But in Israel, everything is politicized. I think it was under Barak that it was put into the curriculum. It was put in a fairly mild way, and then when Likud was back in power, they took it out. As far as I know, it’s not in the curriculum anymore.

VS: Well, it’s still an ongoing debate in Israel as to whether to include the term Nakba (a word literally meaning “catastrophe,” which Palestinians use to refer to the displacement of 750,000 refugees during the war of 1948) in the textbooks.

LS: There’s another scholar by the name of Baruch Kimmerling. He made the argument that the way we tell the story and the narrative that’s used determines who’s an insider and who’s an outsider. For example–and he went beyond Morris did–if you talk about Israeli history in terms ofaliyot (the plural form of aliyah, meaning “ascent,” used to describe Jewish immigration to Israel), you’re using a Zionist term. That creates problems for certain groups of people. Also, the way the historiography of aliyot kind of implied that Mizrachim, Israeli Jews with origins in the Middle East or North Africa, were secondary citizens–they came later, after the state. He felt that to use Zionist concepts in writing Israeli history was to politicize it.

VS: And it extends beyond just what goes in the history books. It’s also, as you’ve mentioned, language–what do you call things, what do you call people, place names, all of those different things…

LS: Absolutely. Museums, archeology. It permeates everything. One of the most devastating critiques is in the work of a scholar at Ben Gurion by the name of Oren Yiftachel. Yiftachel is a political geographer studying the way in which land and boundaries are established within Israel and the occupied territories. He came up with the argument that you cannot really call Israel a democracy because it’s dominated by one ethnic group. About four years ago, he published a book called Ethnocracy (University of Pennsylania, 2006), and one of the things he shows is that through the way in which Zionist concepts get painted in Israel, the land becomes “Judaized.” It’s perceived as “Jewish land” from the Jewish perspective. The land is owned by the state; houses in certain places can’t be sold to Arabs. So I think Yiftachel’s critique was a very telling critique. He doesn’t consider himself a postzionist. He doesn’t think the word means anything, so he dismissed it. I tried to argue that it had a value, but he didn’t think so.

VS: Why is it that, among many of the scholars who are identified with postzionism or whose views seem to be aligned with postzionism, there is such a resistance to using that term? And why have you chosen to use it?

LS: I think some, like Yiftachel, don’t even want to be involved with that controversy. They feel that they’re scholars; they do their work; they reach their conclusions; they have their evidence, and it’s got nothing to do with Zionism or postzionism. So he feels, I think, that the use of the term doesn’t add anything to his scholarship. But I think it’s a decisive term in a debate about Israeli identity, and it’s useful for distinguishing different kinds of perspectives. Over the years, I came to feel that it has a very specific meaning, even though the meanings are pretty loose and they change. I think a postzionist is one who has concluded that as long as Israel is dominated by Zionist discourse, it cannot adequately address the challenges that it faces. Now, some people may be postzionist and not know it, and some people may be called postzionist. Baruch Kimmerling didn’t like the term. He wasn’t as reactive as Yiftachel was. Uri Ram, the sociologist, used it to identify himself and the kind of sociology he advocated. He was one of the few. And it was first applied by cynics, the Zionist critics. And by saying that you’re a postzionist, they essentially wanted to equate that with anti-Zionists.

VS: What is the difference between postzionism and anti-Zionism, or simply non-Zionism?

LS: It depends on the usage. I would say once Zionism prevailed, it was hard to say you’re non-Zionist, because Zionism was there wherever you looked. So there were some who said, “We’re postzionist because once we had the state, we’ve achieved what we wanted and can move beyond it.” Others feel, though, that’s not what it means. What it means is that we have to attend to the ways that Zionism creates unjust practices– land practices, judicial practices–and we have to correct them. There are liberal Zionists who believe that a) Israel is a democracy; b) it will be able to address the kinds of injustices that the critics point to through the legal system, the judicial system. I think a postzionist feels that it’s too late.

VS: And what do you mean by that, that it’s too late?

LS: The Zionist categories have so insinuated themselves into the judicial system and into the political system that you would never be able to achieve a society in which non-Jews–particularly Arabs and Palestinians–would have an equitable place in the society. And the whole way in which, let’s say, the settlers moved into the territories. And it wasn’t just the right-wingers who either turned a blind eye or actually materially helped the settlers. It was both Labor and Likud governments, all the way through. So why was Labor doing it? Well, I think that they still had the same idea of what Zionism was about: it was about taking back the land. And even though they on their own may not have gone into the West Bank and founded some settlements, once there were people doing it, they had very ambivalent feelings about, you know, stopping these people. I can’t for the life of me conceive of any government being able to effectively remove the settlers. A significant number of them who are probably there for economic reasons would leave, but a significant number are there for ideological reasons, and we saw what happened in Gaza with the disengagement: in August 2005, Israel evacuated its 21 settlements containing approximately 9,000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. The emotionally charged disengagement was a target of considerable protest and nonviolent resistance by settlers and their supporters.

VS: Do you feel, then, that a two-state solution is impossible at this stage, or do you think it may still happen?

LS: Well, I think there are some encouraging signs on the Palestinian side. There are these groups that are set up, commercial structures and things like that, and the police force is operating. I think that what they’re trying to do is not too different from what the Israelis tried to do to build the state of Israel. The Jews came in and set up the Jewish Agency, and essentially established a framework for a state. And when the Mandate ended and the British left, they were ready. And I think that’s what’s happening in the West Bank. There’s a core of very savvy leaders who are going ahead on the assumption that they’re responsible for establishing their own institutions. But I honestly don’t know. Am I optimistic? No. And there are Israelis, the very few that remain on the Left, who are not optimistic either. And among a certain group of American Jewish intellectuals, there is a growing sense of disillusionment.

So who knows what can happen in twenty or thirty or forty years, but I think that the Israelis are making a mistake in assuming that time is on their side. The Palestinians, or the Arabs, always believed that time was on their side, because they’d been there for so long. I was hopeful for awhile that the Obama administration was going to be serious, but they haven’t been. Just one of the many ways in which some groups of liberals feel less than thrilled about Obama. He says they have to stop building [the settlements], and then he turns a blind eye to it. His public stance is on par with the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (a right-leaning pro-Israel lobbying organization), although he did invite J Street (which describes itself as “pro-Israel, pro-peace” and lobbies for a two-state solution) to the White House. But he’s not really listening to them.

VS: If these things continue–the expansion of settlements, the demographics changing where the balance is tipping more in favor of an Arab majority in the future, and so on–if there is no two state solution, can Israel remain both a Jewish state and a democracy? Would you say it has ever been both?

LS: I think they’re contradicting. There’s a wonderful discussion in a book that David Grossman wrote called Sleeping on a Wire (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1993), and (Arab-Israeli writer) Anton Shammas is arguing with (Jewish-Israeli writer) A.B. Yehoshua, who considers himself a liberal. And Anton is arguing that as a Palestinian, when he lands in France or someplace else, his passport doesn’t identify him as an Israeli. It identifies him as an Arab, from what I understand. He wants a passport that says “Israeli,” and Yehoshua says, “Yeah, but Israel is a Jewish state in the same way that France is a French state, and nobody complains about France being a French state.” It’s a total misunderstanding. If you want to compare France to a French state, then you have to consider Israel an Israeli state, because the nationality is Israeli, not Jewish.

In my course on Israel, I have my students read two articles on the question, “Is Israel a democracy?” One is by Alan Dowty, who wrote a book called The Jewish State: A Century Later(University of California, 2001). He’s a political scientist in the United States, and he argues that if you look at Israel’s institutions and elections, it’s democratic. The structure is democratic. And then I have them look at one of Yiftachel’s articles. Yiftachel has not as much interest in the structure as in the practices, and the way in which the land becomes Judaized, by which Jewishness is the determining factor in the ways the land gets used, divided, and things like that.

VS: It seems, at least from my experiences, that college campuses can be very contentious hot spots for this issue. I think they’re very polarized.

LS: It’s interesting. For reasons I could never particularly understand, it never happened at Lehigh.There was an article published in the New York Review of Books sometime earlier this year–it could have been in February–by a professor from Columbia by the name of Peter Beinart. Some Jewish philanthropists hired someone to do focus groups of young Jews to get a sense of their attitudes toward Israel. What they discovered is that members of the younger generation of Jews privilege their liberal values over their identification with the state. So to the extent that they see the state violating what they consider to be liberal values, they come down as critics. That’s not surprising to me. There were times in my course on Israel where I commented that this particular book on Israeli identity is considered to be controversial in Israel–this was about four or five years ago–and my students who had read the book couldn’t understand why, whether they were Jewish or not.

There have also been sociological population studies that show that since the late ’80s, early ’90s, there is clearly a growing decline in the sense of identification with Israel among the younger generation. I would like to hope that the success of J Street and the fact that an alternative PAC was established and that even though there’s still strong support in the Jewish community for AIPAC, a lot of helpful criticism has risen to the challenge. So things have definitely changed, and there is a greater possibility of public debate and criticism. There are very few Jews of college age or older, from that generation, who could be cowed into keeping silent. They wouldn’t buy it. I think it’s changing. Things haven’t changed totally; they’re in the process of changing. So [the relationship with] Israel is changing. The role of the Holocaust is probably changing, because it ties together.

VS: How has that changed?

LS: Well, I think that the way that second-generation survivors, American writers, have dealt with the Holocaust has been far more complicated and complex than just the issue of a survivor. You take someone like Art Spiegelman–have you read Maus? (The popular graphic novel portrays the author’s relationship with his father, a Holocaust survivor, and relates his father’s story.) It’s a totally different way of looking at it. It’s complicated; it actually portrays a survivor in critical terms. And there are other kinds of writings that deal with the complexity of the telling of the story, of representing the Holocaust. I also think that some of the emphasis on the Holocaust in Jewish education has turned some Jewish students off.

I did a course at Lehigh called “Responses to the Holocaust,” in which we’d read post-Holocaust writing. Take somebody like Primo Levi, who raises all kinds of questions about memory, about testimony, about how much can you rely on inmates to tell the story. He was an inmate. And he wrote an essay called “The Gray Zone,” in which he deals with that fine line between participating and being complicit in evil and perpetrating evil and judging, and all these kinds of things. So there are all kinds of issues that have been raised that weren’t raised when it was a black-and-white story. A lot of this may not have drifted down to the general public. Another example would be Hannah Arendt. She wrote Eichmann in Jerusalem (Peter Smith, June 1994), and she was pilloried for writing that Eichmann was a plain guy; he was banal; he wasn’t this overwhelming evil; and that Jewish leadership in the ghettos were complicit with some of what went on. And she was just pilloried, but I hear her name being cited more and more by Jewish intellectuals as a resource for an alternative way of thinking about being Jewish. Judith Butler is one of them, but there are plenty of others.

Jews were asked which of these factors is really an act of Jewish identity. So they would have reading Jewish books, taking courses, going to synagogue, observing holidays, remembering the Holocaust, identifying with Israel. Remembering the Holocaust was up at the top. I don’t know if it still is. What does that mean? Sometimes I’ll ask my students, “Is there anything that all Jews have in common?” And they try all these different things and see that they don’t really work, and then they come up with a common history. And I say, “Well, what do you mean by a common history?” And they’ll say something like, “Well, the Holocaust.” I’ll say, “You experienced the Holocaust?” Well, no. I say, “So what do you mean a common history?” Well, because we remember it. Okay, so what does remembering it mean? And it gets a lot more complicated. While the Holocaust will always be an important factor in Jewish historical consciousness, it can’t be the basis of a vital, vibrant, creative identity. Nor can Israel. And now we’re seeing that. In some ways, there’s a lot of very exciting stuff going on, experiments in different kinds of Jewish identity, especially by younger Jews.

VS: Do you have any thoughts for people who want to transcend the polarization over Israel? Especially for young Jews who feel a strong attachment to Israel and care about Israel, but who want to see more nuance in discussing the issues related to Israel and move beyond this victim mentality. Do you have any thoughts on that?

LS: I’d have them read Spiegelman. I get e-mails every day from J Street; I get e-mails every day from a guy who runs a blog called The Magnes Zionist. He’s a Modern Orthodox Jewish scholar who’s raised his kids in Israel. His kids have served in the Israeli army, and basically he’s arguing for the position of a binational state. Jewish Voice for Peace–go to their website. I think it’s important that there are places that are accessible online that engage in exactly the kind of conversation you’re talking about. If some of these have local chapters to participate in, that’s a possibility.

I don’t find that J Street totally expresses my thinking, but it certainly is a far-reaching difference, and they’ve gained credibility. They’re worrying some of the more conservative groups. And there are just a lot of books out there. There are an enormous number of good books out there that tell a far more balanced version of Israel and the Middle East. It’s not uncommon for me to have Jewish students in a course on Israel who, upon first reading these books, ask, “How come we didn’t hear about this when we were going to Hebrew school?” There are groups like Rabbis for Human Rights; there are Doctors without Borders, who have made strong statements about the Middle East. And there are websites in Israel–a great one is B’tselem, which is Hebrew for “In the Image.” They’re a leading human rights organization, and they put up different maps. This is much more available today, partly as a result of the Web and partly because the climate is changing.

Eliminating My Own Great Garbage Patch

2010-09-30T20:57:00.002-06:00

Published September 29, 2010 in the Tacoma Weekly.

http://www.tacomaweekly.com/article/4933/

As I brought the plastic bottle of iced tea to my lips, I paused before taking a sip and stared at the horrific image on my television screen. Mired in oil, a pelican was struggling to free itself of the deadly slick from the Deepwater Horizon spill. I almost did not have the stomach to polish off the big plastic bag of tortilla chips I was scarfing. Tossing the refuse of my snack into a plastic trash bag, I grabbed the plastic remote and turned off the heart-wrenching newscast.

But the images continued to haunt me. As much as I railed at British Petroleum for its recklessness and shook my fist at the government’s aversion to stronger environmental regulation, I knew deep down that I had played my own part in the disaster. Like most Americans, I enjoy a comfortable lifestyle driven by an unquenchable thirst for oil. Maybe I could not go stuff Tony Hayward into the well and save all those poor otters and sea turtles. But I could, at least, change my own consumption habits. Walking and using public transportation was a first step, but since I already lead an almost car-free lifestyle, I decided to take things a step further. As long as oil kept spewing into the Gulf, I resolved to abstain from using disposable plastic.

The environmental impact of plastic extends far beyond the petroleum used to make the material. In a landfill, plastic bags can take an estimated 500 years to break down. Fewer than 2 percent of plastic bags end up getting recycled. Instead, they litter our streets and pollute our oceans. Isolated beaches in Hawaii, despite their remoteness, have been thoroughly covered by plastic debris. According to studies, 100,000 marine animals, an unknown number of sea turtles, and 2 million birds die every year with bellies full of trash. Nowhere is the crisis more flagrant than in current-driven garbage patches where the plastic to sea life ratio is six to one. The largest of these patches is the Pacific Gyre, or Great Garbage Patch, which is roughly the size of Texas and contains 3.5 million tons of waste. Much of this garbage has broken down into tiny pieces that bond to toxic endocrine disruptors such as polychlorinated biphenyls and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane. The pieces are consumed by small fish and jellyfish, carrying their toxicity up the food chain as the contaminated creatures are eaten by bigger fish. They, in turn, pass our poisons right back to us on the dinner table.

Despite its deadliness, plastic is omnipresent. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, more than 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed each year in the United States. Immediately, it became clear that breaking the habit completely would be virtually impossible. I would have to stop brushing my teeth, do away with my asthma pills and inhalers, and somehow find a store that sold quill pens. Still, it is surprisingly easy to keep plastic to a bare minimum by remembering the “three Rs”: reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Reducing starts with the choices we make at the grocery store. Opt for the glass jar of peanut butter, the paper milk carton, the cardboard box of detergent, or the aluminum can. Recycling aluminum is cheaper than producing new aluminum, and it is completely and endlessly recyclable. For a tasty snack, try Sun Chips, which are now packaged in plant-based compostable bags that biodegrade in 14 weeks. One hundred percent biodegradable trash and pet waste bags are also available from companies like Bio Bags, which manufactures them from a corn-based material. Many co-ops and farmers markets sell bulk foods and detergents you can stash in a reusable container. Finally, ditch the unhealthy processed foods and head for the fresh fruits and veggies. Buy your bread from the fresh bakery section or bake your own (look for a cheap bread maker at your local thrift store).

Reusable options abound, from bringing a cloth or canvas bag on shopping trips to toting a stainless steel drink holder. Many grocery stores offer a small discount per reusable bag, and Starbucks similarly rewards customers who bring reusable coffee cups. Cloth bags and Tupperware containers are great for lunches and leftovers, and cloth napkins and kitchen towels eliminate the need for the plastic-wrapped paper kind.

If plastic containers are an absolute must, buying the largest size possible and keeping the container for future storage are two ways to reduce waste. For those old plastic bags you have been stashing under the sink, look for specially marked recycle bins at participating retailers.

Now that the gusher has been sealed, it is tempting to go back to my old ways, pushing aside the images of muck-covered wildlife. But I do not think I will ever return to my former pattern of careless consumption. Like a fish in the Pacific, I am ensnared in my own garbage patch, but – little by little – I am learning to break free.

Green-Collar Jobs: Growing Jobs in the Environmental Field

2010-03-28T16:57:00.002-06:00

Published in the March 2010 issue of Next Step Magazine.
http://www.nextstepmagazine.com/nextstep/articlePage1.aspx?artId=3556&categoryId=62

America is going green, and going green is going to take a lot of work. With the spotlight on the environment, new job opportunities are opening up.

These “green-collar” jobs provide good wages, and the training is affordable—usually requiring an associate degree at most. And with the help of $500 million in federal stimulus funds, many new training programs are appearing in order to meet the growing demand.

A study by the American Solar Energy Society showed that American green-collar jobs totaled more than 9 million in 2007, and as many as 37 million can be created by 2030. These jobs include building energy-efficient homes and businesses, restoring habitats, installing solar panels and wind turbines, and producing biofuels.

Find a job in: energy efficiency
Some of the fastest growing green-collar jobs involve designing and building modern, environmentally friendly buildings, and weatherizing homes and businesses to make them more energy efficient.

In order to help families and businesses save energy, workers insulate attics and walls, put caulking around windows, and install energy-saving appliances like solar water heaters.

Energy efficiency has created new careers in green architecture and energy auditing, while putting a new spin on traditional careers like heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) technicians, carpenters, electricians and plumbers.

Find a job in: renewable energy
Because of concerns about global warming and high oil prices, renewable energy—power generated from natural sources like the sun, wind and geothermal heat—is making up a growing part of our energy use. Solar power is another fast-growing field.

Career opportunities in solar energy include solar system installers and managers, solar engineers and engine assemblers. Meanwhile, wind has the potential to provide 20 percent of the nation’s energy needs, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

This means more engine assemblers, machinists and mechanical engineers are needed to build wind turbines. And then there’s geothermal energy, which is created by drilling wells into underground reservoirs to tap steam and very hot water. This requires welders, mechanics, plumbers, architects, geologists and hydrologists.

Find a job in: alternative fuels
The same concerns driving renewable energy have helped the growing popularity of alternative fuels, including biodiesel, ethanol and fuel cells.

In 2007, there were 1.8 million alternative fuel vehicles sold in the United States, according to the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. These jobs are likely to grow even more as a result of legislation that requires the U.S. to sell 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022.

Some jobs in alternative fuels are ethanol plant and systems operators, ethanol plant technicians, electrical maintenance mechanics and biodiesel lab technicians.

Find a job in: habitat restoration
Habitat restoration is the process of cleaning up polluted habitats in order to re-establish healthy, self-sustaining ecosystems.

Along with many nonprofit organizations nationwide, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service implements numerous conservation projects. Someone with a career in habitat restoration might restore salmon spawning beds, remove toxic algae and invasive species, plant native trees and other vegetation, or teach kids about protecting the environment.

Get your green education at a community college

“Community colleges have a large role to play in vocational skills training, especially in this day and age, with green-collar jobs,” says Linda Kurokawa, director of Community Services and Business Development at San Diego’s MiraCosta College (miracosta.cc.ca.us).

MiraCosta offers training for future solar and wind installers. These one-week accelerated courses give students hands-on preparation for longer, more involved apprenticeship programs offered by unions in San Diego.

Florida’s Palm Beach Community College (pbcc.edu) is offering a new degree program in alternative energy.

At Central Carolina Community College (cccc.edu), students can study green building, biofuels, sustainable agriculture, ecotourism or organic culinary arts.

Los Angeles Community College District’s (laccd.edu) green building program is a “living laboratory” for students, who are helping to revamp campuses with solar panels and power-generating windmills.

So You Want to Work in Health Care?

2010-03-28T16:49:00.003-06:00

Published in March 2010 issue of Next Step Magazine:
http://www.nextstepmagazine.com/nextstep/articlepage1.aspx?artId=3545&categoryId=62

If you like helping people and are looking for a challenging career with an excellent job outlook, the growing field of health care may be for you.

Some careers involve a great deal of direct patient care, while others allow you to work behind the scenes by examining X-rays or developing nutrition plans.

There are as many educational paths to a career in health care as there are occupations in the field.

“The curricula for many health careers require a strong background in science and math,” says Dr. Lori Gonzalez, dean of the College of Health Sciences at the University of Kentucky (uky.edu). “But beyond the coursework, the successful health care professional has a desire to make a difference in the lives of others.”

Here’s a look at some of the career opportunities that are available and how you can prepare for them.

Job: Medical assistant
Years in school: 1-2
Training: Associate, certificate
Average salary: $22,000-$24,000
About the job: Medical assistants perform administrative and clinical tasks in the offices and clinics of physicians and specialists in order to keep them running smoothly.

Job: Registered nurse (RN)
Years in school: 3-4
Training: Diploma from a hospital school of nursing, associate, bachelor’s
Average salary: $58,000
About the job: RNs work in collaboration with physicians and other health professionals to assess symptoms, administer treatment, monitor patient progress, and act as educators and advocates for patients, families and communities.

Job: Radiologic technologist
Years in school: 1-4
Training: Certificate, associate, bachelor’s
Average salary: $42,000-$65,000
About the job: Radiologic technologists are allied medical professionals who perform diagnostic imaging procedures, such as X-rays, MRI scans and CT scans.

Job: Pharmacist
Years in school: 6-8
Training: Doctorate
Average salary: $107,000
About the job: Pharmacists dispense drugs prescribed by physicians and advise physicians and other health professionals on the selection, dosages, interactions and side effects of medications.

Job: Physical therapist
Years in school: 6-9
Training: Master’s, doctorate
Average salary: $68,000
About the job: Physical therapists work closely with injured or disabled individuals to improve function and mobility and relieve pain while promoting overall fitness.

Job: Physician assistant
Years in school: 2-6
Training: Master’s; some associate, bachelor’s degrees offered
Average salary: $65,000-$80,000
About the job: Physician assistants provide diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventative care to patients under the supervision of physicians.

Job: Registered dietitian
Years in school: 4-5
Training: Bachelor’s
Average salary: $42,000-$55,000
About the job: Dietitians develop nutrition programs to promote good health, prevent allergic reactions, and alleviate the symptoms of illnesses. They may oversee the nutrition of patients in hospitals and other institutions, design nutrition programs for communities, or consult with food service managers.

Job: Licensed practical nurse (LPN)
Years in school: 1
Training: Program in practical nursing at a vocational school or community college
Average salary: $31,000
About the job: LPNs care for sick, injured, convalescent or disabled patients under the supervision of physicians and registered nurses. They check vital signs, administer injections, apply dressings, collect samples, and keep patients comfortable.

Job: Clinical laboratory technician
Years in school: 2-4
Training: Associate; additional training is required for specialization
Average salary: $32,000-$62,000
About the job: Clinical lab technicians discover the presence or absence of disease by examining lab specimens.

Job: Physician
Years in school: 10-15
Training: Doctoral degree from a medical school
Average salary: $150,000-$300,000
About the job: Physicians examine patients, evaluate medical histories, make diagnoses and prescribe treatment. They may work in a particular specialty, such as anesthesiology, internal medicine, pediatrics or surgery.

Susan Tucker, a professor of Allied Health at the University of Oklahoma (ah.ouhsc.edu), says that one good way to find a career match in health care is to meet with a health care professional or discuss options with a virtual advisor at virtualadvisor.org.

“A next step might be to spend some time shadowing or observing a health professional at work, which is an excellent idea to get a feel for what a day in the life of a health professional is really like,” she says.

Health care professionals agree that no matter what path you choose, one of the most rewarding aspects of this field is the opportunity to have an impact on others’ lives.

June Larson, a registered nurse and associate dean of Health Sciences at the University of South Dakota (usd.edu), says, “I have had the opportunity to work with people at the most vulnerable times in their lives, and they have given me so much more than I ever gave them. In that interchange between the nurse and the patient, there is a helping/healing relationship that binds you forever.”

The Triple Bottom Line: Green-Collar Jobs

2010-02-23T18:23:00.009-07:00

Published in What's Working, the Winter 2010 issue of WIN Magazine. (An earlier version of this article appeared in Learn as You Go, the Fall 2009 issue of YES! Magazine.)
http://www.warresisters.org/node/940

Over the past few decades, the decline of industry has meant lower wages and uncertain employment for a growing number of U.S. workers. Yet communities across the country are being revived by a growing job market in clean energy and energy efficiency. These green-collar jobs offer simultaneous solutions to several of the nation’s most pressing issues: economic wellbeing, environmental sustainability, and peace.

According to a 2009 report by the American Solar Energy Society, American green-collar jobs totaled more than 9 million in 2007, and 37 million can be created by 2030, if policymakers support renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives at the state and federal level. “We must build a 21st-century workforce in America to compete in the new clean energy economy. This means training a new generation of workers to fill a wide range of skilled jobs in the rapidly growing green sector,” says Phil Angelides, Chairman of the Apollo Alliance, a coalition formed in 2001 to push for a clean energy revolution.

Climate change legislation such as the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, introduced in the Senate by John Kerry (DMA) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA), promises to expand the clean energy industry by capping carbon emissions and boosting job training programs. Every dollar spent on clean energy creates nearly four times as many jobs as a dollar invested in oil and gas, Kerry pointed out in an op-ed promoting the bill.

Pathways out of Poverty

Because green-collar job training is affordable—usually requiring an associate’s degree at most—and because these jobs typically offer good living wages, they represent a way out of poverty and into the middle class. For example, an experienced journeyman trained to retrofit houses stands to make up to $50 an hour. “If a job improves the environment but doesn’t provide a family-supporting wage or a career ladder to move low-income workers into higher-skilled occupations, it is not a green-collar job,” says Apollo Alliance spokesman Sam Haswell.

The creation of green-collar jobs is having a positive impact on communities plagued by violence and economic despair. “By increasing green jobs training opportunities for young people in low-income areas,” says Haswell, “we can create pathways out of poverty and help end the cycle of violence that afflicts many of America’s poorest communities.”

In Santa Fe, where the high school graduation rate languishes below 50 percent, a group called ¡Youthworks! collaborated with city officials and local businesses to create the Green Collar Jobs Apprenticeship Program in 2008. The program offers youth valuable training, academic skill building, and job counseling, while helping to change their image in the community.

“There’s a lot of racism and discrimination and bad perceptions of young people in Santa Fe,” says Tobe Bott-Lyons, educational coordinator at ¡Youthworks!. “And now you see these tattooed kids that people are generally used to being scared of restoring the river and building a house, and they’re retrofitting homes and installing solar panels.”

Lauren Herrera’s life turned upside-down when her six-yearold son died last year. She started getting into trouble, which culminated in drug-related felony charges that caused her to lose her job as a dental assistant. Scarce jobs and a criminal record made it hard to find work, until ¡Youthworks! gave her an opportunity to turn her life around and play a positive role in her community. Now she weatherizes homes for low-income families with the newly launched Energy RX crew. “They’re ecstatic when they find out it’s free,” she says. “It’s very rewarding.”

Fostering Peace

Since green-collar jobs offer alternatives to youth whose limited career options may have once pushed them toward military service, some peace organizations view them as a counterweight to the “poverty draft.” The American Friends Service Committee notes on its website that the Pentagon devoted $4 billion to recruitment among low-income and minority youth in 2003. The organization has highlighted green jobs in the career guides it makes available to youth who are considering military service.

As the green economy develops, it is likely to help ease conflicts over resources and climate change-driven social upheaval. “Transitioning to homegrown renewable fuels will reduce our dependence on unstable, war-torn regimes to meet our own growing demand for oil, which will in turn increase U.S. energy security and also help curb climate change,” asserts Haswell.

Few understand this equation more personally than the veterans who have seen first-hand the harmful effects of oil dependency. They are raising their voices through organizations such as Operation Free, a veterans group fighting for climate change legislation and green jobs. Main State Rep. and Operation Free Campaign Coordinator Alex Cornell du Houx says he began thinking about the need for clean energy while deployed with the Marines in Fallujah in 2006. He and other veterans recently toured 22 states telling their stories and highlighting the importance of green energy as a national security issue. In December, Operation Free members joined representatives of 170 countries at the international climate conference in Copenhagen.

Veterans have another reason to take the initiative in developing the green economy: They have suffered disproportionately during the current recession. The jobless rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans aged 20–24 reached 15 percent in February, compared with a 13.8 percent jobless rate for non-veterans in the same age group. After finding that their military training has fewer applications in the civilian job search than they had expected, many veterans end up reenlisting. As a result, they often experience the strain of additional combat tours.

Veterans Green Jobs, a part of the Operation Free coalition, trains veterans in home weatherization and helps place them in energy-efficiency jobs in Colorado. One of its programs, called Home Energy Audit Training (HEAT), offers veterans a monthly stipend while they conduct training in the field. “Not only does it get veterans employed,” says Cornell du Houx, “but it gives them skills and training for a job that can’t be exported.”

Participating in the green economy provides veterans with more than a job, however. “All veterans come home with some form of PTSD,” says Cornell du Houx. As they cope with the psychological scars of war and struggle to readapt to civilian life, these jobs also provide a source of healing and a new sense of mission.

Job Training

Throughout the country, community college programs in alternative energy have been flooded with recently unemployed workers and those simply seeking valuable new skills. In Michigan, which suffers the nation’s highest unemployment rate (12 percent), the transition to a green economy promises to revive communities that have been devastated by job losses in the auto industry. Michigan’s Green Jobs Initiative is one of the programs made possible by the $500 million in federal stimulus funds allocated for green workforce development. The funding allows workers to receive up to $10,000 to enroll in the new training programs.

The alternative energy degree program at Lansing Community College, one of the first of its kind, has seen enrollment grow from 42 students in 2005 to 252 in 2008. Starting in the fall, the college will be offering new certificates in solar, geothermal, wind turbines, and energy efficiency. The college has also partnered with the National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium (NAFTC) to develop an alternative energy curriculum for other colleges and universities nationwide.

At the same time, there’s a return to the apprenticeship model of learning by doing and a growing acknowledgement that valuable education happens outside the classroom.

In Bellingham, Wash., which National Public Radio’s Marketplace recently declared “the epicenter of a new economic model,” the Opportunity Council’s Building Performance Center is teaming up with Bellingham Technical College to provide green workforce development. “We feel like this training has to take place on the job and in the field,” says the center’s director John Davies. “The training has to include hands-on learning along with the learning that takes place in the classroom.”

The center is one of 26 agencies participating in a state-run project that sends trainers to teach home audits and energy retrofits in communities across Washington, including those that are not served by established training programs. Led by experienced peer technicians, these sessions are customized to meet the specific needs of Washington agencies that provide low-income weatherization services.

Sound Alliance, in Pierce County, Wash., matches women, people of color, youth, and members of other traditionally disadvantaged groups with openings in green-collar apprenticeship programs. Like other Industrial Areas Foundation organizations, the alliance empowers people to create change and become grassroots leaders. One leader, Steve Gelb, emphasizes the need to train workers in deep retrofitting, which involves not only simple weatherization, but replacing furnaces and water heaters. “We do that for two reasons; it saves more energy, and it also creates higher-skilled jobs.”

The need for green workforce development has produced unprecedented collaboration among labor and environmental organizations, government agencies, schools, and businesses. Steve Gelb says that this collaboration has turned the historical divide between labor and environmental concerns on its head. “We call it the ‘triple bottom line,’” he says. “We’re reducing carbon, creating jobs, and saving money for people in the homes we’re retrofitting.”

Are You the Next Apprentice?

2010-01-13T17:38:00.003-07:00

Published in the January issue of Next Step Magazine
http://www.nextstepmagazine.com/nextstep/articlePage1.aspx?artId=3520&categoryId=61

Preparing for an exciting career does not have to burn a hole in your pocket.As an apprentice, you can earn a paycheck while learning valuable skills from experienced professionals in a wide variety of trades.

Apprenticeships are as diverse as the careers that offer them, including carpentry, electrical work, firefighting, health services and more.

“The more training you have, the more likely you are to find employment,” says Randy Ambuehl, training director of the Electrical Industry Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee (JATC) in Washington state.

In addition to on-the-job training, apprentices receive classroom instruction, usually at a community or technical college. Most courses are offered at night and on the weekends.

At the end of the training program, which can last from two to five years, an apprentice receives a Certificate of Completion.

Someone who earns this nationally recognized credential is called a journey level worker or journeyman.

Who can be an apprentice?

Although some trades require apprentices to be at least 18 years old, others take on apprentices as young as 16. Still others, called youth apprenticeships, are specifically designed for teens.

Wisconsin’s statewide Youth Apprenticeship Program allows students to do paid work in fields ranging from health care to information technology, while taking related courses and possibly receiving college credit.

What’s required in an apprenticeship?

Apprenticeship programs vary greatly in their requirements. Applicants may be asked to provide a high school diploma or scores from the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB), administered by the U.S. Department of Labor Employment Services.

Depending on the occupation, apprentices may also be required to complete certain math courses or electives, such as algebra, mechanical drawing or shop classes.

“As in any occupation, you’re going to have to be dependable,” says Ambuehl. “Construction is a team sport, so you need to be relatively physically fit—and interpersonal skills are good to have also.”

How much will I make?

One of the great things about apprenticeships is that they provide a chance to receive free training. Your sponsor—the company you work for, a trade association, or an educational trust—will typically cover the cost of your apprenticeship program. At most, you may be asked to pay for books, tools, or other necessary
materials.

Apprentices are generally full-time employees, earning wages that begin at approximately 40 percent of what a journeyman makes. As their training progresses, so does their pay, often equaling 90 percent of a journeyman’s wages toward the end of the program.

In many occupations, they are also eligible for benefits such as health care and vacation pay.

Wages for apprentices and journeymen depend greatly on the trade, region, and whether the apprenticeship is with a union or non-union employer.

How do I get an apprenticeship?

You can find an apprenticeship directly through a company, a labor organization, a trade association, or your local labor department.

As long as you are willing to put in the time and work, an apprenticeship can be a great opportunity to learn new skills and get to know a trade while earning money.

Losing Liberal Arts

2010-01-08T10:51:00.003-07:00

Published in the January 2010 issue of In These Times.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5312/losing_liberal_arts

At the end of the 2007-2008 academic year, shrinking enrollment and a budget crisis forced Antioch College to close its doors after 156 years of progressive liberal arts education. Other liberal arts colleges and programs are under

similar stress. University of California-Santa Cruz is not accepting applications to its History of Consciousness for the 2010-2011 academic year. Goddard College underwent dramatic restructuring in 2002, and the New College of California ended operations in 2008. These losses are emblematic of the hardships facing liberal arts and humanities programs.

In light of rising costs, students fear liberal arts degrees are not worth the price tag. Consequently, interest in the liberal arts and humanities is on the wane, and the education they provide runs the risk of becoming restricted to elites who are rich in capital—cultural and otherwise. The liberal arts are not the only source of a valuable education, but they place an unparalleled emphasis on critical thinking, integrated learning and civic engagement. The growing inaccessibility threatens to deepen the divide between a well-educated elite (once called the ruling class) and a technically proficient, but less broadly educated, middle and working class.

In the face of financial insecurity, students, colleges and universities have begun to calculate the value of higher education in terms of the “bottom line.” As tuition skyrockets and education becomes more unaffordable, students want assurances that their degrees will benefit them financially. A 2004 UCLA survey of incoming freshmen at 700 colleges and universities reported that the top reasons chosen for going to college included “to get training for a specific career” (74.6 percent), “to be able to get a better job” (71.8 percent), and/or “to be able to make more money” (70.1 percent). Meanwhile, over the last 25 years tuition has risen by 440 percent—more than four times the rate of inflation.

A college degree is no longer a dependable ticket to a middle-class lifestyle. Though a 2006 study commissioned by the Association of American Colleges & Universities showed that business leaders seek employees with a wide base of skills and knowledge, recent graduates are not finding a higher education advantageous amid the economic downturn. The job market for college graduates dropped 40 percent in 2009, according to a Michigan State University study of 2,500 companies nationwide. For many graduates lucky enough to find employment, the recession has meant taking low-paying retail or customer service jobs while struggling to pay off student loans.

Meanwhile, colleges and universities are explicitly gearing their curricula toward the job market, including tailoring academic programs toward the needs of local corporations. Macalester College President Brian Rosenberg predicts that “20 years from now there will be fewer colleges that fall under the category of small residential liberal arts colleges.” Data on emerging trends seems to agree. In an article in Inside Higher Ed, “The Case of the Disappearing Liberal Arts College,” Roger G. Baldwin and Vicki L. Baker write that “national data on liberal arts colleges suggest that their numbers are decreasing as many evolve into ‘professional colleges’ or other types of higher education institutions.”

Some, like Massachusetts Higher Education Commissioner Richard M. Freeland, hail this development. Freeland is part of a movement to connect liberal arts and professional programs through the inclusion of internships, practical skill development, study abroad programs and experiential education. He argues that advocacy for a stronger emphasis on practical skills can complement the traditional goals of liberal learning.

Yet, it is unclear if liberal arts colleges will be able to undergo this transformation and retain their core missions. “Whether you can sustain the intensity of focus on the liberal arts portion while still doing all those other things is an open question,” says Rosenberg.

As colleges and universities strive to become more profitable, faculty are coping with their own economic squeeze. Over the past three decades, colleges and universities have replaced tenure-track faculty positions with contract positions, often part-time. In his 2008 book The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities (Fordham University Press), Ohio State University English professor Frank Donoghue writes that tenure-track and tenured professors now make up only 35 percent of college faculty, and that number is steadily falling. He notes that the decline in tenured positions has disproportionately affected faculty in liberal arts and humanities programs, which lack the government and private funding enjoyed by other departments. In turn, aspiring professors are becoming discouraged by the prospect of juggling multiple academic adjunct positions for little pay and no job security.

The current recession has greatly amplified existing pressures on liberal arts and humanities programs. Thomas H. Benton writes in his Chronicle of Higher Education article “Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don’t Go,” that universities have “historically taken advantage of recessions to bring austerity to teaching” through hiring freezes, early retirements, and the replacement of tenured faculty with adjuncts. He writes, “When the recession ends, the hiring freezes will become permanent, since departments will have demonstrated that they can function with fewer tenured faculty members.”

Students, too, are likely to face the long-lasting consequences of shrinking endowments at private colleges and budget cuts at public institutions.

This past year, the director of financial aid at Reed College tasked the admissions team to not send acceptance letters to 100 scholarship students and instead find 100 students rich enough to pay $49,950 per year for tuition, room and board.

If liberal arts colleges such as Reed are unable to recover from financial hardship, they risk losing their economic, social and ethnic diversity.

In turn, students lacking a privileged background may be denied access to a liberal arts education, regardless of their achievements or aspirations.

“Figuring out a way with smaller endowments to provide the financial aid necessary to enroll an economically diverse student body—and to pay for all the other things that you have to pay for at a college—is a very big challenge,” says Rosenberg of Macalester College.

“One of the risks that we have to attend to is not becoming the educational equivalent of a BMW.”

If a liberal arts education becomes a luxury, the implications for civil society are profound. A broad-based higher education provides an environment that fosters the critical thinking skills that are the hallmark of informed, responsible citizenship. Disparity in education equals disparity in power. By making a well-rounded education available only to the elite, we move one step closer to a society of two classes: one taught to think and rule and another groomed to follow and obey.

Politics of Denial

2009-09-30T21:40:00.004-06:00

Published September 24, 2009 in Middle East Mirror.
http://www.middleeastmirror.com/politics%20of%20denial.html

History is political. And in a region fraught with battles over legitimacy, where each group prizes the mantle of righteous victimhood, the political implications of history are deeply felt. Unfortunately, when political ideologies obscure our common humanity, conflicts over history can generate a climate of denial.

In the Middle East, the present reverberates with historical suffering. On Yom HaShoah in Israel, sirens mark the tragedy of the Nazi genocide, and the nation comes to a stop as Israelis stand at attention and remember the loss of six million. Memorials to the victims of terrorism dot the country. Each year Palestinians remember the Nakba ("Catastrophe") with demonstrations commemorating the exile of 750,000 Palestinians during the 1948 war. Shaheed ("martyr") posters cover the walls of refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank. The faces of martyrs are also omnipresent in Iran, where passion plays mourning Shia leader Imam Hussein swirl with memories of bloodshed in the Islamic Revolution and Iran-Iraq War.

Denying the suffering of others can serve multiple political purposes. For example, rejecting the Holocaust or the Nakba can be a vehicle to challenge Israel's right to exist or Palestinians' right of return. Denial--especially when victims are accused of emotional manipulation--can also undercut sympathy for adversaries, which is especially critical in a battle over international opinion.

Denying the Holocaust

Before heading to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a speech during Iran's annual Quds Day (Jerusalem Day) rally labeling the Holocaust "a lie" and "a mythical claim". The speech was one of many expressions of denial from the Iranian government, which in December 2006 convened a conference challenging the authenticity of the Holocaust. According to NPR diplomatic correspondent Mike Shuster, the Iranian government's Holocaust denial serves the political purpose of delegitimizing Israel's existence while diverting attention from domestic problems such as its troubled economy.

Holocaust denial also runs rampant throughout the Arab Middle East, appearing often in newspapers and other media. As the U.N. Relief and Works Agency discussed plans to teach about the Holocaust in its Gaza schools, Hamas spiritual leader Younis al-Astal condemned the curriculum as a "war crime." In a written statement, Al-Astal called the curriculum tantamount to "marketing a lie and spreading it," arguing that it "serves the Zionist colonizers."

In an April editorial in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Palestinian writer Aziz Abu Sarah wrote of his decision to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day by watching the film Schindler's List. His reflections reveal much about the impulse to deny the suffering of those on the opposing side of a conflict. "As Palestinians, we simply did not learn about [the Holocaust]," he wrote. "There was a stigma attached to it, an understanding that Israel would use the Holocaust to lobby for sympathy, then turn and use the sympathy as a terrible weapon against the Palestinian people…. Deep down, I think I felt that by acknowledging their pain, I would betray or marginalize my own suffering."

Silencing the Nakba

Denial cuts both ways, however. Israeli Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar recently announced his intention to remove mention of the Nakba from textbooks, arguing that the subject would encourage extremism among Arab-Israelis. Notably, Israeli textbooks bore no mention of the Nakba at all until Israel's former Education Minister Yuli Tamir approved a text broaching the subject in 2007.

In an interview with the Institute for Middle East Understanding, Israeli activist Eitan Bronstein, founder of the organization Zochrot ("Remembering"), described the lack of awareness about the Nakba in Israel. "When it comes to the Nakba and what was there before Israel was created, it's a big hole, a black hole and people don't know how to deal with it," he said. There is, in part, a linguistic reason for this gap: during the 1948 war, many Palestinian villages were destroyed or depopulated, and the names of those that remained were changed from Arabic to Hebrew.

In May, Israel's Ministerial Committee on Legislation approved a motion to ban Nakba Day commemorations of the birth of the refugee crisis. According to the motion, brought before the committee by Knesset Member Alex Miller of the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu ("Israel Is Our Home") party, anyone observing Nakba Day could receive up to three years in jail. The motion was a source of heated controversy between those who opposed it on free speech grounds and those who alleged the Nakba demonstrations constituted "incitement" against the State of Israel.

The Armenian Genocide

In Turkey, the government refuses to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide that claimed an estimated 1.5 million Armenian lives in the Ottoman Empire during and shortly after World War I. As with the Nakba, the Turkish avoidance of history has a linguistic side. Because of Turkey's 1928 language reform, during which Turkey switched from an Arabic alphabet to a Latin-based alphabet, most Turks are unable to read Ottoman-era writings.

In April 2007, Turkey objected to the wording of a U.N. exhibition entitled "Lessons from Rwanda," which included the following sentence: "Following World War 1, during which one million Armenians were murdered in Turkey, Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin urged the United Nations to recognize crimes of barbarity as international crimes." The objection caused a delay in the opening of the exhibition, which occurred three weeks later after a compromise wording was created.

Official rejection of the genocide has had real consequences for Turkish artists and intellectuals courageous enough to address the issue. Under the controversial Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which took effect in 2005, it is a crime to insult Turkey, the Turkish ethnicity, or Turkish government institutions. The article has enabled prominent Turkish novelists Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak to be brought to trial for referencing the genocide, though charges were dropped in both cases. However, the grave repercussions of denial came through in 2006, when renowned Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink was prosecuted under Article 301 and was subsequently assassinated in January 2007. The assassination took place shortly after Dink appeared in the documentary Screamers, about denial of the Armenian Genocide.

Recognition and Reconciliation

The act of acknowledging and honoring others' suffering is an essential part of reconciliation. In an interview with JustVision, Aziz Abu Sarah told of his desire for revenge after his brother died from injuries he sustained during beatings in an Israeli prison. However, after a family friend persuaded Abu Sarah and his parents to participate in the dialogue organization the Bereaved Families Forum, his growing awareness of Israeli grief prompted him to become a peace activist.

On a larger scale, such encounters can play a significant role in dismantling the climate of denial and transforming conflicts. Acknowledging past suffering does not mean excusing present-day injustices. Rather, by recognizing others' pain, it is possible to reverse the battle over victimhood and establish meaningful human connections.

Narratives War

2009-09-30T21:20:00.002-06:00

Published in Middle East Mirror on September 23, 2009
http://www.middleeastmirror.com/narratives%20war.html

This week, President Obama hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at his New York hotel on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly gathering. While a step in the right direction, the meeting generated little hope for renewed negotiations between the two sides. Indeed, with the rising power of Hamas and a rightward shift in Israeli politics, most experts are casting grim predictions of ongoing deadlock that could spell the death of the two-state solution.

Yet polls show majorities of Israelis and Palestinians to support a peace settlement, and a consensus exists over the general framework of such a solution. In fact, the deepest source of contention is not whether peace is desirable or what its parameters should be. Rather, it is an all-out war of historical narratives playing out on an international stage, and the American public has front row seats.

At a fundamental level, each side of this narrative battle seeks to establish a monopoly on victimhood, delegitimizing the other's suffering while sanctifying its own. Each perceives itself as a heroic David battling an intractable Goliath, viewing the conflict through the lens of past victimization. When suicide bombers and rockets strike their cities, Israelis recall centuries of persecution culminating in genocide and wars in which they seemed hopelessly pitted against multiple armies. And when tanks and missiles tear through their streets, Palestinians remember their exiles in 1948 and 1967 and decades of occupation.

As universally human and understandable as this tendency is, it creates an obstacle to reconciliation that must be overcome if a peace settlement is to move forward. A just and lasting peace cannot come about by merely delineating borders and agreeing to end violence; it must include mutual recognition and dialogue.

Because the narratives war involves the international community, such dialogue must also take place internationally, especially in the United States. Since the creation of the State of Israel, and particularly after its sweeping, monumental victory in the Six Day War of 1967, the United States has played an important role in Israeli affairs. Because of Israel's dependence on diplomatic, military, and economic support from the U.S., both sides of the conflict are acutely aware of the necessity of swaying American public opinion. This has translated into a fierce battle over academic and media channels and the access granted them to American hearts and minds.

A major source of contention is the use of language, whether in labeling geographical locations, deciding what to call perpetrators of violence, or invalidating the opposing narrative. The West Bank becomes Judea and Samaria; terrorists become martyrs; and the peace process becomes the "peace process."

In today's Information Age, the proliferation of media has greatly increased the scope of the narratives war. College campuses have also become battlegrounds. Troublingly, the physical and rhetorical conflicts have even merged, and journalists have become targets for those who wish to silence them.

Those who care about Middle East peace can play a leading role in transforming this ideological conflict. By creating dialogue that honors both narratives, the international community can transcend the polarization surrounding this issue and help pave the way for genuine peace.

Colleges for Free Thinkers

2009-09-20T17:59:00.002-06:00

Published in the September issue of Next Step Magazine : http://www.nextstepmagazine.com/nextstep/articlepage1.aspx?artId=3428&categoryId=59

Do you often wonder how your schoolwork relates to the real world? Or perhaps you have trouble remembering names and dates for history tests but write amazing essays on the lessons of history.

If this sounds like you, then you may be interested in one of the innovative colleges that offer an alternative to the traditional college experience.

Student-designed curriculum

Some students take comfort in the familiar academic structure of grades, exams and course requirements. However, there are some students who thrive much better in a self-directed learning environment with the freedom to decide their own courses of study.

At The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., students enroll not in individual courses, but in interdisciplinary programs, such as “Health and Human Development,” “Writing for Change” or “Music, Math and Motion.” Each program explores a theme or question from a variety of angles.

Like their peers at Evergreen, students at Bennington College in rural Vermont design their own interdisciplinary courses and receive detailed written evaluations rather than grades. The interdisciplinary format allows students to learn about a subject in depth, discovering the connections between different themes or ideas.

At St. John’s College, a small, rigorous college with campuses in Maryland and New Mexico, there are no textbooks or lectures. Instead, students read great works of literature, study mathematics and learn to write classical music. At the end of each semester, rather than receiving a grade, students meet with instructors for a no-holds-barred evaluation.

Evaluations are “much more informative than letter grades,” says Evergreen alum Andy Cornell. “But lackluster work will be much more glaring if you aren’t on your game.”

Real-world experience

Many of these schools strive to bridge the gap between the classroom and the real world. Eugene Lang, part of the New School for Social Research, is located in the heart of New York City and offers opportunities to intern at the U.N. Relief Work Agency, teach kids to read in Harlem, or learn directly from curators at the Museum of Modern Art.

A high proportion (64 percent) of students at Earlham, an Indiana college founded by Quakers, study abroad through opportunities like peace studies programs in Northern Ireland and the Middle East. Many are also active volunteers, collectively contributing 30,000 hours to volunteerism. These experiences help students break out of the campus bubble and bridge the gap between theory and practice.

Small classes

With a total enrollment of fewer than 800 students, the New College of Florida is a close-knit campus where students call their faculty by their first names and meet with them at cafés to discuss philosophy.

Vermont’s Marlboro College is even smaller, with an enrollment of only 330 students, allowing for close interaction with faculty, including advanced one-on-one instruction called tutorials.

Campus life

The college experience is about more than just academics, though, and campus life can be as unique as the classroom environment. Whether it’s an abundance of vegetarian food in the dining hall or the tendency of students to be involved in social activism, these campuses foster an appreciation for individuality that attracts independent thinkers.

At Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., the longest running student group is Mixed Nuts, a food co-op that provides organic food to students and community members.

On Bard’s rural New York campus, student-written “zines”—homemade, low-budget magazines about anything from music to politics—are popular, and the college houses what is reputed to be the largest zine library on the East Coast.

Portland, Oregon’s quirky, intellectual Reed College offers theme dorms, including one about ancient civilizations and an organic-friendly co-op.

Is a nontraditional college for you?

Students who thrive at nontraditional colleges like to take the initiative in their own educations.

“I wanted to learn for the sake of knowledge, not for just the degree,” says Rachel, a St. John’s alum. She adds that the curriculum there is unique because it “trains you to look at the world critically and form your own opinion.”

Of course, nontraditional colleges are not for everyone. Their rigorous but unstructured academics can cause some students to fall through the cracks. For the right student, however, these extraordinary learning environments offer a true chance to blossom as a thinker and a person.

Trade Your Job

2009-09-10T12:24:00.005-06:00

Published in Fall 2009 issue of YES! Magazine: http://www.yesmagazine.com/issues/learn-as-you-go/trade-your-job

The old apprenticeship model of learning by doing gets new life as people who’ve been left out of the job market train to meet the growing demand for green-collar workers.


Youth participants in the ¡Youthworks! Green Collar Jobs Apprenticeship Program in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Photo courtesy of ¡YouthWorks!

In the last 30 years, wages have dropped for people without college degrees. But in Pierce County, Washington, high school students who aren’t headed for college are learning to retrofit houses; they stand to make up to $50 an hour once they’re experienced journeymen. In Lansing, Michigan, unemployed auto workers can get up to $10,000 to train for new careers in renewable energy. These people, and others nationwide, are part of a rapidly expanding market for green-collar workers.

Since green-collar job training is affordable—usually requiring an associate’s degree at most—and since these jobs typically offer good living wages, they represent a pathway out of poverty and into the middle class.

“If a job improves the environment but doesn’t provide a family-supporting wage or a career ladder to move low-income workers into higher-skilled occupations, it is not a green-collar job,” says Sam Haswell of the Apollo Alliance, a coalition formed in 2001 to push for a clean-energy revolution.

Photo courtesy of ¡YouthWorks!

According to a 2009 report by the American Solar Energy Society, there were 9 million green-collar jobs in the United States in 2007, and 37 million could be created by 2030 if policymakers support renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives at the state and federal level.

“We must build a 21st century workforce in America to compete in the new clean energy economy,” says Apollo Alliance Chair Phil Angelides. “This means training a new generation of workers to fill a wide range of skilled jobs in the rapidly growing green sector.”

The need for green workforce development has produced unprecedented collaboration among labor and environmental organizations, government agencies, schools, and businesses. There’s a return to the apprenticeship model of learning by doing and a growing acknowledgement that valuable education happens outside the classroom.

In Bellingham, Washington, which NPR’s Marketplace recently declared “the epicenter of a new economic model,” the Opportunity Council’s Building Performance Center is teaming up with Bellingham Technical College to provide green workforce development. “We feel like this training has to take place on the job and in the field,” says the Center’s director, John Davies. “The training has to include hands-on learning along with the learning that takes place in the classroom.”

The Center is one of 26 agencies participating in a state-run project that sends trainers to teach home audits and energy retrofits in communities across Washington, including those not served by established training programs. Led by experienced peer technicians, these sessions are customized to meet the specific needs of Washington agencies that provide low-income weatherization services.

Photo courtesy of ¡YouthWorks!

Sound Alliance, in Pierce County, Washington, matches women, people of color, youth, and members of other traditionally disadvantaged groups with openings in green-collar apprenticeship programs. Like other Industrial Areas Foundation organizations, the Sound Alliance empowers people to create change and become grassroots leaders. One leader, Steve Gelb, emphasizes the need to train workers in deep retrofitting, which involves not only simple weatherization, but replacing furnaces and water heaters. Doing so saves more energy and also creates higher-skilled jobs, Gelb says.

When youth and people from disadvantaged communities step into such high-demand, high-salary jobs, it not only gives them an avenue toward a brighter future; it also helps to change community perceptions of them. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, for instance, the group ¡Youthworks! joined with city officials and local businesses to create the Green Collar Jobs Apprenticeship Program in 2008. The program provides valuable training, academic skill building, and job counseling to youth in a city where the dropout rate hovers around 50 percent.

“There’s a lot of racism and discrimination and bad perceptions of young people in Santa Fe,” says Tobe Bott-Lyons, educational coordinator at ¡Youthworks! “Now you see these tattooed kids that people are generally used to being scared of restoring the river and building a house, and they’re retrofitting homes and installing solar panels.”

Lauren Herrera’s life turned upside down when her 6-year-old son passed away last year. She started getting into trouble, which culminated in drug-related felony charges that caused her to lose her job as a dental assistant. Scarce jobs and a criminal record made it hard to find work, until ¡Youthworks! gave her an opportunity to play a positive role in her community. Now she weatherizes homes for low-income families with the newly launched Energy RX crew. “They’re ecstatic when they find out the weatherization is free,” she says. “It’s very rewarding.”

Young people aren’t the only ones looking for green-collar jobs. Throughout the country, community college programs in alternative energy have been flooded with recently unemployed workers and those simply seeking valuable new skills. In Michigan, which suffers the nation’s highest unemployment rate, the transition to a green economy promises to revive communities that have been devastated by job losses in the auto industry. Michigan’s Green Jobs Initiative is one of the programs made possible by the $500 million in federal stimulus funds allocated for green workforce development. The money helps workers enroll in new community college programs in green sector fields like alternative energy.

The alternative energy degree program at Lansing Community College, one of the first of its kind, has grown from 42 students in 2005 to 252 in 2008. Starting this fall, the college will offer new certificates in solar, geothermal, wind turbines, and energy efficiency. The college also has partnered with the National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium to develop an alternative energy curriculum for colleges and universities nationwide.

Gelb says that green workforce development has turned on its head the historical divide between labor and environmental concerns. “We call it the ‘triple bottom line,’” he says. “We’re reducing carbon, creating jobs, and saving money for people in the homes we’re retrofitting.”

Activists Protest Drone Warfare

2009-06-01T15:09:00.002-06:00

Published in YES! Magazine, Summer 2009

http://yesmagazine.org/article.asp?id=3555#peace

Fourteen peace activists were arrested on April 10 at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nevada, during a 10-day vigil protesting unmanned aircraft strikes along the Afghan-Pakistan border. The activists, who were participants in an interfaith Sacred Peace Walk organized by the Nevada Desert Experience, sought to engage in dialogue with Air Force personnel operating Predator and Reaper drones from the base.

In addition to causing numerous civilian casualties, the strikes have contributed to a deepening humanitarian crisis in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas. According to UNICEF, over 860,000 displaced persons from those areas, including 325,000 children, are in dire need of water, nutrition, sanitation, education, and health care.

Despite warnings by Pakistani intelligence officials that ongoing strikes will further destabilize the country, the Obama administration has declared its intention to intensify drone attacks. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has announced he will seek $2 billion in additional funding for unmanned aircraft for the 2010 budget, including 50 more drones. This will represent a 62 percent increase in the military’s capability to carry out drone operations.

The activists view their June 9 arraignment in Las Vegas as an opportunity to build support for their “Ground the Drones…Lest We Reap the Whirlwind” campaign. In addition to holding a monthly vigil at Creech, the Nevada Desert Experience plans to draw further attention to the issue during its August Desert Witness, which commemorates the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Evangelicals' Faith Leads Them to Issues of Environment, Social Justice

2008-09-02T17:17:00.002-06:00

Published in YES! Magazine (Fall 2008: Purple America issue): http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=2845

A passion for environmental action and social justice is spreading in what some may consider unexpected places. Had you walked into Northland, A Church Distributed—an evangelical megachurch in Florida—one Saturday morning last August, you would have found parishioners in Kevlar suits sifting through the congregation’s trash. Their mission: to fulfill what they consider the biblical imperative to be good stewards of the Earth. Led by senior pastor Joel C. Hunter, an advocate of the pro-environment, evangelical Creation Care movement, the churchgoers sorted about 30 bins of trash in order to assess the congregation’s environmental impact.

After the church showed the film “The Great Warming,” featuring National Association of Evangelicals spokesman Richard Cizik, they wanted to take action. When they were finished assessing the congregation’s waste, they created a 140-page audit of the church’s solid waste, energy management, landscaping, and water use, which formed the basis of Northland’s strategy for lowering its carbon footprint. Creation Care at Northland didn’t end there. After services another weekend, the church held a Creation Care event with 30 environmentally-friendly vendors and organizations. Then, in February, evangelical leaders hosted an interfaith summit at Northland, training religious leaders to promote sustainability within their own congregations.

Rev. Hunter is one of a growing number of evangelicals creating an alternative to an evangelical political platform long dominated by hot-button issues such as gay marriage and abortion. While maintaining a socially conservative platform, Hunter and others are expanding their agendas to address concerns such as global warming, poverty, education, and peacemaking. His recent book, A New Kind of Conservative, sounds a call for social justice and compassion for the disadvantaged. According to Hunter, younger generations are avoiding the negative tone and single-issue focus of the Christian Right. “As a movement progresses and matures,” he says, “it begins to define itself by what it’s for instead of what it’s against. It starts to think of pro-life in terms of life outside the womb as well as inside the womb.” He likens this shift to the changes a person goes through while growing up. “When you’re in middle school, you define yourself as who you hate and what you hate. But when you grow up, you start to say, ‘Now, what do I like? What do I want to build? What do I want my life to mean?’”

Black and Hispanic evangelicals have played a major role in shifting the agenda. A 2004 poll by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, Inc. for Religion & Ethics Newsweekly and U.S. News & World Report showed that while white evangelicals considered socially conservative moral values their first priority (37%), 41% of black and 34% of Hispanic respondents placed a different moral issue—the economy—first.

Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, leader of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), believes Hispanic evangelicals serve as a natural bridge between the “righteousness platform” of white evangelicals and the “justice platform” of the black church. While the approximately 15 million Hispanic evangelicals in America often oppose abortion and gay marriage, many also hold progressive, populist views on issues such as poverty, health care, education, and racial equality.

Immigration is one contentious issue Rodriguez hopes to see depolarized. The NHCLC envisions a “middle path” between upholding the rule of law and exercising compassion toward the approximately 12 million undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S. In response to HR 4437, the 2005 bill designed to rein in illegal immigration, NHCLC drafted a proposal calling for comprehensive immigration reform that would include penalties and the payment of back taxes while “bringing immigrants out of the shadows” and providing a path to citizenship.

Rodriguez’s concern for social justice stems from his upbringing in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he witnessed economic upheaval and the decline of industry. As the region transformed, he saw rising levels of violence and racial inequality that persisted as the city grew increasingly diverse. In neighboring Allentown, where the high-school graduation rate was only 60.7% in 2005, evangelical pastors are making efforts to become a “firewall” against gang violence and high dropout rates. In collaboration with Allentown mayor Ed Pawlowski, the NHCLC-affiliated Third Day Worship Center launched an initiative to address these problems, creating an after-school mentoring program for at-risk youth. The effort, coinciding with the creation of Allentown’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, was part of Generation Fuerza (Generation Strength), an NHCLC campaign to reduce teen pregnancy, dropout rates, and gang involvement. Generation Fuerza advocates will begin meeting with Congress in October to promote this agenda.

The social justice approach extends beyond the domestic sphere. Evangelicals for Darfur, a member of the Save Darfur Coalition, includes advocates across the political spectrum, from Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention to Jim Wallis, editor of the progressive Sojourners magazine. In 2006, the group ran full-page ads in 10 major newspapers entitled “Without You, Mr. President, Darfur Doesn’t Have a Prayer,” urging support for international peacekeeping forces and multilateral economic sanctions. In addition to pushing for action, the group solicits donations for relief efforts and promotes education about the genocide.

Other evangelical groups are advocating peace between Israelis and Palestinians. They urge a two-state solution to the conflict, offering an alternative to the approach of more visible leaders such as John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI) and senior pastor of the Cornerstone megachurch in San Antonio, Texas. Hagee is an influential proponent of Christian Zionism, which takes literally the biblical Book of Revelation and views an apocalyptic war in the Middle East as a necessary precursor to the Second Coming of Christ. As Christian Zionists, Hagee and his organization believe that Israel has a divinely sanctioned right to the West Bank and Gaza, and are actively involved in lobbying Washington to oppose “land for peace” and the creation of a Palestinian state.

Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding was founded in part to counter what the organization calls “a rising tide of Western interpretation of the nation of Israel as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.” Its Executive Director, Leonard Rodgers, believes the key to understanding lies in forming personal ties between American evangelicals and Middle Eastern Christians and Muslims, which the group accomplishes through its Living Stones delegations to the region. The organization is especially committed to forging ties with Middle Eastern Christians, a community Rodgers says few Americans are aware of. “When you introduce them and they build a relationship, they begin to understand the Middle East through the eyes of a Middle Easterner,” he says.

Last November, about 100 leaders signed an open letter by Evangelicals for Social Action, a group devoted to social and economic justice. “In the context of our ongoing support for the security of Israel, we believe that unless the situation between Israel and Palestine improves quickly, the consequences will be devastating,” the letter reads, commending Israeli and Palestinian leadership for supporting a two-state solution. The letter reaffirmed the call for peace contained in a July 2007 open letter to President Bush signed by 39 prominent evangelical leaders.

A key factor in the changing face of evangelicalism is the appearance of a young generation that is more expansive in its social outlook. While they are likely to share the socially conservative approach of their parents, younger evangelicals are being shaped by the dynamic world of globalization, technology, and online social networking.

Ben Lowe, 24, studied environmental biology at Wheaton College and is active in several Creation Care groups on Facebook. Last year, he brought together student leaders from 15 campuses for the January 2007 Wheaton Creation Care Summit and participated in Power Shift 2007, joining tens of thousands of other young adults in Washington, D.C. to confront global warming. He now works for A Rocha, a Christian organization devoted to conservation. Although his peers sometimes express suspicion toward environmentalism, they often change their minds once introduced to the issue in a biblical context. “Once we show from the Bible that being good stewards of the environment is our privilege and responsibility,” says Lowe, “then my peers are usually very enthusiastic and supportive.”

Rowan University graduate Dan Lebo, 22, now attends Palmer Theological Seminary. He received a scholarship to work with Evangelicals for Social Action and helped distribute its call for Middle East peace. “The American political landscape can be a very frustrating place for younger evangelicals,” says Lebo, because the issues they care about fall across the spectrum. “It would be very hard to pigeonhole young evangelicals into any political sphere. However, at the same time we are becoming very politically engaged. We realize how important politics can be to the welfare of our society and our world and are understanding that being apathetic about politics doesn’t help anything or anyone.”

Beyond the 'Big Ditch': CAP holds Water Leadership Forum

2008-06-24T23:36:00.001-06:00

Published in July 2008 issue of Tucson Green Magazine.

On May 14, the Central Arizona Project (CAP) held a Water Leadership Forum at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel, inviting the public to learn about the history and future of Arizona's most valuable resource. In the face of eight years of drought, climate change, and a potential water shortage, the forum explored ways to meet the water needs of Arizona's exploding population.

During the early 1900s, the seven states of the Colorado River Basin--Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah--competed for access to Colorado River water. Out of this debate came the Colorado River Compact of 1922, which divided the states into the upper and lower basins, each allotted 7.5 million acre-feet per year. (One acre-foot equals 325,851 gallons, the amount used annually by an average family).

Legal and political disputes, particularly between Arizona and California, caused Arizona to be the last state to approve the Compact, which it did in 1944. In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Colorado River Basin Project Act authorizing construction of CAP, and three years later, the Central Arizona Water Conservation District (CAWCD) was established to manage CAP and reimburse the federal government for construction costs.

From Lake Havasu to south of Tucson, CAP's canal system stretches 336 miles to distribute 1.5 million acre-feet of water per year to Maricopa, Pinal, and Pima Counties. CAP is "more than just a 'big ditch,'" said CAWCD General Manager Sid Wilson. It includes 14 pumping plants, a hydroelectric pump/generating plant at New Waddell Dam, 39 radial gate structures to control water flow, more than 40 turnouts to deliver water to treatment plants, and the Lake Pleasant reservoir. In order to lift water more than 2,900 vertical feet, the system requires significant energy--over 2.5 billion kilowatt-hours per year, which comes from the Navajo Generating Station, Hoover Dam and New Waddell Dam.

Coping with a potential shortage, which could begin as early as 2011, is a key concern for CAP. In a shortage, a priority system governs allocation. According to the Colorado River Basin Project Act, Arizona's allotted 2.8 million acre-feet is subordinate to other states in the basin. Within Arizona, there is another system of priorities. Municipal and Industrial (M&I)--including the City of Tucson--and Native American use will take precedence over non-Native American agriculture and excess water users such as the Arizona Water Bank and the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District.

The availability of water for downstream users is determined by the water elevation (above sea level) in Lake Mead, which is currently around 1108 feet. 1075 feet is considered the first level of shortage, but has no impact on water delivery. At 1025 or lower, water bank replenishment and agriculture would begin to face reductions. A recent study by Tim Barnett and David Pierce at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, forecasted a 50% chance that Lake Mead will go "dry" by 2021. CAP spokesman Bob Barrett called the study "flawed," not taking into account river augmentation efforts and shortage reduction plans.

In the event of a shortage, CAP is exploring a number of coping strategies, including replacing non-native salt cedars (tamarisks) with native cottonwoods, which absorb less water; desalinization and possible re-operation of the Yuma desalting plant, which has been dry for over a decade; imported surface water; groundwater development, and cloud seeding to increase Colorado snow packs. The Arizona Water Banking Authority was established in 1996 to develop long-term storage in underground recharge projects for times of shortage.

The forum also addressed conservation. The Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program of 2005 balances existing and projected Colorado River water usage with conservation of threatened species and habitat restoration. The 50-year program conserves existing habitat, creates new habitats (8,132 acres), and protects six endangered and threatened species, including the Yuma clapper rail, the southwestern willow flycatcher, the desert tortoise, the bonytail, the humpback chub, and the razorback sucker. CAP has agreed to cover $52 million of the project's total $626 million costs over 50 years.

To learn more about CAP visit online at www.cap-az.com or call its Phoenix office at (623) 869-2333

Yom HaShoah event recalls Kristallnacht

2008-05-19T16:24:00.003-06:00

Published in Volume 64, Issue 10 of Arizona Jewish Post (May 16, 2008)

On Sunday, May 4, community members packed into Congregation Anshei Israel to commemorate Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), which was officially observed May 1. The ceremony held a special significance this year, marking the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht and the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel. The ceremony was themed "Kristallnacht Remembered," featuring keynote speaker Gerhard Weinberg, professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

The commemoration began with a Presentation of Colors by the Davis-Monthan Honor Guard and a processional of Holocaust survivors from Hungary, Poland, Greece, Germany and Ukraine. The survivors, escorted by students belonging to the Jewish-Latino Teen Coalition, lit six candles in honor of the six million Jews who perished in the genocide. Two survivors, Inge Schneider and Ester Harris, spoke of the horrors that began with Kristallnacht--the "Night of Broken Glass"--on Nov. 9, 1938, when Nazis destroyed Jewish homes and businesses throughout Germany.

Schneider was a 12-year-old in the German town of Dusseldorf when her family was awakened at 4 a.m. by Nazi troops bursting into their home. The soldiers ransacked the home and arrested her father. In the morning, she saw that the streets were littered with glass and the Jewish school she and Harris both attended had been burned to the ground. Her mother arranged for her father's release and brought Schneider and her two sisters on the ill-fated St. Louis, which sailed for Cuba in May 1939 but was not permitted to disembark upon arrival. All but 28 of its 937 Jewish passengers were forced to return to Europe, where most--including Schneider's mother--perished in concentration camps. "For the Nazis, this was a victory," she said. "It showed that no one wanted the Jews." Schneider survived Bergen-Belsen, but was hospitalized for typhus and tuberculosis after the camp was liberated. After the war, she and her sisters were reunited with their father in New York City.

Although they did not know each other at the time, Harris grew up in Dusseldorf and attended the same Jewish school as Schneider. She, too, remembers the terrifying events of Kristallnacht, when several soldiers broke into the house, brutally beat her father and destroyed the family's dry goods store. Harris had just turned 11. Her father managed to escape arrest because of his service in WWI. The next morning, the Jews of Dusseldorf wandered through the streets surveying the damage. "It was like a ghostly parade from another world," Harris said. Fearing for their future, the family fled to Belgium and then to France in May 1940, when the Nazis invaded Belgium. With the help of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, they eventually found refuge in Portugal.

Weinberg, a noted WWII historian whose own family fled Germany in 1938, discussed the context of Kristallnacht, explaining that it occurred following the assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath, who was shot in Paris by a Jewish youth, Herschel Grynszpan. The Nazis sought to drive Germany's Jews out of the country and plunder their property ahead of the impending war, and used the assassination as a justification.

The program was coordinated by the Jewish Community Relations Council, the public affairs and social action arm of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona.

Solar festival offers a taste of green energy

2008-04-29T18:33:00.002-06:00

Published April 15 in Tucson Green Magazine

As summer approaches, Tucsonans may view the sun as an ominous harbinger of sweltering 100 degree days to come. For some, however, Tucson's omnipresent sun represents an opportunity for change and a path toward sustainable living.

On April 26, solar enthusiasts will gather at Catalina State Park for the 26th Annual Festival of the Sun and Solar Potluck, a family-friendly celebration of the power of solar energy with music, food, and demonstrations on innovative solar technology. According to organizers, the event is one of the longest running solar events in North America, second only to the annual meeting of the American Solar Energy Society.

The potluck is organized by Citizens for Solar, which was formed for the purpose of putting on the event. Ed Eaton, a solar pioneer and founding member of the group, began the tradition in 1981 with a small group of friends. Over the next few years, the event continued to grow, and organizers began holding the potluck at Catalina State Park. Last year, the event drew about 1,500 people.

One new feature this year is the Teahouse of the Rising Sun, a place where attendees can gather in the shade, enjoy a cup of tea, and listen to a lineup of guest speakers who will address this year's Paths to Sustainability theme. Eaton will be one of the speakers this year, discussing the long history of the solar industry. Mark Schwirtz of Trico Electric Cooperative, and Bill Henry of Tucson Electric Power will explain the utility rebate program for solar systems. Bruce Plenk, solar coordinator for the City of Tucson, will offer another perspective, discussing what the city is doing to go green.

A solar-powered stage, supplied by George Villec of GeoInnovation, will provide live music, including local artist Black Man Clay.

In addition to speakers, performances, and hands-on kids' activities, there will be ample opportunities to see cutting edge solar technology in action. "It's almost become a game of one-upmanship every year between the exhibitors," said Jerry M. Samaniego, the group's president. "Everybody likes to have new things every year."

Samaniego, whose father owns Expert Solar Systems, grew up with an appreciation for solar energy. He has helped his father run the local business for 18 years, and been involved with Citizens for Solar for about ten years, serving as president for the past two. "The solar potluck is really my favorite solar event of the year," he said. "Now I bring my two kids out there, and they have fun."

While a variety of solar technology will be on display, the main attraction will be at least 50 solar ovens and cookers of various types. Some are quite powerful. One year, someone made stir fry and popcorn, which requires about 450 degrees, using an enormous solar reflector parabolic cooker. Other participants have made turkey, pizza, and a plethora of vegetarian food. Demonstrators will hand out food samples of all kinds throughout the day, culminating in a potluck dinner at 5 p.m.

Toby Schneider, treasurer of Citizens for Solar, has been involved with the group along with his wife, Vivian Harte, for many years. Solar power is increasingly entering the mainstream, said Schneider, in part for economic reasons. "With increased energy prices, more people are thinking of solar as a long term investment," he said. According to Schneider, an inverter, which changes DC voltage from solar panels into standard household AC voltage, typically lasts about 10 years, and the panels usually last more than 20.

Because of the low cost (you can pick one up for as low as $250), solar ovens are an attractive option for those who are just beginning to go solar. "[They're] a great, inexpensive foot in the door, a way of experiencing solar power and playing with it," said Samaniego.

Cari Spring, the group's vice president and a faculty member at Pima Community College and Prescott College, believes there is more to solar living than just the technology. "There's a solar culture in the world," she said. "When you practice solar and renewable energy, you place the sun at the center of your existence--and that means you don't just buy a technology and live the same life you used to."

In 1996, Spring bought a piece of land in Catalina and began designing a completely solar-powered home. She soon found that everyday activities--from laundry to cooking--required her to be conscious of the sun. "The center of your life shifts," she said.

Local artist adds superhero flair to prayer book

2008-04-10T21:54:00.001-06:00

Arizona Jewish Post Vol. 64, Issue 7 (April 4, 2008)

Muscle-bound superheroes and Hebrew blessings may seem like an unusual combination, but to local artist Howard Salmon, it’s a combination that can renew interest in Judaism and enhance Jewish learning. Salmon’s “Comic Book Siddur” contains all the prayers for Saturday morning Shabbat services, printed side-by-side with snappy translations and comic book style illustrations.

The idea came to Salmon in May 2007 as he prepared to become an adult Bar Mitzvah. While studying his Torah portion, he began sketching a mini comic book called “Bar Mitzvah Comics.” It was a small project, encompassing eight pages of cut and paste material, but it sparked the idea of creating a full-length siddur. He brought the idea to Assistant Rabbi Benjamin Sharff of Temple Emanu-El, who agreed to edit the book. “There were a lot of difficult theological decisions” regarding the translations, says Salmon, and Sharff was instrumental in that process.

To Sharff, it is no coincidence that Jewish artists, including Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, have played a key role in the comic book industry. Many of the most popular comic book characters, he notes, “were picked on and faced tremendous challenges but now stand up for what’s right in the world. In many ways, that model is based on the Jewish people.”

Salmon says the siddur is aimed at helping students prepare for their B’nai Mitzvah, just as creating comics helped him prepare for his own Bar Mitzvah. “I wanted to make studying for a Bar or Bat Mitzvah have the thrills and excitement of reading a comic book,” he says. “If you like comic books and you’re struggling to study for your Bar Mitzvah, this book can help you learn Hebrew and study the prayers in an enjoyable way.” The siddur has also proved useful as a prayer supplement for kids, especially those who are having trouble with their Hebrew.

Lori Riegel, an account executive at the Arizona Jewish Post and a Hebrew teacher at Temple Emanu-El, plans to use the comic book with her fourth graders and during the services she leads at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging. “It has everything in there,” she says. “It’s entertaining for the kids, but there are layers for the adults, too.”

Salmon graduated from the University of Arizona in 1985 with a degree in philosophy and earned his MFA from the university in 2002. He says he has wanted to be a comic book artist all his life, inspired by Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Captain America artist Jack Kirby, graphic artist Jim Steranko, and pop art pioneers Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Creating the book enabled him “to blend two interests: drawing a graphic novel and engaging my spirituality.”

“Comic Book Siddur” can be ordered online at comic booksiddur.com or purchased at the Temple Emanu-El and Congregation Anshei Israel gift shops. Salmon is available for speaking engagements and other educational events. He can be reached at hsalmon@howardsalmon.com.

Dishing up healthy food with heart

2008-03-21T11:30:00.004-06:00

Published in April 2008 issue of Tucson Green Magazine

If there's an unlikely profile of someone who would launch a wildly popular vegetarian restaurant in the heart of Tucson, it's got to be Peggy Raisglid, owner and creator of Lovin' Spoonfuls. Raisglid grew up in Queens, NY, daughter of a Southern mother and Polish immigrant father who was a Holocaust survivor and escapee from the Warsaw Ghetto, worked her way through college with a stint at cooking chicken for "The Colonel," and for 13 years was a chemist for corporate giant Mobil Oil. But this background, with all of its back stories, became the quirky storm that propelled Raisglid to introduce her restaurant and the joy of vegetarian cuisine to a new wave of Tucsonans. She opened Lovin' Spoonfuls in 2006.

On any given day, you'll find Raisglid behind the counter, greeting her customers and sharing her enthusiasm for vegetarian and vegan food. Nestled inconspicuously in a strip mall on Campbell Avenue between Sauce Pizza and Wine and Opa, this Tucson treasure offers a tantalizing variety of meet-free, dairy-free, and egg-free meals.

In case you're wondering, there's nothing hippy dippy about this place. The atmosphere at Lovin' Spoonfuls is relaxed, with soft lighting, soothing natural tones, and classical music often playing in the background. With a combination of brick walls and wood paneling, the decor conjures a rustic coziness accented with touches of modern art.

Raisglid stopped eating meat in 1989. She walked into a Unitarian Church one Sunday a committed, hard core carnivore and walked out a vegan. She loved to cook, so set about recreating all of her favorite meals using a slightly different set of ingredients.

A vegetarian myself since age 14, I am used to limited culinary experiences, so the sheer number of possibilities on Raisglid's menu was almost paralyzing. As I scanned the amazing array of selections, I swear I heard that Rock 'n' Roll pop anthem, "Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind," start playing in my head.

I was wracked with indecision: did I want the deli club sandwich ($7.95) stacked with veggie turkey, ham, and bacon? Or perhaps the mock tuna melt ($6.95)? Or maybe I should shun the faux meat altogether in favor of the falafel ($6.95) or one of the many salads? Maybe one of the tempting appetizers?

Finally, I bit the bullet and ordered the award-winning Route 66 bacon cheeseburger ($7.95). After ordering at the counter, we were handed a whimsical wooden spoon with a number on it to place on our table.

Before digging into my lunch, which appeared with quick and friendly service, I spent a few minutes chatting with Raisglid. Her passion for experimentation--which began with a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Arizona--has followed her from the lab to the kitchen.

"It's the same analytical approach," she said. "You keep experimenting, changing little things to perfect the recipe."

Her culinary zeal is evident. Asked how long she has been in the restaurant business, she replied without hesitation,"Two years, five months, and three days."

Although half of the restaurant's patrons are vegetarians or vegans, many say they simply like to eat more healthfully once in awhile. Others want to sample vegetarian cuisine out of curiosity, and definitely like the new experience. One woman and her husband said they have been back five times in the past two weeks, anxious to try every dish on the menu. "The food here has so much more flavor--and it comes without the calories, fat and guilt," the woman said. Her favorite meal so far: "The falafel pocket with carrot salad, it's fabulous."

My Route 66 grilled burger, made in-house mainly of soy, arrived on an organic whole wheat bun, topped with soy bacon strips, vegan cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and soy mayo. Like all sandwich baskets, this veggie burger comes with a bag of kettle-cooked potato chips, a pickle slice, and choice of potato salad, coleslaw, or carrot salad. I went with the potato salad, which was chunky and tasty with tiny bits of pickle, onion, carrot, and green peppers. Though somewhat bland, a dash of black pepper added just the right spice for me.

The burger was delicious. In fact, it was one of the best veggie burgers I've ever tasted, and I've tasted quite a few, since they're often the only thing I can order in a restaurant. While the soy bacon strikingly captured the taste and smell of real bacon, the strips were so thin as to nearly escape notice. However, they did lend a pleasant hint of crispiness to the burger. The soy cheese was nicely melted, though neutral in taste. The whole wheat bun was fluffy and wholesome tasting.

I tried the spiced iced tea, which had a pleasantly pungent aroma but a subtler taste. The flavor hit later, though, with a delayed kick.

My companion ordered the Portobello griller ($8.25), slices of grilled Portobello on a whole wheat hoagie bun with peppers and onions. Before I'd taken a bite of my burger and discovered its deliciousness, the tempting aroma of the mushroom wafting over from his sandwich gave me second thoughts about my order. Indeed, the savory combination of ingredients brought a satisfied smile to his face. He was likewise pleased with the accompanying carrot salad.

As tasty as our entrees were, the dessert proved most memorable. We shared a banana-nut muffin ($2.50), cake-like in texture with a hint of spice, halved and topped with caramelized strawberries. Though the muffin alone was scrumptious, delightfully crispy on top and fluffy everywhere else, the combination of muffin and strawberry was nothing short of heavenly. No crumb was left behind. And yes, for those who are not really muffin-lovers, there is chocolate at Lovin' Spoonfuls.

The dinner menu includes Pepper Steak, Green Chili Polenta, Picadilly Nut Loaf, Stroganoff Supreme, Thai Vegetable Curry, and Pasta Primavera. Breakfast offers a nice fare from a hefty stack to a Denver Scramble. Don't overlook the fresh fruit smoothies any time of day for an energy boost. And there's even a full selection of gluten-free meals.

You don't need to be a vegetarian or vegan to enjoy the food at Lovin' Spoonfuls. The place offers a pleasing reminder that there is no need to compromise taste for health. You can have your banana-nut muffin and eat it, too.

WHERE TO EAT

Lovin' Spoonfuls
29990 N. Campbell Ave.
520-325-7766
www.lovinspoonfuls.com

Serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Hours: Monday-Saturday 9:30am-9pm; Sunday 10am-3pm
A range of vegan entrees, sandwiches, soups, and salads. Organic wines and beer available. Moderate prices.
Winner: Tucson Weekly 2006 and 2007 Best of Tucson Vegetarian Restaurant and Best of Tucson Veggie Burger.
Winner: Tucson Lifestyle 2007 Top Vegetarian Restaurant Culinary Award.
Named: One of the nation's top 20 eateries by VegNews Magazine in 2006.

The 21st century's Joseph McCarthy

2008-02-27T12:52:00.005-07:00

Daniel Pipes tracks our nation’s traitorous professors so you don’t have to.

By Valerie Saturen
February 27, 2008

Published on CampusProgress.org

Illustration by August Pollak

Have you ever suspected that your campus may be little more than the intellectual equivalent of an Al Qaeda training camp, dutifully churning out youthful armies of Osama Bin Laden-hugging, America-hating traitors? Well, fear not. Pundit and right-wing crusader Daniel Pipes is keeping an eye on your university and the treasonous activity percolating therein. Thanks to Pipes and his website, Campus Watch, you can rest assured in the knowledge that someone is working to bring your subversive, un-American professors/terrorists to justice, Joe McCarthy-style, and to replace their indoctrination sessions with a curriculum as fair and balanced as FOX News.

Pipes’ nostalgia for the Cold War may be hereditary. His father, Harvard historian Richard Pipes, headed Team B, a group of extremely hawkish analysts devoted to studying Soviet military and political strategies. A Boston native, Daniel Pipes enrolled at Harvard, where his father was still teaching, in 1967, to study mathematics. Unfortunately, the abstract world of numbers went over his head. “I wasn’t smart enough,” Pipes confessed, “so I chose to become a historian.” While his classmates staged sit-ins in the Harvard administration building to protest the Vietnam War, he wondered why anyone would walk out of classes or miss meals they had already paid for.

Upon earning his B.A. in history, Pipes spent two years studying Arabic in Cairo, and then returned to Harvard to begin working on his Ph.D. in medieval Islamic history. In the late '70s and early '80s, in the wake of the Iranian Revolution and the assassination of Anwar Sadat by an Islamist militant, he abandoned his initial interests and became obsessed with radical Islam.

Pipes held teaching positions at the University of Chicago, Harvard, and the Naval War College, but did not get tenure. The field of Middle Eastern studies was in the midst of a radical paradigm shift, brought on by the publication of Edward Said‘s Orientalism, that would embitter Pipes for decades to come. According to Said, Western portrayals of the Middle East—from paintings and literature to traditional scholarship—contained a supremacist ideology of “Otherness” that served to justify imperialism. Said’s book changed everything within the field. Suddenly, Middle Eastern studies professors began preoccupying themselves with cultural sensitivity, rejecting notions of Western superiority and the “primitive, exotic” Arab. Pipes decided that academia no longer had a place for him.

In 1986, he began running the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a hard-line think tank which would begin agitating for war with Iraq immediately after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Since 1994, Pipes has been founding director of the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum, which “seeks to define and promote American interests in the Middle East” through an aggressive policy of military intervention. Its journal, The Middle East Quarterly, has published such enlightening pieces as “Western Feminists: At the Service of Radical Islam” and “The Arab Mind Revisited,”

which discusses the “inhibiting effects” of the Arabic language and stereotypes Arabs as having a “proneness to exaggeration” and a “tendency to blame others for [their] problems.”

Amid post-9/11 xenophobia and attacks on dissent, Pipes’ extreme views earned him celebrity status. The author of numerous books on Islam and the Middle East, he is a fixture on FoxNews and has appeared on CNN, the BBC, and Al Jazeera. His screeds appear in columns on “Islamofascism” for David Horowitz‘s Front Page Magazine and in an array of national publications, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The

Wall Street Journal. Pipes’ work can be read in languages ranging from Bulgarian to Kurdish on his website.

Pipes began his own personal "war on terror" with a 1995 piece in National Interest entitled “There are No Moderates,” which declared: “Unnoticed by most Westerners, war has been unilaterally declared on Europe and the United States.” Pipes made this statement shortly after the Oklahoma City bombing, which he and fellow right-winger Steven Emerson erroneously blamed on Muslims.

Pipes has been accused of spreading “Islamophobia” by organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which condemns his “history of hostility toward Muslims in general and to the American Muslim community in particular.” Pipes defends his statements, asserting that “the enemy is militant Islam, not Islam, the personal faith.” However, numerous statements reflect a general antipathy toward Muslims and a tendency to label all Muslims as supporters of terrorism. In an October 2001 speech at the American Jewish Congress Convention, he warned that the “increased stature, and affluence, and enfranchisement of American Muslims…will present true dangers to American Jews.” Around the same time, Pipes wrote a column for the New York Post, “Muslims Love Bin Laden,” which noted: “President Bush says bin Laden represents a ‘fringe form of Islamic extremism…rejected by Muslim scholars and the vast majority of Muslim clerics.’…Well, that ‘vast majority’ is well hidden and awfully quiet, if it even exists.”

Pipes is a strident supporter of U.S. intervention in the Middle East, promoting the view that it is through overpowering force alone that the region’s problems can be solved. A proponent of the Iraq war from the get-go, he said in an interview that the invasion would have a “positive effect” upon “militant Islam, the energy market, the Israeli conflict, the general problem of the Arab states modernizing, you name it.” He opposes any peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians and writes frequently about the need for Israel to “crush the will” of the Palestinians. In 1988, during the first Palestinian intifada, he published a New York Times column calling an eventual Palestinian state a “nightmare” for its intended beneficiaries. Statehood, he argued, “would hurt Arabs far more than Israelis.” Recently, he has set his sights on Iran, arguing in 2003, that the “situation has become crude and binary: either the U.S. government deploys force to prevent Tehran from acquiring nukes, or Tehran acquires them.” Of course, the recently released National Intelligence Estimate

on Iran’s nuclear capabilities has proved Pipes’ fears to be thoroughly overblown.

Given Pipes’ militaristic thinking and utter disdain for diplomacy, it struck many observers as deeply ironic when, in 2003, President Bush nominated him to the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a congressional institution dedicated to “peacebuilding.” Despite a maelstrom of controversy—Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), among others, vigorously opposed the nomination—Bush bypassed Congress with a recess appointment after the Senate session on his confirmation ended without a vote.

Pipes’ ideological crusade is not limited to the Middle East. It is a battle he has decided to take to college campuses throughout America, excoriating professors who fail to dutifully parrot the right wing’s ideology. In a November 2002 piece in the New York Post entitled “Profs Who Hate America,” he singled out a number of professors critical of going to war in Iraq. “Why do American academics so often despise their own country while finding excuses for repressive and dangerous regimes?” Pipes asked.

That year, he also created Campus Watch, a special project of the Middle East Forum. The Campus Watch website, condemned by The Nation as an example of modern McCarthyism, targets professors and students who hold views on the Middle East deemed unacceptable by Pipes. Campus Watch encouraged students to submit reports on teachers, which were published in “dossiers” on the site. Most controversially, the site published a blacklist of eight scholars and 14 universities. Among them was Georgetown University professor John Esposito, who has called for an examination of the root causes that lead to terrorism.

Subsequently, the blacklisted professors were attacked by spammers who sent large numbers of enormous files to their e-mail addresses. Among the victims was University of Michigan history professor Juan Cole, who reported that his e-mail had been disabled by thousands of hate messages the day after his name appeared on Campus Watch. In protest, over 100 professors around the country wrote letters denouncing Campus Watch for its “attempts to silence and muzzle dissenting voices.” Some insisted on being added to the list, in a gesture of solidarity. The website complied, listing the protesting faculty and distorting their protest, which he claimed was “in defense of apologists for Palestinian violence and militant Islam.” Eventually, Pipes removed the dossiers “in a gesture of goodwill,” but the site continues to update its “survey of institutions.”

Pipes swells with pride at the thought that his intimidation efforts may have had an impact. In a speech at David Horowitz’s Restoration Weekend in November 2003, Pipes remarked: “I flatter myself perhaps in thinking that the rather subdued academic response to the war in Iraq in March and April may have been, in part, due to our work.”

Indeed, the hysteria fomented by Pipes is far-reaching. In 2003, ripples of Pipes’ efforts reached Congress, prompting the House of Representatives to pass legislation (HR 3077) that would establish an advisory board to “study, monitor, appraise, and evaluate” university area studies programs. The bill also made federal funding under Title VI of the Higher Education Act contingent upon the “fair and balanced” nature of the curriculum. Pipes enthusiastically backed the bill, which was the result of a campaign by Stanley Kurtz of the National Review Online (a frequent publisher of Pipes’ work), who accused Middle Eastern Studies of tending to “purvey extreme and one-sided criticism of American foreign policy.”

The bill did not pass in the Senate, but its specter, along with the combined efforts of Pipes, Horowitz, and their ilk, has left a lasting impact upon college campuses. Their attempts to stifle debate continue to create an obstacle to serious discussion of crucial issues.

Memorable Quotes: The Wisdom of Daniel Pipes

On racial profiling: “For years, it has been my position that the threat of radical Islam implies an imperative to focus security measures on Muslims. If searching for rapists, one looks only at the male population. Similarly, if searching for Islamists (adherents of radical Islam), one looks at the Muslim population.”—“Why the Japanese Internment Still Matters”, New York Sun (December 28, 2004). (And yes, the article does applaud the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII.)

And: “There is no escaping the unfortunate fact that Muslim government employees in law enforcement, the military, and the diplomatic corps need to be watched for connections to terrorism, as do Muslim chaplains in prisons and the armed forces. Muslim visitors and immigrants must undergo additional background checks. Mosques require a scrutiny beyond that applied to churches, synagogues, and temples. Muslim schools require increased oversight to ascertain what is being taught to children.”—“The Enemy Within (and the Need for Profiling)”, New York Post (January 24, 2003).

On Iraq: Pipes wrote in the New York Post that Iraq needed a “democratically-minded Iraqi strongman” since its people “mentally live in a world of conspiracy theories” and were not quite ready for full-fledged democracy.—“A Strongman for Iraq”, New York Post (April 28, 2003).

On immigrants: “Western European societies are unprepared for the massive immigration of brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards of hygiene… All immigrants bring exotic customs and attitudes, but Muslim customs are more troublesome than most.”—“The Muslims are Coming! The Muslims are Coming!”, National Review (November 19, 1990).

On black Muslims: Pipes referenced “a well-established tradition of American blacks who convert to Islam turning against their country.”—“[Beltway Snipers]: Converts to Violence?”, New York Post (October 25, 2002).

Valerie Saturen is a writer and activist with an M.A. in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Arizona. She can be reached at vsaturen@yahoo.com.

Burial society conference at CAI explores the ultimate selfless mitzvah

2008-02-27T12:29:00.003-07:00

Published in The Arizona Jewish Post Volume 64, Issue 4, February 22, 2008

Members of the burial societies known as chevra kadisha (literally, "Holy Societies") gathered Sunday, Feb. 10 at Congregation Anshei Israel to discuss "rites, rituals, protection and procedures." The conference took place three days before the 7th of Adar, the anniversary of the death of Moses, which is traditionally associated with the chevra kadisha. Chevra kadisha members often commemorate the day together, and some fast to atone for any disrespect they may have inadvertently shown the deceased. The conference, cosponsored by the Tucson Board of Rabbis, brought together chevra kadisha members from several local synagogues for the first time.

Preparing a person for burial is considered one of the highest mitzvot a Jew can perform. Rabbi Robert Eisen of Anshei Israel explains that it's the ultimate selfless act, "one of the few things you can do for which they can't say 'thank you.'"

The conference began with a demonstration of the tahara, or ritual purification of the body, using a mannequin. During the tahara, the body is cleansed with an unbroken flow of water. The ritual strongly emphasizes respect toward the deceased person, called the met (male) or metah (female). Men perform the ritual for men, and women for women. While performing the tahara, one does not wear jewelry, chat with others, pass objects over the met, stand in direct alignment with the head of the met, or turn one's back toward the body. Before and after attending to the body, the chevra kadisha asks forgiveness for anything that may have offended the deceased person. After the tahara, the met is wrapped in a burial shroud without jewelry or adornments, signifying that all are equal in death.

The demonstration was followed by a discussion in which attendees raised questions and shared advice. Next year's conference, says Eisen, will place a greater focus on exploring personal experiences.

Most local congregations have volunteers trained in the tahara ritual. For many years, Anshei Israel had the only organized chevra kadisha, which has existed as long as the congregation itself. Over the last several years, other congregations have begun forming their own. The chevra kadisha members are not limited to their own congregations, however, and volunteer wherever they are needed.

Max Ellentuck has been the chevra kadisha coordinator at Anshei Israel for two years, as part of his job as ritual coordinator. "It takes a special kind of person [to join a chevra kadisha]," says Ellentuck. "These are the strongest people I know."

Eisen agrees that the volunteers have made a unique commitment. "No matter how many times you do it, every tahara is unique. It's an emotional investment," he says. "It becomes a final tribute that comes from the heart."

Rescuer of art stolen by Nazis to speak at JCC

2008-02-11T14:51:00.000-07:00

Published February 8, 2008 in Volume 64, Issue 3 of the Arizona Jewish Post

U.S. Army Capt. James Rorimer oversees removal of looted art from Neuschwanstein Castle in southern Germany.

Harry Ettlinger, a member of the team assigned to recover art plundered by the Nazis, will speak at two showings of the film The Rape of Europa during the Tucson Jewish Film Festival on Sunday, Feb. 10, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center.

At age 19, Ettlinger and 2,500 other men of the 99th Infantry Division were on their way to the bloody Battle of the Bulge when he and two others were stopped and ordered off the convoy. Though he didn't know it at the time, Ettlinger was about to become part of a historic effort to rescue cultural treasures stolen by the Nazis. Born in Germany, Ettlinger had fled to the United States with his family in 1938. Because of his fluency in German, the army sent him to Munich to begin an assignment as a translator. "This was of great significance to me and my life," Ettlinger told the AJP, "in light of the fact that there were eight buddies of mine that I had trained with, three of which were killed in action and five of which were wounded. I was spared that sacrifice."

During his assignment, Ettlinger met Capt. James Rorimer, the head of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section of the Western District's Seventh Army. Rorimer took the young soldier under his wing, making him one of 350 men and women charged with protecting the artistic and cultural treasures of Europe. Ultimately, the group--who came to be known as the Monuments Men--recovered more than five million items, about one-fifth of Europe's art.

In the summer of 1945, Ettlinger was given the task of recovering 900 pieces of stolen art stashed in salt mines at Heilbronn, just 70 miles from his childhood home. The mission had been made possible by French art historian and museum overseer Rose Valland, who secretly recorded information about plundered artworks circulating through the Jeu de Paume museum, which the Nazis used as a collection point for looted items. In the summer of 1944, after the invasion of Normandy, she brought the mine activities to Rorimer's attention, prompting him to ensure that the mines were protected and the artworks restored. "She was a great heroine," says Ettlinger.

Among the works found in the mines were a prized self-portrait by Rembrandt and musical instruments such as the rare eight-stringed viola d'amour, but for Ettlinger, one of the most memorable discoveries was the "Stuppach Madonna" by the 16th century painter Matthias Gruenwald. Rorimer, who later became director of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, sought to buy the painting from the Stuppach church to which it belonged for $2 million, but the church turned down the offer.

The mines hid more than cultural artifacts. They had also housed underground factories manned by Hungarian Jewish slave labor. "They were going to go into production building jet engines," says Ettlinger. "If they had been successful, they would have lengthened the war by a year or two" by enabling the Germans to shoot down American planes making advances into Germany. In April 1945, shortly before American troops reached Heilbronn, the 500 to 1,000 slave laborers were shipped to Dachau. Most froze to death along the way.

The story of the Monuments Men entered the public spotlight with the publication of Rescuing Da Vinci, a photographic and historical volume written by former oilman Robert Edsel. In January 2007, Edsel worked with Rep. Kay Granger of Fort Worth, Texas, to introduce House Resolution 48, honoring the Monuments Men. On June 6, 2007, the 63rd anniversary of D-Day, the Senate passed the similar Resolution 223, sponsored by Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma and Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. The Rape of Europa film, co-written by Edsel and Lynn H. Nicholas, author of a book by the same name, tells the story of the massive theft, recovery and survival of European art during the war.

Ettlinger, now 82, has served as deputy director of a division of the Singer Sewing Company that produced guidance systems for submarine-launched nuclear weapons. His WWII experiences inspired him to participate in Holocaust education and he is co-chair of the Wallenberg Foundation of New Jersey, which promotes the ideals of Holocaust rescuer Raoul Wallenberg.

"The cultural significance of what we did was very unique in the history of civilization," says Ettlinger. "We were the first country in the history of civilization that, in lieu of taking the spoils of war, did not take it. Our mission was to bring culture back to Europe."

Tickets are $8 for adults and $6 for students, seniors and JCC members. For more information call 299-3000, ext. 200, or go to tucsonjewishfilmfestival.org.

Local business adds personal wedding touch

2008-02-11T14:08:00.001-07:00

Published February 8, 2008 in Volume 64, Issue 3 of the Arizona Jewish Post.

A Japanese-inspired huppah created by Original Design Huppah

When Margery and Eli Langner were married in 1989, the two artists decided to design their own huppah, or wedding canopy, rich in Jewish symbolism, combining the words of the Baal Shem Tov with 32 flames--the number that corresponds with the Hebrew word for "heart." The huppah was so admired by guests that the Langners immediately created a new business, Original Design Huppah, and began making personalized huppot for clients around the world.

The huppah, a symbol of a couple's first home together, is a reminder of the tents of our nomadic ancestors. It is also a physical reminder of the couple's commitment to one another as well as a piece of Jewish artwork with special meaning to its owners. Creating a customized huppah can give a couple the opportunity to reflect on the history of their relationship and the places, objects and people that add meaning to their lives. For many of the Langners' clients, the huppah also serves as a family heirloom. Some couples incorporate the huppah into baby-naming ceremonies for their children or use the fabric to create a bris pillow. Others send their huppah back to be adapted for their children's weddings, sometimes having the names of each new family member embroidered onto the fabric. "It's like a fabric record of the important events that happened in the family," says Margery.

To add a personal touch, couples often incorporate pictures of family members or materials that have sentimental value to the bride and groom, such as a piece of clothing, fabric from a mother's or grandmother's wedding dress, or in the case of one groom, a square cut from his baby "blankie."

Jacob Friedman and Marcy Subrin, a Tucson couple whose wedding is coming up in June, have eight friends and family involved in making their huppah. Each person will help design a square with embroidery, hand drawings or transferred pictures. "It's a great way of having everyone's blessing for the wedding," says Friedman. The couple was drawn to the concept of a huppah that will become a lasting part of their home. "We decided it would be nice to have something to hang up in our home afterward," says Friedman.

Often, couples choose to combine personal elements with traditional Jewish symbols and verses, including images of doves, the city of Jerusalem or lines from the biblical Song of Songs. Friedman and Subrin's huppah, for example, will include the imagery of a Tree of Life.

The Langners each bring their own talents into the process of creating a huppah. Margery, a former schoolteacher who also trained at the Parsons School of Design in New York, typically discusses ideas with clients and works on the embroidery. Eli, who majored in drawing at New York's Pratt Institute, where he received a degree in fine arts, does the sketches. "It's a great joy" to be able to work so closely together, says Eli.

In addition to serving local clients, Original Design Huppah works with couples worldwide through its website, customjudaica.com. One of her most enjoyable experiences, Margery says, was where she met three couples for whom she had designed huppot. In each couple, an American businessman had married a Japanese woman who had subsequently converted to Judaism, and the couple wanted a huppah that blended Jewish and Japanese symbols.

The Langners also design religious artwork for synagogues, including Torah covers, tallitot, ark curtains and bris chairs. For Margery, creating the items is both artistically and spiritually significant. "I feel very honored and blessed to have the ability to make objects that get to be used in such an important and spiritual way," she says.

Margery appreciates the opportunity to become part of a family's process of marking important events and creating a legacy. "It really means a lot to me," she reflects, "because I become part of their family tradition."

For more information, contact Margery and Eli Langner at (800) 517-1965 or (520) 749-8111, or e-mail margerylangner@comcast.net.

Making it last: from junior high to grandkids, Tucson couple celebrates

2008-02-11T13:29:00.001-07:00

Published February 8, 2008 in Volume 64, Issue 3 of the Arizona Jewish Post.

It all started with a bad blind date at the Jewish Community Center, back when it was still on Tucson Boulevard. Judy, then a 14-year-old student at Mansfield Junior High, was suffering through an awkward evening with another boy at a B'nai B'rith Youth Organization mixer when 16-year-old Tucson High sophomore Ted Direnfeld approached her and asked her to dance. "I wasn't very nice," Ted recalls, chuckling. "I stole her away." The two have been together ever since, sharing more than five decades of love, friendship, and family.

The Direnfelds remember their youth in the 1950s as a time of simplicity. At first, Ted didn't have a car, so the young couple had to rely on Ted's older sister for rides. Like many other young Jews in Tucson, their social lives revolved around BBYO, which frequently hosted social events and community service activities. Ted was involved in AZA (Aleph Zadik Aleph), the boys' branch of the organization, and Judy was active in the local and regional chapters of BBG (B'nai B'rith Girls). They talked on the phone every night. "I never dated anybody else," says Judy. "He was the only person I ever dated."

A taste of freedom came along with Ted's first car, an old '36 Chevy Club Coupe. "As we got older and knew we were going to get married," Judy says, "he stayed later at night and snuck out so my parents wouldn't know how late he was there." The car ran so noisily that the only way Ted could leave undetected was to push it down the street, jump in, and get the car going.

In 1956, the year Judy graduated from high school, Ted asked her parents for their daughter's hand in marriage. "I was sitting in her folks' kitchen, and the subject came up as to what I was going to give her for a graduation present," he remembers. "And I said 'a ring, and engagement ring.'" They were married a year later at Congregation Anshei Israel, where Ted had celebrated becoming a Bar Mitzvah. The congregation has since remained an important part of their lives; all of their children have been named, become Bar Mitzvah, or married there.

The couple has three children: Robert, a physical therapist (married to Amy Broad); Debra, a chemical engineer; and Barbara, who works in sales (partner, Sherry Campbell). They also have two grandchildren. Elayna is a freshman at the University of Arizona, and David is a junior at Catalina Foothills High School.

Ted studied at UA for two years while working at Dee's Shoes, the family business. Judy also attended the UA for a year before spending two years working at RCA, a government contract agency, as a typist and proofreader for government manuals for Fort Huachuca. When Ted entered the family business full time, the business kept expanding. As the children got older, Judy began to help by doing the books and sometimes filling in for store workers. Ted is now the sole owner of Dee's Shoes, while Judy volunteers at Tucson Medical Center, where she is a "cuddler" for babies in the nursery.

On Nov. 4, 2007, they celebrated their 50th anniversary at their home with 75 friends and family. They say the event was particularly special because all the original wedding attendants were present, including their best man, who flew in from China.

The secret of a long-lasting relationship, Ted and Judy agree, is "compromise." After five decades of marriage, they still take the time to do little things to show their appreciation for each other. "Ted always helps out around the house," says Judy, and will sometimes surprise her by coming home with flowers. Ted adds that it's important for couples to know that "there will be difficult times" in addition to joyful ones. The Direnfelds' closeness is obvious in their habit of finishing each other's sentences. "After 50 years, you learn to be a mind reader," Judy says. "Sometimes we'll sit in silence for a long time without the need to say anything, and suddenly we'll start to say the same thing at the same time."

Teens learn leadership skills through performing arts

2008-01-31T14:32:00.001-07:00

Tucson Green Magazine, February 2008

A group of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, teens star in the musical performance they wrote and produced through a City at Peace program in their community. Using the performing arts as a vehicle, City at Peace is a national organization developing the next generation of engaged community leaders and believes in a society where teenagers are valued, respected, and play a leading role in creating vibrant communities.

Imagine a society where teenagers are valued and respected and play a leading role in creating vibrant communities. A national non-profit organization, City at Peace, is making that dream a reality through programs in selected cities around the world.

City at Peace has developed a program for teens, based on the philosophy that the performing arts provide an excellent means for teenagers to create social change while finding their voices as leaders. The project has manifested the idea in a variety of ways, from Israeli and Palestinian youth in Tel Aviv finding common ground through drama, music, and dance, to Washington, D.C. teenagers turning a discussion about stereotypes into an original musical. Inspired by the project's successes, Rev. Gerry Straatemeier of the Culture of Peace Alliance is spearheading an effort to bring City at Peace to Tucson.

City at Peace has chapters in six U.S. cities--Washington, D.C., Charlotte, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, New York City, and Baton Rouge--in addition to chapters in Israel and South Africa. The program brings together city youth of diverse backgrounds, teaching them principles of nonviolence through performance art.

The teens go through an intense year-long creative process through which they write an original musical based on stories from their own lives, and on their ideas for a better world. They also create community change projects where they take those ideas and act on them in their own city.

Each year-long program begins with the selection of a Production Team to serve as the program's leaders, recruitment of a diverse pool of teens, and intensive team-building and performance training. Throughout the following months, members learn conflict resolution skills and hold in-depth discussions about issues like stereotypes, bullying, and gang violence, which become the inspiration for the teens' original creative work.

The project reports a number of positive results. Since 2002, 91 percent of City at Peace participants have gone on to college, compared with a national average of 68 percent; 99.3 percent (compared with 71 percent) stay in school; and 92 percent say they now resolve conflicts differently as a result of their City at Peace training. Participants also describe "intangible" results, such as personal empowerment and strengthened relationships.

City at Peace originated in 1994 in Washington, D.C., when teenagers, parents, and community leaders came together out of a shared concern about racial tensions and violence plaguing the city. Founder Paul Griffin, a longtime youth advocate, has been honored at the White House as a Tomorrow's Leader Today and has received the Changemaker Award from Public Allies and the National Hamilton Fish Institute Award for Service for his efforts. He continues to work with City at Peace, currently serving as its president. The project has been featured in a 1995 episode of "Nightline" with Ted Koppel and was the subject of a 1999 HBO documentary entitled "City of Peace." It has recently opened a national office in New York City.

Like the youth in other cities, many young Tucson residents face the reality of violence at home, at school, and on the streets. The 2006 Arizona Youth Survey of Pima County, provided by the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission, reveals that among tenth graders surveyed, 25 percent have had gang involvement, 15 percent have been involved in a physical fight in school, and 45 percent report family conflict.

Straatemeier hopes that creating a Tucson chapter of City at Peace will help address these problems in our community. The project is currently in the planning stages, concentrating on fundraising and community-building. She said fundraising efforts will comprise two phases. During the planning phase, the goal is to raise $10,000-15,000. Once the project has established itself within the community, she said it will require a budget of about $50,000 to begin core activities. So far, about $7,000 has been raised. Ongoing fundraising activities include a partnership with the Invisible Theatre Company, which allocated a portion of its ticket sales to the project from a January 14 showing of Baghdad Burning, based on the blog of a young woman in war-torn Iraq.

A retired clinical social worker and an independent New Thought minister, Straatemeier is a founding member of the Tucson-based Culture of Peace Alliance and has co-chaired the Gandhi/King Season for Nonviolence in Southern Arizona since 2000.

Straatemeier intends to establish the program with auditions for the 2008 school year. She is looking for funding and for youth aged 13-19 who show a strong commitment to social change, regardless of their skill or experience in the performing arts. Finding participants from a wide variety of ethnic, economic, and gender backgrounds will be another key issue. "A diverse group helps confront the many 'isms' that are a part of our culture," she said.

She hopes the program will inspire teens to become leaders who have found their voices. "We envision a new generation of young leaders in Tucson who can change the culture to one of nonviolence."

Marana parents want Rattlesnake Ridge recycling

2008-01-31T14:12:00.000-07:00

Tucson Green Magazine, February 2008

"For me, it's a matter of necessity to change the world, and you've got to change it beginning with the children," said Adrian Marks, a Marana, Ariz. resident.

Marks, whose daughter is a third grader at Rattlesnake Ridge Elementary in Marana, was stunned when he learned that none of the 17 schools in the Marana Unified School District recycle. As chair of the newly formed PTO recycling committee at his daughter's school, he is working with other parents, teachers, and students to change that. So far, the group has been instrumental in getting a recycle bin and pick-up service at the school by a local company, Saguaro Environmental.

As the newest school in the Marana district, Rattlesnake Ridge hopes their pilot program will set a precedent for other schools, showing that recycling can work, and also soothe concerns of district administrators.

According to Marks, the school district said it would require a budget of more than $8,000 per year to implement a district-wide recycling program--a budget they say they don't have. Marks, however, believes schools can reduce that cost to zero with proper education about recycling.

"By filtering out recyclables, the school can replace one of their dumpsters with a second recycling bin at no additional cost." The success of the program would depend on the cooperation of teachers, students, and staff. Rattlesnake Ridge teachers have agreed to help create assemblies focused on educating students and staff about the importance of recycling. They also plan to work with the student council and Tucson Clean and Beautiful on environmental awareness programs for the students.

Marks estimates that 15-23 tons of trash from Rattlesnake Ridge ends up in the landfill each year. When that number is applied to the entire district, Marks said the school district's trash totals 391 tons per year. He said a successful recycling program at the school would reduce that waste by half.

"It's kind of endless what you can do. It's just a matter of organizing it and taking small steps."

What Does Mike Huckabee Have to do With the Apocalypse?

2008-01-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

Recent polls show the previously little-known Mike Huckabee now running a close race with contenders Mitt Romney and John McCain. Huckabee, who won the key Iowa race, owes his rising star to a surge of support from evangelicals. Comprising about 25% of Americans, evangelicals have formed the core Republican voting bloc since the 1970s. While most Americans are aware of the "family values" domestic concerns of this group, fewer understand its foreign policy agenda, which is tied to the powerful, yet little-understood phenomenon of Christian Zionism. Rooted in a literal interpretation of biblical "End Times" prophecy, this ideology carries profound implications for our role in the Middle East, and it is a crucial factor in the 2008 Republican race.

Christian Zionism stems from the belief that the catastrophic events depicted in the biblical Book of Revelation are humanity's literal destiny, and that two-thirds of the Earth's population will perish in an apocalyptic battle of good and evil while the "saved" are "raptured up" to heaven. For Christian Zionists, this catastrophe is a necessary precedent to the Second Coming. Followers of this ideology comprise an estimated 20 million Americans, a number that grew rapidly after September 11 and increased Mideast violence within recent years. Aided by a surge in sales of books such as the best-selling Left Behind series, which portrays Revelation as a modern-day battle, the view of Mideast violence as an apocalyptic "sign of the times" is rapidly gaining ground. Significantly, Huckabee has received an endorsement from Left Behind author and leading Christian Zionist Tim LaHaye.

While those outside of evangelical circles may dismiss such beliefs, they have played a critical role in influencing U.S. foreign policy, and they will continue to affect policy as long as the United States remains under Republican leadership that relies upon evangelical support. Christian Zionism has implications for the U.S. role in Israeli-Palestinian relations, a potential confrontation with Iran, and relations with the Muslim world.

For Christian Zionists, belief in biblical prophecy means support for right-wing Israeli policies such as settlement expansion and opposition to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Against the opinion of most Israelis, Christian Zionists view relinquishing any part of biblical Israel--including what is now the West Bank--as an affront to Israel's prophetic destiny. Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor who once declared "I got into politics because I knew government didn't have the real answers…the real answers lie in accepting Jesus Christ," vowing in another speech to "take this nation back for Christ," shares this view. He has written that "the Jews have the God-given right to reclaim land given to their ancestors and taken away from them." Regarding a future Palestinian state, Huckabee has stated that he supports a Palestinian state--and it should be formed far away from Israel, perhaps in Saudi Arabia. This view is a step away from advocating ethnic cleansing, as it is unlikely that the Palestinians would voluntarily leave.

Evangelical foreign policy extends far beyond Israel. Inspired by the "Iranian threat," evangelical pastor John Hagee formed Christians United for Israel, which promotes Christian Zionism and advocates a militant policy toward Iran. In his book Jerusalem Countown, Hagee predicts a nuclear showdown with Iran that could be "the beginning of the end." Huckabee, who has said that Congressional approval is not necessary in going to war, argues that the U.S. must do "whatever it takes" to confront Iran, including a military option. If elected, it is likely that his evangelical backers will pressure Huckabee to pursue this option.

Like other evangelicals, Huckabee tends to view the "War on Terror" as a cataclysmic battle with apocalyptic connotations. "We need to understand that this is, in fact World War III," he has said. "Unlike any other war we've ever fought, this one is one we cannot afford to lose."

Whether or not Christian Zionists can predict the future, the human potential to create self-fulfilling prophesies is undeniable, and this is why Americans should pay attention to this ideology.

Valerie Saturen received an M.A. in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Arizona. Her thesis addressed Christian Zionism and U.S. foreign policy. Contact her at saturnv82@yahoo.com.

Copyright © 2008 The Baltimore Chronicle. All rights reserved.

Republication or redistribution of Baltimore Chronicle content is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent.

This story was published on January 23, 2008.

Thesis: Enticing the End: Christian Zionism & Its Impact on the Middle East

2008-01-14T12:19:00.001-07:00

Abstract: The role of the United States in the Middle East is strongly impacted by the powerful, yet little-understood, phenomenon of Christian Zionism. Although the roots of Christian Zionism in the United States are as old as the nation itself, the ideology has grown in importance since the rise of the Christian Right as a prominent force in U.S. politics. While Christian Zionism appears steeped in concern for Israel and the Jewish people, its enthusiastic support does not come with no strings attached. Beneath the surface agenda of the evangelical-Israel alliance lies a deeper motive rooted in biblical prophecy and support for far-right policies such as settlement expansion and aggressive military solutions to the region’s conflicts. The ideology carries serious implications for Palestinians, Israelis, and Americans alike, promoting a policy of aggression toward the Palestinians, a belief in the necessity of sacrificing the Jewish people for the redemption of “saved” Christians in a chilling End Times scenario, and a hindrance of the ability of the United States to play a role in fostering peace in the region.

For a copy of the full text, e-mail me at saturnv82@yahoo.com.

Identity to be focus at local Book of Life signing

2007-12-26T15:20:00.001-07:00

Published in Volume 63, Issue 24 of the Arizona Jewish Post, December 21, 2007.

"The current generation, in terms of its sense of itself and its relationship to the broader Jewish world, differs significantly from the generations prior," says Jewish educator Arna Poupko Fisher. Fisher will be the keynote speaker at the Jewish Community Foundation's Endowment Book of Life community signing, which will be held Tuesday, Jan. 22 at 5 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Her talk, "The Jewish Journey: Faith, Spirit, and Promise," will explore Jewish identity and how one takes one's place in the continuum of history that links the generations.

Unlike previous generations, Fisher says that younger Jews, including "millennials"--those born between the late 1970s and mid-1990s--do not tend to view their connection to the larger Jewish community as a given. "Young people are not drawn to Jewish commitment unless it brings value to their personal lives, to their professional lives, and to their families," she continues. "It's very personal." The change has become a preoccupation for Jewish organizations seeking to further involvement among young people, giving rise to projects such as birthright israel, which organizes free Israel trips for teens and young adults.

Despite the challenge the organized Jewish community faces in engaging young people, Fisher sees positive trends emerging, including a decreased tendency to place historical persecution at the center of Jewish identity. "We don't want to be defined by our sufferings," she says. "We want to be defined by our triumphs."

Fisher grew up in Canada, in what she describes as "a normative Jewish home where commitment to community and Israel were a given, but religious commitment and observance was done with moderation." During her early teens, she discovered a more intensive form of Judaism and decided to live a more religiously committed life. "I've never looked back," she says of her personal transformation.

Fisher now lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she serves as a faculty member at the Wexner Heritage Foundation and the Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Cincinnati. She has lectured in over 120 communities across North America and has made numerous appearances on national radio and television.

The Endowment Book of Life began in 1990 as a way for donors to share their personal stories and to affirm their intent to make a contribution to the Jewish community. Dozens of Jewish communities have since undertaken similar endeavors. In Tucson, the personal statements are kept in an archive at the Jewish Community Foundation, and are also available for viewing on the organization's website and at the JCC. Nancy Ben-Asher Ozeri, director of communications for the Jewish Community Foundation, says that in adding their names to the Endowment Book of Life, signatories "make a promise for the future of the Jewish community, linking all the generations." They are then given the opportunity to work with the foundation in making a "legacy plan," serving as a blueprint for planned giving toward organizations or causes within the Jewish community and beyond.

The free event will include a light buffet dinner, a performance by the Tucson Jewish Youth Choir, and kids' activities and childcare.

Lone Riders No More

2007-12-18T13:41:00.000-07:00

Published Dec. 15 in January 2008 issue of Tucson Green Magazine

Every Tuesday evening, bikes begin to appear around the flag pole near Old Main on the University of Arizona. With the bikes come Tucson residents of all stripes, mingling, chatting, and creating a festive atmosphere drawing the friendly curiosity of passersby. They've come for the weekly community bike ride, and they continue to stream in until 300 bikes crowd the campus.

Among the cycling enthusiasts is Sandra Pope, manager of a local hair salon, who says she heard about the event through a friend and has been involved since late summer.

"I got into bike riding because it's the best workout a person can have," Pope says. "It's a huge stress reliever, too."

The fitness aspect of cycling is only one part of this event's appeal. While many participants in the bike ride express an interest in fitness and a desire to live an environmentally-friendly lifestyle, they are also seizing upon another aspect of the hobby: community building. In a time when many people isolate themselves inside their cars during commutes or inside their homes watching television, this Tuesday event offers a breath of fresh air, a social atmosphere, and the opportunity to meet like-minded people.

Like Pope, Seth Lamantia has been involved for several weeks, after finding a flyer for the event wedged between the spokes of his bike. "It's a cool thing to do on a Tuesday night," he says. "And you get to meet a lot of friendly people."

The bicycles assembling at Old Main are as diverse as the people who ride them. There are beach cruisers, dirt bikes, road bikes, mountain bikes--even a unicycle. A carnival atmosphere pervades, augmented by the organizers' decision to declare a different theme each week. In accordance with this week's theme, "dresses and crazy helmets," the crowd is peppered with women and men playfully donning dresses and creatively decorated helmets. One person wears a horned Viking helmet; another proudly sports a colander on his head. Previous themes have included "shorts and tank tops" and "crazy mustaches."

Every week, the group of friendly bicyclers follows a new route, exploring different parts of the city. This week, the crowd circles the UofA campus, the adjoining Sam Hughes neighborhood, and then pedals through downtown Tucson, inspiring sociable honks and cheers from numerous motorists. Along the way, organizers help ensure the safety of the riders by warning those farther back about obstacles or slowdowns up ahead. Once the bikers reach downtown, they pause and some members play bicycle games. Especially popular is "Foot Down," which draws cheers and suspense from the onlookers as players test their balance by riding slowly inside an increasingly smaller circle while trying to avoid putting their foot on the ground to stop their bike.

The idea of holding a community bike ride formed spontaneously among a group of 22 friends who decided, in June 2007, to get together and ride around the city. Some are involved with BICAS, a local nonprofit that promotes cycling and do-it-yourself bicycle maintenance. Nick Jett, one of the founders, is a Tucson native and political science senior at the University. Jett, a vegan and environmental activist, has been an avid bike rider all his life. "This is an effort to create something inclusive," he notes, "with the broad goal of uniting the cycling community, promoting awareness, and encouraging bicycle safety."

What began as a small, informal gathering has since expanded rapidly, mostly through word of mouth. The group's camaraderie is contagious, as the members congregate on campus and pedal along the city streets. Newcomers on bikes spontaneously join in along the way. Wherever they pass, the riders generate curiosity, and onlookers shout questions to the group and on how they can get involved. The more perplexed bystanders ask the riders, "What's your cause?" and "What are you riding for?"

The group's buoyant reply: "For fun!"

The community bike ride meets every Tuesday at 8 P.M. in front of Old Main at the University of Arizona. For more information, contact Karl Goranowski, one of the main organizers, at gm@kamp.arizona.edu.

NW Transdenominational Congregation Forms

2007-11-28T19:18:00.000-07:00

Published in the Arizona Jewish Post August 17, 2007.

Makom Simcha (Place of Joy), a new alternative congregation in Northwest Tucson, focuses upon Chasidic storytelling and music to "bring people closer to G-d, each other and creation through an open, creative and joyous expression of Judaism," says Rabbi Menashe Bovit. He describes the fledgling congregation as "transdenominationa," welcoming Jews of all backgrounds to participate in services. "In my view," he explains, "each one of the established Jewish movements is a piece of a puzzle, a piece of the truth. A transdenominational perspective feels that it's okay to sample from the different movements and also to be creative and generate a new perspective that amplifies the tradition in a positive way."

The Chicago-born rabbi developed a fondness for Tucson as a psychology student at the University of Arizona in his early twenties. The son of a Holocaust survivor, Bovit was raised in an observant home, but despite a strong sense of pride in his Jewish heritage, he found it difficult to connect with Judaism in his youth. Of his early Jewish education, he says, "We learned how to read Hebrew, but there was no attempt at making Judaism a relevant experience. There was no fun in it. It was basically an obligatory experience." At the UA, his alienation from Judaism was turned around when his girlfriend brought him to a concert of "Singing Rabbi" Shlomo Carlebach. He went on to become a student of Carlebach, who ordained him as a rabbi in 1991. During his years studying with the Chasidic rabbi, says Bovit, he was inspired by Carlebach's kindness.

Bovit has served as a congregational rabbi in various communities throughout the United States, including Reno, Nev., and Ft. Collins, Colo. He returned to Tucson several months ago and has since worked toward establishing Makom Simcha. The congregation held its first informal chavurah on Aug. 8, with almost 40 people in attendance. Another chavurah will be held Wed., Aug. 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the Northwest YMCA located at 7770 N. Shannon Rd.

The congregation also plans to hold alternative Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur services at the YMCA. The Rosh Hashana gathering is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 12 at 7:30 p.m. A Kol Nidre "Service of Forgiveness and Healing" will be held on Friday, Sept. 21 at 6 p.m. For more information, call 866-528-9253.

Remembering Rachel Corrie the Activist, Not the Myth

2007-11-28T19:05:00.000-07:00

Published in Left Hook. An earlier version appeared in The Peace Chronicle Vol. 2 No. 3 (Fall/Winter 2003).

Recently, the prestigious Royal Court Theatre premiered a play entitled “My Name is Rachel Corrie,” sparking an outpouring of stirring tributes and hateful diatribes about the drama’s protagonist. For the activist community, Rachel has become a vivid symbol of resistance and solidarity with the world’s oppressed, as the many songs, poems, films, and art pieces devoted to her confirm. But to those of us whose lives have crossed paths with hers, as mine did during my years at the Evergreen State College, the international response to Rachel’s death can take on unique and difficult dimensions.

Having once known the subject of this sudden outpouring of adulation, it has been with painfully mixed emotions that I have watched her transformation from a young woman who was bright, idealistic, articulate, and irrepressibly alive, to one who is renowned, enshrined, canonized, and gone. Certainly, that immortalized image of little tiny Rachel unbudgingly staring down the giant metal monster that loomed before her, mouth open to swallow her up, has been a powerful source of inspiration to many in search of some model of conviction to fuel their own struggles and give them the courage and strength to persist. And to what would have likely been Rachel’s satisfaction, the International Solidarity Movement has received unprecedented media recognition in the wake of the tragedy, and recruitment for the organization has soared, with scores of young people hoping to follow in the footsteps of this striking figure. Yet I recall the emergency meeting of local activists held the day afterward, which was filled with refrains of “this is a great opportunity” and “we could really use this as leverage,” and I find myself strangely paralyzed, left with the wrenching question: is it possible for a movement to succeed without martyrs?

I would like to believe that it is possible. When behind a movement lies a vision based on the precept that every life is infinitely sacred and worthy of protection, it seems an imperative that this principle extend to the adherents themselves, negating the celebration of human sacrifice. Still, the ghosts of past movements seem to line up in hopes of proving me wrong: Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Malcolm X, and Jesus, all of them ready to die, and die again on a symbolic yearly basis, for the sins of the rest of us so that we may go on committing them forever and ever. In that intoxicating glow that sets in on crowds who identify with a martyred figure, all that is left of her memory is rendered hollow, reduced to a dehumanized cardboard cutout that is less a person (one who, perhaps, wrote silly poetry and had a stack of dishes in the sink the size of the Eiffel Tower) and more a mere symbol.

This is not to say that everyone who has paid tribute to Rachel throughout the last two years, much less the multitudes of people worldwide who were so deeply touched by her story, are entirely lacking in respect for her as a human being. In fact, I believe it was largely her humanness that resonated with them to begin with. What concerns me most is the manner in which her actions will be remembered in the time to come, when everyone who crossed paths with her during her lifetime is gone. Even now, when her community is still reeling, there can already be seen a deeply misleading mythology springing up around her. Like Rosa Parks, she is most commonly portrayed as a lone figure moved by sudden, nearly superhuman inspiration to throw herself heroically in front of a bulldozer poised for destruction, when in reality her actions were carefully planned (even routine, by that point), carried out not in isolation but as part of an organized network of experienced, community-based activists. Before that singular moment now emblazoned in our collective consciousness, she and others in her organization repaired wells, walked terrified children to school, and spent countless hours just trying to dig some semblance of dignity and humanity from the rubble of lives shattered by incomprehensible suffering. Rachel did not travel to Gaza simply to stand in front of a bulldozer, and she did not go there to die. Nor are these her greatest achievements.

Like its Arabic counterpart “shaheed,” which now graces posters of Rachel on the streets of Rafah and has become source of pride for many here in Olympia, the term “martyr” has its roots in the meaning “to bear witness.” And, indeed, it was primarily to bear witness to the plight of a people with whom the lives of Americans are so intimately yet so remotely connected that my fallen schoolmate chose to undertake the work she did. One cannot help but wonder, though, whether it should have taken her brutal killing to make the world pay attention. Why could she not have borne witness, and been heard, without becoming a martyr and losing her life, a life boundlessly irreplaceable in its uniqueness and beauty? Further, why do we not offer the same recognition to the many other internationals who were lucky enough to evade such a brutal fate, or to the many Palestinians who were not?

As we remember the life of Rachel Corrie, and the many peacemakers who came before her and are sure to come after, it is my hope that we will remember them not as infallible, superhuman figures acting alone and out of some extremely rare quality of character, but as ordinary people immersed in communities of compassion, because in the end, the reality is far more inspiring than the myth.

An American in Haifa

2007-11-28T18:58:00.000-07:00

Published October 2006 in Hakol.

When I arrived in the northern Israeli city of Haifa in early July, I was struck by the breathtaking beauty of the city, with its winding mountain roads, whitewashed Mediterranean buildings, and serene beaches. What better place to learn Hebrew and experience firsthand Israel’s most pluralistic city, with its coexistence between its substantial Arab, Jewish, Druze, Bahai, and Christian communities. By the time my second week in the Middle East arrived, however, it would become clear that this educational experience would provide lessons far beyond those I had come to learn.

On Thursday, July 13, Haifa’s previous sense of disconnect from regional strife was shattered as the first of many Katyusha rockets slammed into the Stella Maris neighborhood, a beautiful area from which, two days before the attack, I had enjoyed views of Haifa’s port and the distant coast of Lebanon. That night would be the first of several spent in a bomb shelter huddled anxiously around a classmate’s radio. In the following days, nearby explosions would shake the ground, and with the routine of classes interrupted, I would find myself spending hours in a stuffy shelter. The experience was not without its benefits, however. From these besieged Israelis I would learn not only the unforeseen joy of chocolate sandwiches, but more importantly, the impact of life under siege upon a society.

For Israel, as for all nations, the experience of the present is colored by historical memory. From the solemn halls of the Holocaust museum Yad Vashem to the war memorials dotting each city, past suffering fills one’s consciousness as strongly as does the fact that nearly every Israeli one meets has lost a loved one to political violence. Huddling in the shelters, people’s thoughts inevitably meander to the past…especially, in this case, to the SCUDs rained down by Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War. That war has left an indelible imprint upon Israel not only because of its experience of terror—drudging to the surface the ever-present specter of annihilation—but perhaps even more because of the powerlessness Israel felt when asked by the United States to stay out of the conflict so as not to provoke Arab ire. This sense of powerlessness surfaced then in the form of inward-turned aggression, as the country faced an epidemic of domestic violence, and it is resurfacing today, only this time turned outward.

While many in the international community have condemned the extent of Israel’s military operation in Lebanon, the overwhelming majority of Israelis I spoke with said, “enough is enough.” And “enough,” let us not forget, is a word that stretches over not only years of Hezbollah aggression, but decades of unremitting conflict, the ongoing need to assert Israel’s very right to exist, and centuries of persecution of Jews. These are not the fault of innocent Lebanese, and Israel’s air campaign has been both deadly to civilians and ineffective in ensuring Israel’s security. This painful reality was brought home to me every night as I lay in bed listening to the constant roar of Israeli war planes headed north, unable to sleep with the awareness that the sound meant crushed homes and lives cut short. This reality was also brought home to me every time I did manage some sleep, only to awake to the sound of explosions and artillery fire. However, while it is crucial to condemn the killing of civilians, it is also important to understand the context in which such violence takes place. When the leaders of Europe insist that Israel lay down its arms, even as rockets continue to fall upon its cities, the painful memory of Gulf War powerlessness sounds as loudly in Israelis’ ears as does the wailing of air raid sirens outside. The problem is only further compounded when the condemnations of Israel come with accusations of Israeli exploitation of the Holocaust.

Historical memory also provides clues into the unanimity with which Israeli public opinion has stood by the actions of the Israeli military in Lebanon. In the early 1980s, when Israel invaded Lebanon in order to combat the PLO and aid Lebanon’s Maronite Christian leadership in the midst of civil war, the invasion was met with widespread dissent. A large segment of the population was vocally opposed to the war, and formed the peace movement that has in more recent times shifted its focus to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Following the withdrawal of Israel’s remaining troops from Lebanon in 2000, such peace-seeking sentiments have finally turned sour when they failed to bring about the desired results, and attacks continued. In the bomb shelter, an Israeli student told me about a close friend, one of the founders of Four Mothers, a peace organization sometimes credited with the withdrawal from Lebanon. This time, she said, “we gave them their chance, and they blew it.” The tradition of dissent, nonetheless, remains alive in Israel, evidenced by a recent ten thousand-strong peace demonstration in Tel Aviv. The calls for peace are often led by women, including the organization Women in Black, which continued its weekly vigil in Haifa even as the city faced ongoing violence. Even among those who support the war in Lebanon, many tears are shed for its innocent victims on both sides.

Even in such a time of strife, Haifa taught me many things. I experienced the enduring generosity of its inhabitants, from Israelis such as my roommate, who insisted on feeding her new American friends a feast of hummus, yogurt, olives, and traditional Arab bread and soothing our nerves even though her own family faces greater danger farther north. “Savlanut,” the Israelis would remind us. “Patience.” I saw that in a pluralistic city like Haifa, targeted perhaps for this very pluralism, everyone suffers together, Jew and Arab alike. And I even managed to learn a little Hebrew.

September 11: The Day the Words Changed

2007-11-28T18:37:00.000-07:00

Published in Days Beyond Recall special issue A Nation in Distress, September 11, 2006.

Few Americans who lived during the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 will ever forget the searing images that filled their television screens that day, nor will they forget the words they have come to associate with those powerful images. Almost immediately, the discourse that sprang up around the tragedy became deeply imbedded in the collective American consciousness, and few have questioned it due to its emotional nature and the fear of dishonoring the victims or eroding national solidarity by questioning its mythology. Because of this discourse, which arose from within the elite rather than spontaneously, Americans have been able to debate the implications of 9/11 only within the framework of several fundamental myths.

September 11 is perhaps the only date in American history, besides July 4, that has been deemed so significant that the date itself has become a national buzzword summing up a tremendous well of images, emotions, and associations. The immediate coverage of the 9/11 attacks cemented within the viewer’s consciousness a highly emotional memory that has since been invoked by political leaders seeking to use the potent mix of fear, anger, herd mentality, righteous victimhood, and religious feeling to forward their own agendas. The attacks were reported as a national crisis of epic proportions, prompting American viewers to feel as though they themselves were closer to the tragedy than most were in physical reality and to respond with crisis instinct rather than careful reasoning. This, in turn, has become a powerful rhetorical device; as long as leaders could invoke the memory, so too could they invoke that crisis mentality, whether crisis truly existed or not.

One of the central myths saturating the discourse on the attacks is the loss of innocence. In a 2002 speech before Congress, former Secretary of State Colin Powell asserted, “The world is a different place, a more dangerous place than the place that existed before September 11.” Later, in the same speech, he remarked that, “As a consequence of the terrorist attacks…a new reality was born.” Though the majority of Americans were indeed largely unaware of the tension that has for several decades surrounded U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East, the ignorance had been chiefly the result of official brushing aside of warning signs. Yet the attacks have been presented as random acts of irrational savagery that befell an uninvolved and unsuspecting nation quite literally “out of the clear blue sky.” Certainly, the direct victims were innocent and unsuspecting, but coverage maintained that the nation itself was the victim, presenting only a partial view of the larger picture in which the attacks were spurned in part by exploitative policies of the United States government.

The loss of innocence also meant the loss of a sense of complacency and security. No longer could Americans feel safe in their own homes and offices; no longer could they afford the luxury of opting for an isolationist approach to global affairs. “America’s determination to actively oppose the threats of our time was formed and fixed on September 11” George W. Bush remarked in his pivotal October 2002 speech extolling the necessity of invading Iraq. In the speech, President George W. Bush invoked the attacks by saying, “We must never forget the most vivid events of recent history. On Sept 11, 2001, America felt its vulnerability.” He concluded the speech with a reminder that “the attacks of September 11 showed our country that vast oceans no longer protect us from danger.” The President has been able to invoke the attacks ad infinitum without criticism because one of the universal human responses to tragedy is to place a sense of sanctity around the issue of remembrance. In numerous speeches, Bush has peppered discussions of various issues by reiterating, “America must remember/never forget the lessons of September 11.” Since the vast majority of Americans feel compelled to honor the victims by preserving the memory of what happened, such rhetoric carries the uneasy implication that to oppose Bush’s agenda is to forget, and hence dishonor, those who lost their lives.

Despite the lack of evidence pointing to a connection between the Iraqi government and the al-Qaida network, President Bush continued to draw a parallel between the two situations, stating that “[Saddam’s atrocities] have killed or injured at least 20,000 people, more than six times the number of people killed in the attacks of September 11” and “some citizens wonder, after 11 years of living with this problem, why do we need to confront it now? And there’s a reason. We’ve experienced the horror of September the 11.” While he avoided overt references to collaboration between Iraq and al-Qaida once this was declared a dubious possibility, the President maintained the habit of discussing both in the same sentence, prompting many Americans to form an unconscious association. In the October speech, Bush mentioned Iraq and al-Qaida in tandem six times, asserting that “Iraq and the al-Qaida terrorist network share a common enemy-the United States of America.” The connection was further cemented by discussion of Saddam’s “arsenal of terror,” along with his potential to form “links to terrorist groups” and to “finance terror.” It would be a mistake to underestimate the impact of this rhetorical device, in light of a Zogby America poll revealing that five years after the attacks, 46% of Americans still believe that Saddam was directly involved with 9/11.

One of the most frequently repeated truisms about the tragedy was that “everything changed on 9/11,” or “the world changed after September 11.” In many speeches by government officials, political pundits, and journalists, one can find frequent references to “the world after September 11.” The concept of a new reality, though it was a reality created not by the event itself but rather by the response, has been echoed in a plethora of official speeches, offering justification for policies that had once been considered unacceptable. A new reality, the logic went, calls for new ethics; no longer can the United States rely upon outmoded codes of chivalrous warfare in the face of an unpredictable and inhuman enemy. The impact of the tragedy had little to do with the number of lives lost, as indeed recent history is filled with violent events leaving far greater casualties, but rather with the importance assigned to it by those with the power to shape popular discourse. In actuality, the U.S. invasion of Iraq has had a far greater impact on the objective reality of geopolitics, directly bringing about a dramatic increase in instability that will affect global politics for decades. Particularly important is that the creation of a new, socially constructed reality serves the Orwellian purpose of erasing history, with all of its valuable lessons and clues about the present. And that is why it is so vital that as we recall the tragedy of September 11, we also take care to remember September 10th, to remember the world we inhabited before this great shift in consciousness. Only those of us who lived through the change can preserve the reality the Bush administration is striving to erase, and transmit that reality to generations to come.

Still Standing for Peace: A Different Side of Israel in a Time of War

2007-11-28T18:27:00.001-07:00

Published in Days Beyond Recall Vol. No. 3 (March 2007).

When I headed to the northern Israeli city of Haifa this summer to study at Haifa University, I certainly did not anticipate that I would spend many hours huddled in an underground bomb shelter as the building shook from the impact of Katyusha rockets launched by Hezbollah. The experience, nonetheless, afforded me an opportunity to see firsthand the diversity of responses to a war depicted in the mainstream media as backed by overwhelming consensus on the part of the Israeli public. The war in Lebanon did occur with the backing of the majority of Israelis, especially in its beginning stages. Epitomizing the apparent unanimity with which Israelis accepted the war was a conversation I had with a Haifa University student in the shelter. He told me of a discussion he had with a close friend, one of the founders of Four Mothers, an organization that formed the heart of popular opposition to the first Lebanon War in 1982 and is sometimes credited with Israel’s withdrawal in 2000. This summer, she adopted a drastically different viewpoint, wholeheartedly backing Israel’s government and military. Referring to opponents of Israel north of the border, she had one thing to say: “we gave them their chance, and they blew it.” To the chagrin of many longtime advocates of peace, her change of heart was not unique. Polls show that at various intervals during the conflict, between 86%-95% of the Israeli public supported the deadly bombing and subsequent invasion of Lebanon.

Behind this ostensible unity, however, lay a burgeoning movement of vocal opposition to the invasion of Lebanon, representing a side of Israeli society rarely seen in the media. Although criticism of the invasion only entered the mainstream as the war became understood as a humanitarian disaster and strategic failure, internal opposition on a mass scale existed from the earliest days of the war. On August 5, at the pinnacle of internal dissent, 10,000 Israeli demonstrators poured into Tel Aviv’s Magen David Square to voice their opposition to the destruction of Lebanon. Despite verbal harassment and eggs thrown by detractors, they chanted in Hebrew, “Children want to live/in Haifa and in Beirut!” Many called for the resignation of Defense Minister Amir Peretz. While the August 5 demonstration marked the height of Israeli mass protest against the war, public dissent existed throughout the duration of the conflict. On July 22, 5,000 demonstrators amassed in Tel Aviv to demand that their government “stop the guns and start talking.” Although the war brought about a split within the Four Mothers, 15 former members decided to form their own organization called Waking Up On Time, seeking to prevent a repeat of the tragic events of the first war in Lebanon.

Throughout the month-long conflict, the Israeli organization Gush Shalom (“Peace Bloc”) emerged at the forefront of the movement, working in tandem with Women’s Coalition for Peace, the Arab/Jewish partnership Ta’ayush (“Life in Common”), Anarchists Against Walls, Yesh Gvul (“There Is A Limit”), the Israeli-Palestinian Forum of Bereaved Families, and many others. The movement was comprised of a diverse cross-section of the Israeli public, including feminists, parents with young children, students, veteran peace activists, and political parties such as the Marxist, non-Zionist Hadash party, the Israeli-Arab Balad party, and the United Arab List. Addressing the crowd on August 5, Gush Shalom spokesman Adam Keller remarked that “the criminal has returned to the scene of the crime,” drawing a parallel between the July 30 attack on Qana and the 1996 massacre that targeted the same Lebanese city. “That massacre compelled [Prime Minister] Shimon Peres to break off his war,” Keller continued. “The conclusion is that we must stop this war at once, before it is too late.”

The attack on Qana, in which at least 56 civilians were killed, was a major focal point for criticism of the war. A few hours after the bombing, Israelis came together spontaneously to express their outrage over the attack. Several hundred demonstrators gathered outside the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, accompanied by former Knesset members Ya’el Dayan and Naomi Hazan, who condemned the official pro-war position of their Meretz party.

Israeli dissent against the war in Lebanon was not limited to street protests. Following in the footsteps of numerous Israeli war refusers before him, 28-year-old Iztik Shabbat became the first conscientious objector of the conflict. When ordered to serve in the West Bank on July 19 in order to replace IDF soldiers being sent to Lebanon, he instead signed the Courage to Refuse petition, telling the Israeli paper Haaretz that “Someone has to be the first to break through the false consensus around this war.” On August 12, Yesh Gvul and others staged a demonstration outside Israeli Military Prison #6, from which the “refuseniks” inside could hear musical performances and speeches of support and solidarity. Among the speakers was Yonatan Shapira, himself a refusenik who as a young Air Force pilot co-founded the joint Israeli/Palestinian organization of veterans Combatants for Peace. In 2003, Shapira and a group of fellow pilots resolved not to fly attack missions against Palestinian targets. Standing outside the prison, Shapira delivered a speech honoring his brother Itamar, who was confined inside for his refusal to serve in the war. In an interview with Haaretz, Yonaton announced “there is no chance that I’m wearing a military uniform in any situation in this war while the military is doing what it is doing.” Additional support comes from New Profile: the Movement for the Civil-ization of Israeli Society, which provides services and education to those who refuse service for reasons of conscience.

Despite the strength of the demonstrations and the resoluteness of the war’s refusers, many activists concur that the July conflict marked an unprecedented split within the decades-old Israeli peace movement. Particularly indicative of this split was the pro-war stance of Peace Now, the organization that stood at the heart of public opposition to the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. During that period, Peace Now played a pivotal role in mobilizing Israeli public opinion against the killing of civilians, most notably the massacres of Palestinian refugees at Sabra and Shatila by Israeli-backed Lebanese militia. In 2006, however, the organization openly supported attacks on Lebanon, which Peace Now leaders referred to as a defensive war. Renowned novelist Amos Oz, a founding member of Peace Now, echoed the sentiment in the op-ed pages of the L.A. Times, writing that “the Israeli peace movement should support Israel’s attempt at self-defense, pure and simple.” Perhaps most illustrative of the change is the very fact that Peace Now co-founder Amir Peretz went on to be one of the primary architects and advocates of the 2006 invasion.

Regardless of the official stance of the organization, Peace Now members were by no means unanimous in their support of the war. Galia Golan, a longtime Peace Now leader and Professor of Political Science at Hebrew University, challenged the popular conception of the war as an unavoidable measure of defense. “I am strongly opposed to this war,” she said in an interview with the Heinrich Boll Foundation, explaining her participation in the July 22 protest. “And if Peace Now and Meretz are not demonstrating, I had to find another vehicle for protest.” In a July 31 interview with NPR’s Michele Norris, Golan lamented, “I think the peace movement has been badly hit, frankly. I have been thinking all along that it might take just a few weeks and people would come out against the war and that we would have a better sense of at least where our own public is. That’s not happening.”

For Golan and many others, dissent against the invasion of Lebanon and the occupation of Palestinian territories are deeply and irrevocably intertwined with the need to challenge gender oppression. The implications of militarized masculinity are profound for women in a society in which military service is a centrality. Military conflicts are often brought home in the form of domestic violence, which is frequently overlooked or excused because of the stress soldiers face during combat and the willingness of the collective society to sacrifice women’s well-being for the sake of “national security.” Although women are required to complete military service, the perception of the military as a fundamentally male sphere has consequences for female members of the military, which in a militarized society such as Israel often carries over into civilian life. Since women are kept away from performing the more prestigious combat roles and are typically relegated to menial military jobs, they do not establish the valuable contacts that benefit many men as they enter the workforce. Of particularly profound importance is the sexualized manner in which the nation itself is conceptualized, and by extension, the way territorial conquest is conceptualized. It is telling that the Hebrew word kibbush, which is the popular term for a military occupation, also describes the sexual conquest of a woman. The dynamics of militarized masculinity were especially relevant during the war with Hezbollah, which began with an act of kidnapping that served as an insult to Israel’s national manhood. The subsequent killing of more than 1,000 civilians, mainly women and children, in retaliation for such an insult struck an especially poignant chord for many Israeli women activists.

It is because of this keenly felt connection that the movement against the Lebanon invasion was comprised largely of women. “All the elements of this war bring the issues together,” feminist activist Yana Knopova told Lily Galili of Haaretz during an August 11 rally in Tel Aviv: “Feminism, social justice, class distinctions, the environment, and the occupation. Women make this connection.” Many of the leading voices against the war were those of women, including the Women In Black, the umbrella organization Coalition of Women for Peace, and Women Against War, which was formed shortly after the first attack on Lebanon. Hannah Safran, a co-founder of Women Against War, writes on the organization’s website, “We have just completed six years of peace and quiet in the north, but we kept Lebanese prisoners in captivity, not willing to return them or to negotiate their release. Why?” Women Against War co-founder Abir Kopty, who is an Arab-Israeli activist, explained that “we don’t want to see any citizens on both sides killed because of an avoidable war.” The two also belong to the Haifa chapter of the Women in Black, which began its weekly vigils in 1988 and continued them throughout the summer of 2006 in spite of death threats, harassment, and the ever-present threat of Katyusha attacks.

In the months following this summer’s war, the Israeli Left has found itself at an unprecedented crossroads. The war, in conjunction with the ongoing violence stemming from the Gaza Strip, has posed a serious challenge to the traditional premise of the peace movement, which is that the key ingredient in regional peace is withdrawal to Israel’s pre-1967 borders. The dominant view, even among the Left, was that the 2005 Disengagement Plan and the 2000 withdrawal from Lebanon had failed to ensure Israel’s national security. In the eyes of many Israelis, the peace movement itself had failed. The existence of strong, organized opposition toward this war nonetheless demonstrates the likelihood that the summer of 2006 represented not the death of the Israeli peace movement, but rather a new beginning for a movement better acquainted with the philosophical issues looming beyond an ostensibly territorial dispute. The role of feminism this summer is a testament to the possibility that the peace movement will emerge strengthened and better prepared to look beyond the obvious questions of territory and into the deeper myths and ideologies that continue to drive the conflict. ♦

Valerie Saturen is a graduate student in Near Eastern Studies at the University of Arizona. She can be reached at saturen@daysbeyondrecall.org.

Days Beyond Recall Vol. 1 No. 3

2007-11-28T18:17:00.001-07:00

The full issue of Days Beyond Recall, March 2007. Includes Howard Zinn, "I Witness Middle East" with firsthand accounts of the July/August 2006 conflict in Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine, and a variety of original creative writing and art.

Read the full issue here:

http://blog.tucsonweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/March%20Final.pdf

Distortion & Distraction: Media, Terrorism, and the Middle East

2007-11-28T18:07:00.000-07:00

A Conversation With Alternative Radio's David Barsamian

By Valerie Saturen and Gabriel Matthew Schivone

VS: You have discussed the phenomenon of using the passive voice within the mainstream media. In a January 23, 2003 interview with the El Dorado Sun, you said: “The use of the passive voice in journalism excludes agency and obfuscates responsibility. The headlines: 'People in Afghanistan were killed,' 'Lives were lost,' and 'Children starved' are all passive constructions — there's no agency. The active voice is absolutely critical in writing journalism."

I think the active voice is absolutely essential in providing clarity to readers or listeners and viewers so that they understand who is responsible for these acts, and that we’re not dealing with acts of nature. There is state responsibility. So, “Palestinian villages were razed,” “houses were demolished.” Well, how were they demolished? Through some magic? Was it some Houdini magician that came along and was responsible for that? There are enormous political implications in the use of language. If you want to trash the environment, if you want to clear cut trees, then you call it the “Healthy Forest Initiative.” You say that you’re green, and you wave a green flag. If you want to pollute the air, you talk about “Clear Skies.” If you want to gut public education, you call it “No Child Left Behind.” I call it “No Child Left a Dime.” So the use of language is critical. Orwell, of course, was brilliant in describing this, particularly in his essay “Politics and the English Language.” And Chomsky and others have talked about how language is used to manipulate and control the public mind. So now we’re in a “War on Terror.” Everyone accepts that. In fact, on NPR this morning, they said “most Americans are unhappy with the war in Iraq, but they support the War on Terror.”

VS: I'd like to ask you about that. During the same interview, you described terms such as "beacon of democracy," “axis of evil,” and “the war on terror” as “terms of propaganda rather than terms of description.” Even those who challenge the narrative behind these catch phrases often find themselves using them, simply because this is the only terminology everyone understands. How does one avoid this pitfall?

By clearly defining its parameters and its reality, and then trying to create an alternative vocabulary. I always say, “The so-called War on Terror,” because it is not a war on terror. That’s like having a war on jealousy. How can you have a war on terror? If there are criminal acts carried out by individuals or small groups, then that is a matter for police, not for invasions and occupations of countries. I’m not a big fan of the British Empire, but look how it dealt with the uprisings in Northern Ireland. If it followed what the U.S. did, it would have demolished New York and Boston, because that’s where the money for the IRA was coming from. All the arms were being purchased in the United States and being shipped to Ireland. There would have been huge air attacks on Belfast and other cities and towns in Northern Ireland. But they didn’t do that; it was a limited military and police action. It was brutal, but it was much more contained than what the US is doing in Afghanistan and Iraq, and what it is proposing to do in Iran, which is scarier.

VS: As someone of Armenian descent, the Armenian genocide is clearly something close to your heart. You once stated that the Armenian genocide "is not an abstract, ancient history; it's our present and our daily life.” There remains a pervasive denial in Turkey of the genocide, and Turkish novelists Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak have been placed on trial for referencing the genocide in their work. What are your thoughts on the impact of the trials of Elif Shafak and Orhan Pamuk?

Well, it has brought an enormous amount of attention to Turkey and its very restricted and narrow definition of how history should be constructed under article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code [which makes it a crime to "insult Turkish identity"]. Under 301, it is extremely difficult for anyone to speak out in a forceful way about Turkish history and Turkish realities. Orhan Pamuk, of course, is a Nobel Prize winner and very well known. Shafak’s book The Bastard of Istanbul just came out, and there are other books out. There are more and more writers speaking out. This is very, very important because writers occupy a unique place in the cultural life of the community. They simply cannot be dismissed as political hacks or opportunists that are trying to be elected. And so I think things are changing in Turkey. Tragically, it may have taken the assassination of Hrant Dink on January 19 by a Turkish nationalist, a young boy who may or may not have been set up by other forces to do their dirty work, because children (in this case he’s 17) won’t get the death penalty. That’s the speculation. It’s important that Turkey face the past so that it can be in the present and move forward into the future. And it’s important for the Armenians to have recognition and resolution, so that this issue can be closed. It’s just hanging over all of us like a Damocles sword. It’s never resolved; it’s an open wound. In my own family, three of my four grandparents were murdered, and 22 out of 25 members of my mother’s family were killed. We lost everything, and every Armenian in the diaspora has some connection to that genocide, to those events that occurred not just in 1915 but continued right through 1922. Elif Shafak and Orhan Pamuk should be honored and praised for speaking out, speaking the truth.

VS: Why is there such a strong taboo within Turkey against addressing and even acknowledging the genocide?

Turkey has a history of militarism, patriarchy, and machismo, and it seems very difficult for them to acknowledge that this crime occurred. We’re not talking about people today; we’re talking about people 90 years ago. I don’t know why [the taboo exists]. I think it’s a fear; it’s a deep-rooted fear of acknowledging reality, that crimes were committed, and that millions of Armenians were killed, displaced, or converted to Islam. I’ve met people all over Turkey who’ve told me, “Oh, my grandmother was Armenian.” Oh really? How did she become Muslim?

GMS: Let’s talk about the politics of terrorism. Eqbal Ahmad, who was a professor of International Relations and Middle Eastern Studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, observed in an August 1998 interview that “The United States has sowed in the Middle East and South Asia very poisonous seeds. These seeds are growing now. Some have ripened, and others are ripening. An examination of why they were sown, what has grown, and how they should be reaped is needed. Missiles won’t solve the problem.” Would you talk about the dire relevance of his words today in the current “War on Terror” and what this thoughtful analysis means for people and society nine years later?

Well, you see the foresight and prophetic quality of Eqbal Ahmad, who is one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met—very creative, innovative, always looking for alternatives for existing situations and problems. Even while decrying, perhaps, a particular situation, he felt it incumbent on the role of an intellectual to provide alternatives, to provide answers, not just to critique. So that, I think, is very, very valuable. Everything he says in that quote, of course, has come true. The United States, first under Clinton and then under Bush, has militarized the whole issue of terrorism. Terrorism has proliferated under the so-called “War on Terror.” It is now a growing international problem. The 9/11 Commission Report and the Baker-Hamilton Report show that the attack on Iraq—the criminal aggression in Iraq—has greatly exacerbated and emboldened the jihad. The Baker-Hamilton Report calls Iraq the “cause celeb” for jihadis, like it’s some kind of gala spectacle or Hollywood premiere. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Iraq has everything to do with oil. Iraq has everything to do with the Project for the New American Century and the neo-con dream to turn the Middle East into an American link, which they’ve virtually done. The entire region has been militarized. Iran is being threatened with military action. Iran is completely surrounded with U.S. bases. A major U.S. naval armada is right off the coast of Iran. Rhetoric is being ratcheted up, and Iran also had nothing to do with September 11. In fact, they were an ally with the United States. They helped oust the Taliban from Afghanistan. Iran, in the year 2000, almost went to war with the Taliban because Iranian council members were massacred in Mazar-e-Sharif. So how is Bush able to pull this all off? By manipulating the servile support of the U.S. corporate media, which went along with all the lies and became more like stenographers than journalists. They don’t really do journalism.

GMS: I’d like to ask you about that. In an editorial in the London Tribune, in July of 1944, George Orwell observed “the voluntary reticence” in the pathology of the British press, deducing that: “Circus dogs jump when their trainer cracks the whip, but the really well-trained dog is the one that turns his somersault when there is no whip.” I’m very interested in the subtleties of self-censorship, the inducements to which individuals conform to the party line, so to speak. Could you talk about this function, how it is instilled among journalists and in the front lines, in the notion of embedding?

It’s hard to come up with a more Orwellian phrase than “embedded.” In fact, you know, “sleeping with the enemy.” How can you have any distance and objectivity if you’re being protected by the people you’re supposedly covering? Structurally, it just reeks of such an inequality and imbalance that your ability to perform your task as a journalist is severely compromised, so I don’t give it any credibility at all. The whole system of censorship works through a series of perks, and it’s very seductive. If you play ball with power, you will be richly rewarded. Look at Bob Woodward—he lives in a Georgetown townhouse. He’s a millionaire. He’s all over the other corporate media. He’s very successful; when he calls someone, the calls are returned. Thomas Friedman plays golf or tennis with the Secretary of State, and he brags about it. I would be ashamed. I would feel so debased if the Secretary of State even had my telephone number and would invite me to play tennis or golf with him or her. You would have to think, well, what do they want from me? Do they admire me as an independent journalist? Hardly. They want to manipulate and control the news. This is all about spin and propaganda. So the system is very seductive. When you go into the Oval Office and the President greets you by your first name: “Hi Val, how are you? How’s the family? Are you doing OK?” He’s totally briefed on your background and doesn’t know you from Adam or Eve. But you feel that you’re a part of something. And then you’re called on in a press conference: “Yeah, you back there, Gabe, how’s it going?” So you become part of this fraternity, part of a cohort--and it eliminates the possibility to do objective journalism. You’re just a stenographer; you become a court reporter, and that’s what most of the Washington reporters are.

GMS: I’d like to talk about media, propaganda, and the State. In various lectures you’ve cited Reich Marshall Herman Goering: “The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and then denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” It's quite clear that wars of various sorts in our history have been carried out by the media or public relations campaigns inducing consent among public opinion, usually from fear and nationalism.

Let’s talk about the fundamental structure of corporate media in the United States. Under the Nazis, the Ministry for Popular Enlightenment operated as a government department specifically designed for propaganda. But in this society, the government has not the power to control the media and they operate as an independent entity yet function in much the same way as Goering testified.

Well, that’s not entirely true about the electronic media, which is licensed by the federal government. Every TV station, every radio station, does in fact have that structural relationship with the State. Print media are not licensed in the same way that electronic media are. Today, in an age where 80% of Americans get 90% of their news from the electronic media, particularly television, that’s very significant. Ben Bagdikian has tracked the conglomeration, monopolization, and centralization of the media from 50 in 1983 to 5 today. This severely limits the ability of media to provide Americans with a broad range of opinions in order to get information and to understand what’s going on. Instead of having perspectives and views from A to Z, I’ve been saying for years we have perspectives from A to B. But now I’m revising that—it’s more like A to A squared. You get this representative from the Brookings Institute and this representative from the Heritage Foundation, and there’s a so-called debate, but this debate is entirely based on imbedded assumptions, like that the U.S. has the right to attack, invade, and occupy any country in the world. There is no one there challenging that basic imbedded assumption. The media have largely become an apparatus of propaganda.

VS: Due to the American role in the Middle East, the region receives a tremendous amount of coverage within the American media. How can we better understand this role and its subsequent impact on how the region is portrayed?

The idea that the U.S. is even-handed or an honest broker is so incredibly ludicrous and preposterous as to defy any kind of description. We are extremely hostile to Arab nationalism. We’ve done everything possible to crush Arab nationalism, and in fact have supported fundamentalist Muslim organizations. This was particularly true in Egypt, when the U.S. was opposed to Nasser, because Nasser represented an independent force. The U.S. supported Saddam Hussein and helped the Ba’athist coup in 1963 against the nationalist government of Qassim.

There is no area in the world that is more subject to propaganda than the Middle East. There are two reasons for that: one is oil, and the other is Israel. The US expends maximum military and diplomatic support to a country of six million people, completely dwarfing military aid and diplomatic support to any other country on Earth. The other thing is the oil reserves of the region, which the U.S. is obsessed with, and has been since the end of WWII. A State Department document in 1945 described the oil reserves in the Middle East as “the greatest strategic prize in the history of the world.” So Israel has become an attack dog, a land-based aircraft carrier for the United States. U.S. policy has put the residents of Israel in, I think, enormous danger and peril. I think it’s very manipulative, and history shows us that there is no guarantee that this policy will continue in the future. History shows us that those who are weak today will be strong tomorrow. Israel today has maximum military superiority in the Middle East. That’s not a permanent situation.

David Barsamian is the host of nationally syndicated Alternative Radio and the recipient of many honors, including the Upton Sinclair Award, the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center Award, and the Cultural Freedom Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe. His many published works include Targeting Iran with Noam Chomsky, Ervand Abrahamian, and Nahid Mozaffari, The Future of History with Howard Zinn, The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile with Arundhati Roy, and The Pen and the Sword with Edward Said. His numerous in-depth interviews with Noam Chomsky have sold hundreds of thousands of copies worldwide.

Creating a Facebook Community: Networking Site Changing the Face of Jewish Campus Life

2007-11-28T15:20:00.000-07:00

With Sam Guzik, Ben Greenberg, Jordan Magaziner, Daniel Smajovits, and Steven I. Weiss. Published January 9, 2007 in The Jewish Week.

http://joi.org/bloglinks/The%20Jewish%20Week%20Facebook.htm

Jewish life on campus has a changing face because of Facebook.com.

Students and organizations are taking advantage of the social networking site launched in 2004 that allows users to make a profile, create and join numerous groups, and post messages to other members and groups.

“It’s already had a direct effect on the expectations that Hillel is putting into its resources,” said Hillel’s Simon Amiel, who is charged with overseeing the Jewish campus organization’s outreach fellows.

“Ten years ago, 15 years ago, the goal was to get students in the building,” he explained, adding “that’s still a nice goal for us ... but it’s far more of an important goal to say there are 500 students having a Jewish experience every week, inside the building or out.”

Facebook’s ability to create ad-hoc communities is seen as its greatest strength.

When an Iranian-American student was Tasered by campus police at the University of California Los Angeles, thousands of students registered their protest within days by joining groups created to complain about the incident.

Jewish students and groups on Facebook are taking similar advantage of the site’s possibilities. A Jewish group was launched recently to gather right-wing Israel advocates to protest a book signing by former President Carter on the same day in New York City. Another group is called “American Jews Against Israel.”

Along the way, Jewish students are finding new ways to associate with each other and new aspects of their identities.

Janice Hussain is a junior at Brandeis University, and the daughter of Indian and Jewish parents, and until she started using Facebook, she didn’t know there were many other Jews of a similar ethnicity.

“At Brandeis, if I wanted to meet someone who was Asian and Jewish, or Indian or half-Indian, I couldn’t,” she said in an interview.

So Hussain this semester launched a group called “Asian and Jewish,” inviting a handful of people at Brandeis who were of Asian and Jewish descent. Before she knew it the group reached 90 members from various campuses.

Now that she’s had success online, Hussain is considering new endeavors for Jewish life on her campus, with which she’s had little involvement thus far.

“I was actually thinking of maybe starting a club at Brandeis for Jews that are not fully Ashkenazi, or Jews of color, and to have an event or maybe have a lecture,” she said.

Hussain’s experience in finding common heritage is far from unique on Facebook for Jews of mixed descent.

“What seems to be coming up over and over again is a place for students that are from a mixed-parentage family,” Amiel said, noting that Facebook’s self-starting nature allows Jewish students to “make connections that are more organic.”

On Facebook, most of the traditional categories for Judaism and religious activity in general are far less popular than alternative expressions of identity.

Jews on Facebook are using nontraditional identifiers far more than any standard declaration. Several groups are titled “I don’t roll on Shabbos,” after a line in the cult movie “The Big Lebowski.”

Hundreds of students belong to these groups, and most of them belong to hundreds of other groups that express their Jewish identities.

While statistics are not available for the site, an informal survey of multiple campuses has shown consistently that most Jewish students will call themselves “Jewish” or some manifestation thereof in the “Religious Views” box only about 10 percent of the time.

At Indiana University, even the Hillel president, Joanna Blotner, doesn’t call herself “Jewish” on her profile.

“It’s because you don’t want to actively make yourself part of the minority,” she explained. “It’s probably the same reason a lot of gays and lesbians don’t identify themselves.”

It’s a trend that Jewish officials can’t explain.

“Of any place, being on Facebook is one of the most safe places to identify as Jewish,” Amiel said.

At the same time, traditional Jewish institutions have employed the site as well, finding Facebook to be far more effective than e-mail in getting students to attend their events.

“People, in my experience, are more likely to attend an event if they are personally invited,” said Alex Freedman, president of the Jewish Student Union at Washington University. “The group and event invitation serves that function on a grand scale — it allows the word to be spread better among a target audience quicker than any other medium.”

Meanwhile, Facebook’s implementation of a new feature called “News Feeds” allows students to see the groups or events their friends are joining.

“All of a sudden, people no longer had to be individually invited to a group or to an event, they could see what their friends were doing,” said Andy Ratto, Washington University Hillel’s JCSC fellow. “This has been extremely useful because people might be rather unlikely to go to an event where they didn’t know anyone who would be there, but all of a sudden people would find out about an event because their friends were going to it, and then they would want to come, too.”

While those results aren’t the expectation for Hillel events at a given campus, the function still makes a difference, Freedman said.

It “saves us a lot of phone calls, a lot of fliers and a lot of time,” he said.

(CampusJ.com is a Web site that covers Jewish life on college campuses. Reporting by Sam Guzik, Ben Greenberg, Jordan Magaziner, Valerie Saturen, Daniel Smajovits and Steven I. Weiss.)

JFCS Refugee Resettlement Program Ends

2007-11-28T15:14:00.000-07:00

Published October 12, 2007 in the Arizona Jewish Post.

http://tucson.ujcfedweb.org/page.html?ArticleID=159949

When Tatyana Nemenman’s family left Kiev in 1992, fleeing anti-Semitism and the Chernobyl disaster, they arrived in Tucson to find welcome balloons at the airport and an apartment with a fully stocked refrigerator. Barred from attending university in the former Soviet Union, Nemenman enrolled in a pre-med program at Pima Community College with the help of Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Southern Arizona. When her grandmother passed away, JFCS made funeral arrangements and organized a celebration of her life. “The first couple of years,” says Nemenman, “without JFCS, we would not have survived. They were so warm, so welcoming.”

Through a partnership with the national Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), JFCS helped resettle more than 2,000 refugees within the past 18 years. The resettlement program provided language instruction, citizenship application, housing, skills-building and job placement, and assistance with the adjustment to life in American society. Often, volunteers opened their homes to the new immigrants. The job placement program boasted a 94 percent success rate.
Within recent years, the resettlement program faced an uphill battle in reconciling dwindling funds with the rising cost of services. In the aftermath of 9/11, the reduction in number of refugees allowed into the country drastically reduced the federal funds upon which the program relied. The agency now faced a heartbreaking decision: continue to provide services at a far lower quality level, or end the program altogether. After lengthy deliberation, JFCS concluded that if the agency was unable to render the quality of service it felt clients deserved, the program would have to be disbanded.

Staff and volunteers express a mixture of pride in the program’s achievements and sorrow over its inability to remain operable. Carol Sack, chief development officer at JFCS, says, “We have been honored and privileged to have participated in refugee resettlement throughout the years we’ve been doing it. It was with great regret that we made this very hard decision.”
CEO Lois Manowitz shares the sentiment. “The agency made a very difficult, painful decision to no longer do refugee resettlement, but we are extraordinarily proud of the program’s history.” She describes the program as “the fulfillment of one of the best Jewish values upon which our mission was based: tikkun olam, or repairing the world.”
The resettlement program leaves behind a long and diverse legacy. Initially, the program aided Jewish immigrants fleeing the former Soviet Union. When these immigrants stopped coming, JFCS extended its services to non-Jewish refugees from Bosnia, Burma, Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Liberia, and Burundi.

Recently, JFCS has devoted many of its services to the Lost Boys of Sudan, who walked hundreds of miles to escape civil war. Among them is 22-year-old Bior Keech, a business economics senior at the University of Arizona. At 17, Bior began the long, treacherous journey that brought him first to Kenya, and eventually to Tucson. Of the resettlement program, he recalls, “It was great. They really welcomed us.” He remembers the volunteers with special fondness. “They were one of the things that made our experience a lot better,” he says, during the initial culture shock of coming to the United States. Bior plans to attend graduate school, and to use his education to help improve the economic situation in Sudan as well as to educate Americans about the country’s plight.

Among the volunteers who helped Bior is Jill Rich, who has volunteered for all of the program’s 18 years and has mentored 94 refugees. Rich was immediately captivated by the story of the Lost Boys and has worked intensively with them. She and her husband, Jim, have hosted many of the Lost Boys in their home, leading her to become known as “the ‘mom’ of the group.” For the last six years, Rich reports, “we’ve had a full house.” At first, the Lost Boys’ rural background meant little familiarity with modern technology. Painstakingly, the young men had to learn how to use the stove, refrigerator and can opener — not to mention the computer. None of these challenges stymied them in their desire for an education, and many have achieved outstanding academic success.

While no longer accepting new refugees as of this month, the program continues to work with its current clients while transitioning them to other agencies. Although the program is drawing to a close, the relationships forged between staff, volunteers and the refugees continue to have a lasting impact. Like many volunteers, Rich keeps in touch with her former clients. “They’re very much a part of what I’ll always do,” she says.

Valerie Saturen received her M.A. in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Arizona in 2007. She lives in Tucson.

Divine Suffering in Shiism: Origins and Political Implications

2007-11-28T14:46:00.000-07:00

Published in Iran Analysis Quarterly Vol. 2 No. 4, July-September 2005, pp. 22-42.

http://isg-mit.org/IAQ-storage/IAQ242005.pdf

Abstract: In the year 680 A.D., on the tenth of the month Muharram, a brutal massacre claimed the lives of Imam Husayn and some 50 loyal followers and family members. What became known as the Battle of Karbala has served as the pivotal moment in history for the Shi’a of Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, who commemorate the tragedy each year through passionate rituals full of fervent, heartfelt emotion. For the Shi’a, keeping alive the memory of Husayn means more than simply recalling the events of his life and death. It entails active sharing in the Imam’s suffering, augmented by a pervasive identification with Husayn’s status as the ultimate righteous victim. Since the Shi’a doctrine is as political as it is religious, the imprint left upon the collective Shi’a identity by Husayn’s death carries deep political implications that remain relevant today.

From Haifa to Kotel, Local Family's Bar Mitzvah Experience 'Transcendent'

2007-11-28T14:26:00.000-07:00

Published September 14, 2007 in the Arizona Jewish Post

http://tucson.ujcfedweb.org/page.html?ArticleID=158266

For C.J. Montefiore, becoming a Bar Mitzvah this spring meant being encircled by 50,000 Jews from all walks of life, many of whom had flocked to Jerusalem for the Passover holiday.
C.J. Montefiore with his godfather, Richard Berg and his father David, at the Kotel.

C.J. — it stands for Cortland Jerushalmi — and his family decided to celebrate the occasion in two separate ceremonies in Israel. The first took place on C.J.’s birthday, March 31, at the Reform Or Hadash synagogue in Haifa. The ceremony fell on Shabbat HaGadol, the Shabbat immediately before Passover. The second ceremony was performed at the Kotel on Thursday, April 5, during Chol HaMoed Pesach, the intermediate days of the holiday.
The family chose to have two ceremonies in order to accommodate guests with differing styles and levels of observance. “As a cantor,” says C.J.’s father, David Montefiore, “I’m sensitive to all spectrums of religiosity and observance. We have friends that span the spectrum, those who are very modern and Reform, and those who are traditional. We tried to cover all the bases.”

The family’s connection to Israel is deeply felt. Abi Montefiore, C.J.’s mother, was assistant to Danny Bobman, who served as director of Tucson’s Israel Center through June. Bobman and Dan Karsh, co-chair of the Israel Center, flew to Israel to attend the Bar Mitzvah. David, a cantor and former president of the Jewish Ministers Cantors Association of America, had toured the beleaguered country shortly after its 2006 conflict along the northern border. His visit was part of Mitzvah Emunah, or Operation Faith, which brought cantors from around the world to Israel in a show of support. The tour included a concert at Or Hadash, which had been strongly affected by the conflict.

“I was so impressed with Rabbi (Edgar) Nof and the way we were received,” says David, “that I decided that this would be a great place for C.J. to have his Bar Mitzvah.”
At the Kotel, C.J. recalls, he was surrounded by thousands of worshippers of all stripes, creating an unforgettable atmosphere of spiritual celebration.
“You had every manner of Jew there, particularly the Chasidim,” David remembers. “It was fantastic. It was such a ruach (spirit).” The occasion was made all the more memorable when the family watched a videotape of the ceremony and noticed Israel’s two chief rabbis, Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, standing on the balcony of a nearby kollel, or religious school.
C.J. says that his greatest memories of his Bar Mitzvah are “the Kohanim on Pesach and the 50,000 people praying. We’re just surrounded and swarmed all over, and you hear [the chief rabbis], and you hear the Kohanim, and they’re just chanting. It was just a wonderful feeling.”
“The energy from the thousands of visitors to the Kotel that day was indescribable, totally fulfilling and transcendent,” says Abi.

C.J. Montefiore with his mother, Abi, on the bimah at Congregation Or Hadash in Haifa.
C.J. donated a portion of his Bar Mitzvah gifts to the Friends of the IDF, which supports social, educational, and recreational programs for Israeli soldiers, as well as providing support for widows and orphans of fallen troops. “I wanted to help them out because of the war,” he says. While C.J. says he hadn’t worried about his father’s safety, the conflict hit close to home for the family during David’s trip to Israel with the Mitzvah Emunah project, when a Kassam rocket landed (but did not explode) in Sderot not far from where David was meeting with the city’s mayor, Eli Moyal.

C.J. davens at the Western Wall

The family spent two weeks in Israel this spring, which afforded them plenty of time for sightseeing. C.J., who had not been to Israel before, was especially fond of the Old City of Jerusalem. “It was fun going all around it and through all the Quarters,” he says. “It was such a nice place to be, with lots of people around.” The Montefiores spent time exploring the excavated tunnels beneath the Old City, and also visited several other cities and sites, including Ein Gedi, Qumran, Akko, Tsfat and Tel Aviv.
During Passover, the streets were thoroughly clogged with travelers, but that _didn’t dampen C.J.’s enthusiasm for Israel.

“I had a really wonderful time just being there, going all over and being with my family,” he says. “It was a lot of fun.”

Valerie Saturen received her M.A. in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Arizona in 2007. She lives in Tucson.

CampusJ Archive

2007-11-28T14:21:00.001-07:00

A collection of my reporting with CampusJ, a news website aimed at Jewish college students. To view the archive, click the link below:

http://campusj.com/author/vsaturen/

"Fahrenheit 9/11" Shows How Polarized This nation Is

2007-11-28T13:57:00.001-07:00

Published July 12, 2004 in The Baltimore Chronicle

http://baltimorechronicle.com/071204ValerieSaturen.html

This battle of hysterias has contributed immensely to an even deeper, far more devastating loss: the ability to think critically and see the larger picture.

Driving through streets lined with new flags and billboards proclaiming "United We Stand" on the way to Michael Moore's blockbuster "Fahrenheit 9/11," one is powerfully reminded of the polarized atmosphere surrounding this election. In such a climate, dogma becomes rigid, loyalties are sharply drawn, and nuanced or moderate voices are often pushed to the side.

The irony is that, for all the finger-pointing, both sides rely upon the same emotional ploys, the same scapegoating, and the same "with us or against us" mentality in order to herd the American public in favor of their respective agendas.

As Moore successfully points out in his new film, the Bush administration was adept at using the vulnerable post-9/11 climate of grief, outrage, and fear to elevate his own political position. Many of us can vividly recall the images that filled our screens following the attacks: first the heart-wrenching scenes of carnage (accompanied by sweeping, mournful music), then infuriating images of the Enemy celebrating our pain. Finally, onto the screen would flash a resolute George W. Bush, against a backdrop of waving flags and moving renditions of "God Bless America." Whatever his faults in the arenas of policy making and word pronunciation, Bush demonstrated his expertise as a propagandist, effectively appealing to our emotions under the guise of apparent logic.

Unfortunately, in his urgency to expose the President, Moore resorts to many of the same emotional ploys he condemns in his subject. Among the opening scenes in "Fahrenheit 9/11" are sequences mirroring Bush's own visual rhetoric: the same devastating images of Ground Zero (insert sweeping, tragic soundtrack), followed by an enraging eyeful of another Enemy (Bush), reaping the rewards of our suffering against sinister music. The simplicity and black-and-white absolutism in the film stand in stark contrast with Moore's previous work, such as the ground-breaking and far more nuanced "Roger and Me."

It is important for people on both sides to foster an appreciation for the complexity of political situations, as well as the diversity of motives among those in either camp.

How are we to account for this change? Clearly, this aspect of "F-9/11" is largely a product of the growing polarization of American society and the extremely charged nature of the upcoming election. It is, perhaps, an element of human nature that prompts us to find unprecedented unity in the face of a common enemy. It is a trait that leads us-unfortunately-to act only when things have spiraled into crisis, and to raise our voices only when subtlety has already been made obsolete. Why did it take a tragedy of the proportions of 9/11 to bring out our unity as a nation? Why did it take a hasty, unnecessary war to send thousands into the streets in the affirmation of life against corporate greed?

In this election, few voters will be voting with their consciences. Rather, they will vote with their fear and outrage, not for an appealing candidate, but against an opponent. Liberals and Democrats, regardless of their support for John Kerry's platform, are mobilized to exfoliate Bush from the Oval Office; Conservatives and Republicans prepare to stand down the subversive, presumably un-American elements in their midst. Both sides are primarily moved not by their own intrinsic convictions, but by apocalyptic visions of the end of civilization as we know it.

This is understandable, in light both of America's vulnerability to further terrorist attacks and the steady diminishing of the very civil liberties that make us the great nation we are. However, this battle of hysterias has contributed immensely to an even deeper, far more devastating loss: the ability to think critically and see the larger picture.

We stand at a critical moment in American history, and our decisions now are sure to have dramatic repercussions for future generations. The level of crisis we face in such difficult times does not have to preclude the ability to think for ourselves, rationally, or to encourage this ability in others.

It is important for people on both sides to foster an appreciation for the complexity of political situations, as well as the diversity of motives among those in either camp. Americans who oppose the war in Iraq, for example, should be able to distinguish between the agendas of policy makers intent on reaping financial benefits from the conflict and the intentions of ordinary people who genuinely sought to bring democracy to Iraq. Conversely, those who support the war must recognize that many dissenters do indeed support our troops, precisely by trying to ensure that they are not sent to fight and die unnecessarily.

Among the strengths of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" is its success in bringing to light many facts about the war that were previously unknown to many viewers. The disclosure of facts and information is the pillar of a truly enlightened, democratic society. Let's leave the conclusions to the people.

The Other Zionist Conspiracy: A History of Christian Zionism

2007-11-28T12:52:00.002-07:00

Published February 2006 in Zeek: A Journal of Jewish Thought & Culture

http://www.zeek.net/christianzionism/

The 2004 U.S. presidential elections left little doubt about the rise of the Christian Right. Polls indicated that “moral values” topped the list of voter concerns, surpassing the economy, the environment, and even the war, and the symbolic campaigns against gay marriage and abortion mobilized broad sections of the electorate, in particular the "five million new Evangelical voters" whom Karl Rove promised, and delivered, to his president. A year and a half on, the rise of the Christian Right is keenly felt in many areas. Soon-to-be Justice Samuel Alito is certain to enshrine its moral agenda within the Supreme Court's new "strict constructionist" jurisprudence, which allows government much more latitude in regulating moral conduct, even as its "new federalist" doctrines constrict the government's regulation of economic conduct. The "mood" of the country is said to be drifting rightward. And, of course, Israel.

As Israel enters its own election season (and the Palestinians conclude theirs, with ominous and uncertain results), the role of the deeply influential phenomenon known as Christian Zionism is increasingly becoming better known. On the surface, Christian Zionism seems benign enough. It appears to be steeped in concern for the fate of the Jewish people and grounded in sympathy for the Jews’ long history of persecution and yearning for a homeland. Christian Zionist leaders often claim deep admiration for the Jews, describing them as “God’s Chosen people.” However, beyond the outpouring of support for Zionism and Israel that has long been part of the conservative Christian movement lies an apocalyptic motive that is troubling, even sinister, in its implications for both the Jewish people and the global community.

It is well known that Christian Zionism derives its ideology from the belief that the Jews have a role to play in the End of Days: the Jews' dominion over Israel is, itself, a sign of the impending apocalypse, and the presence of the Jews there is essential for the predicted apocalyptic drama to unfold. Less well known, however, are the details and history of that doctrine, and exactly how seriously it is taken today. In fact, predictions of apocalypse are taken very seriously. According to a 1999 Newsweek poll, 40% of Americans (45% of Christian Americans; and 71% of Evangelical Protestants) believe the world will end as the Bible predicts. And of that population, 47% believe the Antichrist is already on Earth, now. In other words, the apocalypse is not an abstract, far-off notion. Thus it is urgent to inquire after its history, and consider its consequences today.

A Brief History of the End of the World

Although Christian Zionist ideology draws from the Old Testament books of Daniel and Ezekiel, its primary inspiration is the New Testament's Book of Revelations. Revelations details a horrific vision in which Earth is largely decimated by a series of plagues, and an “animal with ten horns and seven heads” emerges to lead the peoples of the world into blasphemy and destruction with the help of another beast performing false miracles and bearing the mark (666 -- originally a numerological reference to the Roman Emperor Nero, but now, of course, bearing other connotations). Following the appearance of a Lamb, generally thought to symbolize Christ, a great battle ensues between the forces of good and evil. All of humanity is divided into the categories of “saved” and “unsaved,” the former of which are destined to be “raptured up” to God while the rest of humanity perishes in a gruesome scene of global carnage.

Although most Christians interpret Revelations as allegory, Evangelical Christian Zionists tend to adopt a literal approach. Of course, "literal" is itself not entirely literal, since chariots and fire are not exactly airplanes and missiles. However, when questioned about the discrepancy between John’s descriptions and the realities of modern life and weaponry, they assert that John was merely relaying what he saw through the only language he knew. Thus, helicopter gunships become “locusts” whose wings sound “like the noise of a great number of chariots and horses rushing into battle” (9:3-10), and nuclear missiles become “a great star [that] fell from heaven, blazing like a torch” (8:10). Indeed, it is thought that recent advances in technology account for much of the growing belief in apocalyptic prophecy, particularly as the world entered the nuclear age.

In America, Christian Zionist doctrines have their roots in 17th century New England, where millennialism (the anticipation of the Second Coming, preceded by a period of global turmoil) emerged among the Puritans. The Puritans, who viewed themselves as the new Israel, expressed interest in Jewish conversion and restoration of the non-converted Jews to Palestine. Increase Mather, and his son Cotton Mather, often couched his calls for absolute moral purity in proclamations about the impending Second Coming, which required the restoration of the Jews. While the movement was more fervent in England during the 19th century, the Americans began to match England’s fervor with the rise of dispensationalism, pioneered by defrocked Anglican priest John Nelson Darby. Unlike the millenialists before them, followers of dispensationalism maintained that the End Times had already begun. In Darby’s view, world history could be divided into seven distinct epochs, or dispensations, and humanity is rapidly approaching the dawn of the final age. (Mormons, Millerites, and many other sects had similar views.)

Toward the end of the 19th century, Darby collaborated with leading evangelist Dwight L. Moody to establish the Chicago Bible House, which transformed the premillenialist movement and became one of its major training centers. Moody’s sermons were filled with references to Jews, whom he regarded as the sinning sons of Israel who had disobeyed God, as well as the vicious crowd that had called for the execution of Jesus and cried out “his blood is upon us and upon our children.” His sermons contained an unmistakable element of antisemitism, and he also regarded the Jews collectively as a “greedy and materialistic” people, citing the Rothschilds as an example.

This period was also marked by the cultivation of Messianic Judaism, which Moody discovered to be a highly effective missionary strategy, enabling its converts to retain their ethnic identity as Jews while adopting Christian beliefs. Simultaneously, massively popular gatherings such as the Niagra Conferences and the International Prophetic Conferences aided the movement’s development. During one Chicago conference, speaker Nathaniel West reinforced his belief in Zionism by likening the suffering of the Jewish people to that of Christ himself. What many in the Jewish community apparently failed to grasp was that while the sentiment outwardly served as a moving display of sympathy toward the Jewish plight, by Jewish suffering to that of a man who was said to have died for the sake of Christian redemption, West also reinforced the symbolic role of the Jew as scapegoat.

Missionary activity among the Jews grew following the establishment of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. The institution’s ambivalent attitude toward Jews was embodied by one of its early directors, James M. Gray, who outspokenly denounced anti-Jewish violence on the one hand, while on the other expressing the belief that the infamous Russian forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was authentic evidence of a global Jewish conspiracy. In 1891, Moody disciple William E. Blackstone bridged the gap between Christian Zionist belief and political activism by launching a petition endorsing Jewish restoration in Palestine. The petition, signed by 413 eminent American leaders, helped deepen ties between Blackstone and Jewish community leaders, leading to the formation of the Christian-Jewish Conference of 1890. Because of Blackstone’s support of Zionism and efforts on behalf of the persecuted Jewish community in Russia, he established lasting contacts with leaders of the American Zionist movement, such as Adam Rosenberg, president of the New York branch of Hoveve Zion (Lovers of Zion). Though Blackstone had, in his influential book Jesus Is Coming, attributed Jewish suffering to the Jews’ failure to accept Christ, he appeared frequently as an honored guest at Zionist conferences and had close relationships with Zionist figures such as Nathan Straus and Stephen Wise.

Later, in 1909, Cyrus Scofield published the Scofield Reference Bible, which became the Bible of the fundamentalist movement and the central text to which Christian Zionists have since referred. Scofield’s crystallization of what has been called “End Times Prophesy” emphasized the necessity of a Jewish return to the Holy Land (especially Jerusalem), the destruction of Islamic holy sites on the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif), the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, the imminent battle of Armageddon, and the mass conversion of the surviving Jews to the Christian faith.

====

Contemporary Fervor and Republican Politics

The 1967 war and the Cold War created a climate in which Christian fundamentalists were particularly receptive to Scofield’s views on Revelations. In the 1970s, his “End Times Prophecy” found an enormous audience thanks to author Hal Lindsey, whose 1970 The Late Great Planet Earth was a New York Times bestseller that sold over 18 million copies in English and 20 million copies in 54 other languages. Lindsey views are clear. “The valley from Galilee to Eilat,” he once declared, “will flow with blood and 144,000 Jews will bow down before Jesus and be saved!” The rest of the Jews, according to Lindsey, are destined to perish in “the mother of all Holocausts.”

Lindsey’s novel has sold well throughout the last three decades and even enjoyed a spike in sales in August and September of 1990, as fears peaked over Iraq’s Hussein regime and, according to a CNN poll taken at the beginning of the Gulf War, 14% of Americans believed they were witnessing the beginning of Armageddon. Lindsey’s success also signified the creation of a popular genre, including the influential work of Timothy LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, co-authors of the Left Behind series, in which Christian protagonists assassinate a former U.N. head who is revealed to be the Antichrist. The series has sold over 50 million copies.

The 1980s saw the election of Ronald Reagan, who had espoused Christian Zionist views in the past, and who enjoyed a close friendship with the evangelist Rev. Billy Graham. According to Reagan’s former legal secretary Herb Ellingwood, Reagan had developed a nearly obsessive fascination with apocalyptic prophecy, reading scores of apocalyptic novels. As governor, and later as president, Reagan became known for quoting Ezekiel, confiding to State Senate leader James Mills at one point that “everything is falling into place. It can’t be too long now. Ezekiel says that fire and brimstone will be rained down upon the enemies of God’s people. That must mean that they’ll be destroyed by nuclear weapons. They exist now, and they never did in the past.”

By the time of George W. Bush’s induction into the White House, approximately 40 million Americans expressed beliefs that fall within the scope of Christian fundamentalism, and that number increased dramatically following the attacks of September 11, 2001. Like Reagan, who often framed the struggle with Communism in language rife with religious overtones, George W. Bush has framed the War on Terror in a like manner, presenting the conflict in apocalyptic terms as “a monumental struggle between good and evil, [in which] good will prevail.” Along with frequent references to “evil” and “evildoers,” the President remarked in his September 20, 2001 speech before a Joint Session of Congress that “God is not neutral” in the War on Terror. Similar imagery has been echoed by evangelical leaders such as Falwell, who in 2002 infamously referred to the prophet Muhammad as a “terrorist” in a 60 Minutes appearance.

Evangelical Christianity and a steadfast belief in Biblical prophecy have been a driving force throughout the political career of George W. Bush himself, who in his late 30s became a born-again Christian and was formally converted by Rev. Billy Graham. Before announcing his candidacy, Bush met with Texas evangelist James Robison, confiding that he had given his life to Christ and felt that God wanted him to be President. According to Stephen Mansfield, author of The Faith of George W. Bush, he further revealed that he felt “something was going to happen” and the country would need his leadership during a time of crisis. Since assuming office, the President has been openly forthcoming with his religious convictions and the central role they occupy in his foreign policy decisions. According to veteran journalist Bob Woodward, Bush once declared that he would “export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of this great country and rid the world of evil,” and he also allegedly told Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas that “God told me to strike al-Qaeda and I struck them, and then He instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did.”

Christian Zionist ideology also remains a factor in the growing inclination toward American unilateralism. Among evangelicals, mistrust of the United Nations is often reinforced by religious leaders such as Pat Robertson, who wrote in his book The New World Order that the UN and the Council of Foreign Relations may be part of a “tightly knit cabal whose goal is nothing less than a new order for the human race under Lucifer and his followers.” The connection between unilateralism and evangelicalism, also a prominent feature of the Christian Right during the Cold War, stems from references in the Book of Revelations to a one-world governmental body (symbolized by a many-headed dragon) led by the Antichrist. In the face of a conflict of interests between Christian fundamentalists and the U.N. or E.U., the latter organizations have sometimes become the biblical “many-headed dragon” haunting the imagination of the Christian Right. The theme of the U.N. or E.U. as an implement of the Antichrist has been reinforced in apocalyptic literature from Lindsey to Robertson, highlighting a climate of American unilateralism and mistrust.

The Fine Line Between Philo- and Anti-Semitism

One of the particularly troubling aspects of Christian Zionism is the existence of explicit antisemitism within the movement. While most Christian Zionists are not overtly antisemitic, and while many feel genuine sympathy toward the Jewish people, there exists an undeniable undercurrent of anti-Jewish sentiment within the Christian Right. At its core level, the Christian Zionist ideology has Jews play a sacrificial role in the redemption of the Christian world, whether they like it or not. Additionally, some of the movement’s most influential leaders have issued remarks that reveal a far less friendly picture of evangelical Christian attitudes toward the Jewish people on whose behalf they claim to fight.

The most recurrent anti-Jewish sentiments among members of the Christian Zionist movement reflect deeply rooted Christian stereotypes that date back centuries, pertaining to the refusal of Jews to accept Christ, myths of Jewish greediness and money-savvy, and fears of Jewish conspiracies toward world domination. In fundamentalist Christian sermons, Jews are often referred to as “spiritually deaf” or “spiritually blind,” and their status among the “unsaved” is an integral part of evangelistic belief. Rev. Dan C. Fore, former head of the Moral Majority in New York, once professed, “I love the Jewish people deeply. God has given them talents He has not given others. They are His chosen people. Jews have a God-given ability to make money. They control the media; they control this city.” The sentiment has been echoed by Falwell, who remarked during one sermon that “a few of you don’t like the Jews, and I know why. They can make more money accidentally than you can on purpose.” Others, such as Rev. Donald Wildman, founder of the American Family Association, have adopted the view of evangelical leader R.J. Rushdoony’s conviction that the mainstream television networks promote anti-Christian values because they are mostly controlled by Jews.

At the same time as these dark undertones exist beneath the surface, Christian Zionists are -- on that surface -- very generous in their temporal (and perhaps temporary) support of Israel. They support the Nefesh b'Nefesh program, which subsidizes the costs of immigration to Israel. They support Israel in its struggles with the Palestinians and others. And they are increasingly coming to Israel, in greater and greater numbers. The Likud candidate for Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has made a point of cultivating support among Christian Zionists, both to help him politically and to invest in Israel; he recently disclosed conversations to build a network of large, high-end hotels for Evangelical visitors, and a DVD interview with him is being sold on Hal Lindsey's website, which, like most Christian Zionist sites, assumes a pro-Israeli-Right political stance. Other Israeli politicians, and leaders of the Jewish Agency, are aware of the ulterior motives the Christian Zionists have for bringing Jews to Israel, but then again, since Jews don't believe in the prophecies anyway, they seem to feel that they have nothing to lose. Let the Evangelicals be disappointed when the Rapture doesn't happen; in the meantime, they are steadfast political and financial supporters of Israel. Whether this turns out to be a marriage of convenience or a "pact with the devil," of course, remains to be seen.

On the American side, the instrumental role formed by the Christian Right in U.S. foreign policy is rarely treated with the level of acknowledgment and importance it clearly warrants. In fact, the Christian Zionist movement has had a formidable impact upon American involvement in the Middle East. Christian Zionism, which is woven deeply into the fabric of American religious and political life, constitutes a rapidly growing movement that is certain to continue to exercise the considerable influence it exerts today. The movement’s ideology contains profound implications, and they must be examined closely, for the future of Christian Zionism may have profound consequences for the future of the world.