art
On Paul of Tarsus and Terry Jones
|
The crowd quickly lost interest in me. An outspoken, possibly crazy, widow was no competition for a holy blaze consuming costly wicked books.
General News
The Myth of Ashkenaz
|
True myth may serve for thousands of years as an inexhaustible source of intellectual speculation, religious joy, ethical inquiry, and artistic renewal. The real mystery is not destroyed by reason. The fake one is. You look at it and it vanishes. You look at the Blond Hero – really look – and he turns into a gerbil.
Empathy
Bishop Gene Robinson Speaks About Obama and "The Left"
|
A few weeks ago, the congregants of Temple Beth Shalom in Santa Fe were honored by a visit from Bishop Gene Robinson who delivered the evening’s d’Var Torah. Bishop Robinson is the first openly gay Episcopal Bishop. He was invited to Santa Fe as Grand Marshall of the Gay Pride parade. When Rabbi Marvin Schwab learned from a colleague at St. Bede’s that Bishop Robinson might be barred from speaking in an Episcopal Church, he invited him to deliver the Friday Night D’Var Torah at Temple Beth Shalom.
General News
From Jew's-Sow to Muslim-Pigs: A Medieval Meme from Hitler to the Islamophobes
|
Muslim-bashers like to style themselves as “defenders of Western civilization.” Like all effective lies, there’s a certain grain of truth to their assertion. They do not stand in the Western traditions that support reason, liberty and tolerance. They do, however, recycle themes and motifs that have appeared in previous waves of fear against “witches,” Jews, lepers, Catholics, and others. A striking recent example is the use of pig imagery.
General News
Changing Health Care Facts on the Ground
|
Big things seem to happen on Wednesdays. A week ago Wednesday, we opened up a brand new innovative Health Commons in Rio Arriba County. A week from Wednesday, the Rio Arriba Community Health Council is meeting to untangle a Gordian knot caused by conflicting regulations attached to state and federal funding streams. If we can solve the puzzle, we can form new alliances and relationships…bringing America closer to single payer health care…permanently. I am the Director of Health and Human Services for Rio Arriba County. Instead of meeting with a select group of providers behind closed doors to negotiate an end to our community’s complete lack of mental health services, I am inviting the public to participate in the discussion.
General News
Restoring Honor, Reclaiming the Dream
|
Is there a figure on the national landscape that can bring left and right and people of all races,religions, and economic classes together? Will ordinary people make the decision to work to find common ground no matter the rhetoric of preachers, politicians, pundits and talk show hosts? These remain open questions.
General News
Towards a North American Union: Immigration Justice beyond Arizona
|
Editor’s note: If you Google “North American Union” you will find more conspiracy theories from the Right fearing loss of US sovereignty than you will visionary articles from the Left about how the people’s of North America could create people-friendly solutions to our major economic and immigration problems. So we were delighted to receive this from Josh Healey. by Josh Healey
The federal judge who blocked the worst provisions of Arizona’s new anti-immigrant law one day before they were to take effect didn’t do so on the basis of its violations of civil rights. No, Judge Susan Bolton ruled that portions of SB1070, including the mandate that local law enforcement check the papers of anyone they ‘suspect’ is undocumented, were unconstitutional because they “intruded into federal authority.” The legislation, even in its watered down version, is still the harshest anti-immigrant law in decades and represents the legalization of xenophobia against Latinos and anyone with brown skin. While grassroots activists fight the morality and legality of SB1070, the law’s proponents like Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, claim it is necessary because the “federal government has failed to act.”
General News
A Turn off Fox News Letter to the Editor
|
I have been trying to counter the planned negativity promoted by Fox News and corporate interests by standing up to it at every opportunity. Bullying tactics are only effective if individuals allow themselves to be bullied en masse. When specific individuals refuse to be bullied in a public manner, they lessen the effectiveness of the intimidation. The time to stand up is in the beginning, before the bullies completely delegitimize the rule of law. This week, I stood up to the bullies in two small ways that I would like to share in the hopes that others will follow suit or (even better!) improve upon them: I told my favorite Congressman at a town hall that I disagreed with his sudden unexpected choice to address substance abuse and mental illness as a law enforcement issue; and I wrote a letter to our local newspaper defending this same Congressman from a writer who compared him to Hitler.
General News
What if they opposed a shul?
|
What if you opened up your email and saw the following headline: “Join us in our opposition to a planned synagogue near Wall Street.” Then, after reading further, it blamed the entire Jewish community for the depraved actions of a few. Imagine if the letter spoke at length about Bernie Madoff, Andrew Fastow, Jack Abramov, Ivan Boesky and even Meyer Lansky and David Berkowitz to create a picture of Jews far removed from reality. Needless to say, the first words out of your mouth might be “anti-Semitism.” In this imaginary world, however, most Americans are now open to this train of thought.
General News
On Labor Day: Let's Celebrate What's Been Achieved!
|
I really like the second paragraph of this press release from our friends at Interfaith Worker Justice. There’s a tendency for any critic of our country’s and world’s terrible inequalities and injustices to say that “the system” has never got better, it’s just as unequal as it was 200 years ago, just as brutal. Well, in many ways it is. But whenever I hear blanket condemnations of American society, I remember all the struggles and heroes, all the many victories, all the ways that I and millions of others have led a much happier life because of the incredible work against the odds that our forebears undertook. If you disagree, check out the list in the second paragraph below.