Forgiveness, Compassion and Peace

Friends, please read this and then this.

I wonder what the world would be like today, had the official and popular response to the 9/11 attacks been different. What if the follow-up had been a principled look at the real roots of terrorism, and the action taken had been in the spirit of Greg Mortenson's work, for example?

Yeah, I know that Osama bin Laden had/has an agenda, and I don't think it's a whole lot different than the NeoCon agenda. Its success is dependent on a large pool of people, mostly young, who don't have much hope or opportunity for education or a comfortable future. Young people, like this would-be suicide bomber, like the U.S. troops in Iraq, are the pawns in this "destabilization=huge profits for a small minority" game.

Shortly after 9/11 it was dismaying to see the number of thoughtful, educated, normally liberal-minded people who supported military action in Afghanistan. As if war ever solved anything. Ever. Ever. As if one couldn't see what the future was going to hold for that invasion. I remember one columnist -- Ted Rall -- wrote something like, "We can't just turn the other cheek!"

Well, why not? What has 5+ years of this madness accomplished? How could any thoughtful person have believed that putting your trust in BushCo, the Pentagon and the CIA was a good idea?

I also remember hearing on the radio a father whose daughter was killed in the 9/11 attacks. He said something to the effect of that the U.S. should use our military to fly over Afghanistan and drop ... food, medical supplies, educational supplies. No bombs.

What would the world be like today?

CINDY SHEEHAN ROCKS

Cindy has more integrity in a fingernail paring than most of Congress put together.
And don't tell anyone, but Chris Matthews is a wienie.

This is a peace conference ...

... only please don't talk about any wars that might happen to be going on right now. I found this article on Common Dreams, and it has me shaking my head.

(Published on Thursday, July 12, 2007 by the Dallas Morning News (Texas))

Nobel Laureate Calls for Removal of Bush

by James Hohmann

Nobel Peace Prize winner Betty Williams came from Ireland to Texas to declare that President Bush should be impeached.

In a keynote speech at the International Women’s Peace Conference on Wednesday night, Ms. Williams told a crowd of about 1,000 that the Bush administration has been treacherous and wrong and acted unconstitutionally.

“Right now, I could kill George Bush,” she said at the Adam’s Mark Hotel and Conference Center in Dallas. “No, I don’t mean that. How could you nonviolently kill somebody? I would love to be able to do that.”

About half the crowd gave her a standing ovation after she called for Mr. Bush’s removal from power.

“The Muslim world right now is suffering beyond belief,” she said.

“Unless the president of the United States is held responsible for what he’s doing and what he has done, there’s no one in the Muslim world who will forgive him.”

When an audience member told Ms. Williams that Vice President Dick Cheney would become president if George Bush were impeached, she said, “Can’t you impeach them both?”

“It’s twisted. It’s all wrong,” she said. “There are so many lies being told. It’s hard to be an American and go out into the world right now.”

Ms. Williams started her speech by asking every member of the audience to hug everyone around them. Then she cut to what amounted to both a call for peace and a stinging rebuke of the American government.

Conference organizers have said that the conference is nonpartisan and that no one was invited to speak about the war in Iraq. After Ms. Williams finished her speech, conference chairwoman Carol Donovan took the podium to say that Ms. Williams did not speak for the conference — only herself. [my italics]

“It’s important for us to separate the opinion of the person and the position of the conference,” Ms. Donovan said.

What the hell did organizers think this conference was about? Selling Mary Kay Cosmetics? I agree that peace is not necessarily a partisan issue, but what is the party of th administration that started and has profited mightily from the ongoing wars? I am truly baffled.

My stepdad suggested that it might be OK to talk about the Peloponnesian War.

Heist!

Guards staged one of the largest bank robberies in Iraqi history, making off with a stunning $282 million dollars in cash from a private bank in central Baghdad, Aswat al-Iraq reports in Arabic.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an Interior Ministry source told Aswat al-Iraq that, “Three guards working for the Dar al-Salam Bank located on Sa'adoun Street in central Baghdad were able to attack the bank . . . stealing a sum of up to $282 million dollars, and fled in an unknown direction after implementing the operation.”

“The bank robbery is considered one of the most massive thefts to ever happen in Iraq,” the source continued. (Except for the looting of the national library, the "missing" billions of $$ last seen in the grubby mitts of Halliburton, and in fact, this whole bloody war.)

(read the rest)

And be sure to note this:

While the sum of $282 million is massive, especially by Iraqi standards, it would fund less than one day of US expenses for operations in Iraq. (Just by a little.)

Time to end this travesty!

Book Review: "Three Cups of Tea"

Sometimes a book just grabs me and I feel I must evangelize about it. Three Cups of Tea is one of those books. Subtitled "One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations ... One School at a Time", it is the story of Greg Mortenson -- a former mountaineer -- who ended up in the Pakistani mountain village of Korphe after a near fatal attempt at climbing the famed K2 in 1993. Grateful for the warm hospitality shown to him by the village, he promises to come back and build a school for Korphe's children. True to his word, Mortensen returns to Korphe (and the saga of raising the money and building that first school is an adventure story unto itself.) In the process, Mortenson realizes that much of rural Pakistan is without schools (especially those that will educate girls) and a mission is born. With the help of the mountaineering community (one crotchety old man in particular, who gives him a check for $12,000 accompanied by a note -- "Don't screw up!") he founded the Central Asia Institute (CAI), which had built 55 schools as of the book's publication, as well as a number of other humanitarian projects.

Most interesting was Mortenson's account of being in Pakistan over September 11, 2001. His eyewitness descriptions of the rise of the Taliban and the Saudi-financed madrassas in the years prior to the 9/11 attacks are fascinating. It is clear that the 9/11 attacks were a long time coming. It is also clear that they had little to do with the majority of people hating America. And I woul maintain that Mortenson's work is doing much to further the cause of peace.

This is a part of the world that I admit knowing very little about. Yet today alone there were two news articles that made a little more sense to me since I read this book. (Here - h/t to Quaker Dave - and here.)

One caveat: I'm not particularly keen on the writing style of Mortenson's co-author. This story first appeared in a very abbreviated form as an article in Parade Magazine ... and not to sound like a literary snob, but it shows. On the other hand, that initial article generated the first widespread U.S. interest in Mortenson's project and raised a lot of money from ordinary individuals when the CAI was teetering on the brink of insolvency.

I was also struck by the fact that Mortenson's key supporter in Congress was Mary Bono, a Republican. Sometimes recognizing a genuinely humanitarian effort cuts across party lines. And Mortenson himself is no flag waver; he is appreciably critical of the Bush administration and their handling of the so-called War on Terror.

As I was reading it, I was reminded of another excellent book that I read a couple of years ago: Mountains Beyond Mountains, about the work that physician Paul Farmer has done in Haiti and elsewhere. I am reminded again that one person can be a catalyst for doing immense good in the world, and with a lot of contributions directed toward the large NGOs (like UNICEF, Heifer Project or AFSC) I am planning to direct my efforts this year to the CAI and Steady Footsteps (which I wrote about last week.)

Defiant Gardens

Sometime in the last year I read a news article about some prisoners at Guantanamo who were cultivating a garden. Using spoons and saving seeds from vegetables they got in salads (and we all know they're eating like royalty) these men had managed to grow a small vegetable garden in that harsh environment. I found that story very moving. I have not heard any more about it, so I do not know whether or not that garden continues.

Then last month I read an article by Robert Fisk, entitled Our Need For Beauty in the Midst of War about the almost impossible existence of flower markets and balcony gardens in Beirut and Baghdad. In his essay Fisk noted the publication of a new book, Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime by Kenneth L. Helphand. I was happy to find it at my local public library and have been reading it.

There is so much in this book! The author mainly covers the first half of the 20th century, including WW1 "trench gardens" (grown by soldiers who were literally in the trenches), gardens in the Jewish ghettos of Eastern Europe, gardens grown by P.O.W.s -- civilian and military -- during WW1 and 2, gardens in the Japanese-American internment camps, and then he touches briefly on today's urban gardens, reclaimed from city lots, as well as examples from the first George Bush's Gulf War.

This book is both scholarly and poignant. It is a powerful testament to the stupidity and wastefulness of war (when will we ever learn?) as well as the remarkable resilience of the human spirit. It also illustrates again (and I think about this a lot with regards to children) how connection to the natural world is a basic human (and probably animal, although God forbid we should think of ourselves as animals) need.

I believe the heads behind the military machinery in any war are aware of this, and use it as a tool to crush the spirit of their adversaries. That is why the Nazis closed public parks to Jews, even before everyone was herded into the ghettos. That is also why the Israeli military bulldozes hundred-years old Palestinian olive and lemon groves; beyond destroying a source of material sustenance it is trampling on someone's heart.

Again and again throughout the book, Helphand emphasizes that creating gardens in hostile situations is ultimately an act of resistance against oppression. It gives me chills (and makes me want to get out into my garden.)

Peace Rally

I've been grumbling for the last week about this peace rally I attended on Memorial Day. It was organized by Veterans for Peace -- a great organization, by the way. My grumblings go something like this: "I gave in to feelings of guilt to show up for this peace rally on my one day off, and it was mind-numbingly boring with a lot of self-congratulatory speakers (the same ones who are at every peace rally) telling us how long they've been involved with the peace movement, interspersed with the one folk singer who seems to donate her time to events such as this" and so on and so forth, in the same curmudgeonly vein.

But in light of the infighting and back-biting of the Left that has been written about in the wake of Cindy Sheehan's departure from the scene, all of a sudden that kind of whining sounds trivial and mean. I appreciate that people are trying to organize events and get people out. I would like to see more young people protesting, and I think to interest the 18-30 crowd they need to get music with more youth appeal at these rallies. And maybe food. And maybe not have every speaker lecture on the full history of their organization (interesting as it may be.) And maybe door prizes. And trained dogs doing tricks.

One thing I really enjoyed (and this is really the main reason I went) was hearing my city's oldest living veteran speak. Clarence Kailin is a veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade of the Spanish Civil War, and a longtime peace activist (and Communist.) I loved that he started his speech by saying, "I didn't want to come today, but my daughters dragged me out of the nursing home ..." and then made an appeal for impeachment and activism. He is a treasure to be cherished.

So I guess the question should not be, "Why can't these people get a clue and organize good peace rallies?" but "How can I help?"

Cindy Sheehan and the State of the Peace Movement

By now, so much has been written about Cindy's Memorial Day departure from being "the face of the peace movement" that it feels like old hat to be writing anything. But I wasn't blogging at full capacity for a few days and have some thoughts on it, so bear with me please.

Two summers ago, like many people, I was riveted to the story of Cindy Sheehan and Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas. I became possessed by the idea of going there, to be part of what felt like the stirrings (FINALLY!) of a sleeping giant. So, a week before school began, when I should have been setting up my classroom, I convinced a friend to come with me, and together with our two teen-aged daughters we drove the thousand or so miles to Crawford for the weekend. It was an amazing experience (helped by the fact that Joan Baez was there too) that I wish more people could have shared.

Cindy Sheehan did so much to wake up hope in people like me, people who were opposed to the war from before it began but had been absolutely marginalized by the mainstream media and the silence of those around us. She personifies the Gandhi quote "Be the change you want to see in the world." I read about every action she took, and was inspired to take action on my own. And I was deeply saddened to hear the despair in her voice last week.

Cindy's message also spoke to me on the level of being a mother who has lost a child. In the context of Cindy's loss, everything she has done makes sense to me. Having a child die is, in my mind, the most devastating and ultimately transforming of human experiences. You fall to the lowest of lows, where getting through each minute and hour of each day is a sort of triumph (except that you know you have to wake up the next day and your child -- that person who is literally a piece of you -- is still dead, and you have to do it all over again.) It takes years to integrate that loss into your life, and you are never the same. The transformation is not necessarily for the worse; my child's death was/is an almost religious experience. Yet, 13 years later for me, there are moments when the sense of bereavement brings me to my knees.

Anyway, I believe that anyone, in the face of devastating grief, seeks to make meaning of the loss. Often that is a very private journey, and I think that we who believe in peace owe Cindy a huge debt of gratitude for making her journey so very public. I also suspect that the anger which has kept her going has probably kept her from doing some essential private grief work. The thing about grief is, it is patient. It doesn't go away, but waits for you to get to it. The part of Cindy's resignation that saddened me more than anything else, was her statement that she came to the realization that Casey had died for nothing. I hope that Cindy feels the thoughts of all of us little people who are not in the public eye and don't have the public ear: I want to say that Casey's life meant everything and I am grateful that she shared him with us.

Well, I don't mean to lapse into psychobabble. The other prevailing thought I've been having is anger at those who are supposedly on my side who attacked her. (Kind of like those who have attacked Ralph Nader, Michael Moore, and others. Sheesh. What is wrong with these people???) Particularly those who applied the label, "whore." Isn't it interesting how easy it is to fall into the old misogynistic name calling when a woman gets "uppity"?

Anyway, I am here to say that the cause of peace is not dead. Every little action that any one of us does makes a difference. It isn't easy; in fact, sometimes it seems downright impossible. But we need to lift each other up, not denigrate fellow activists. We are all the faces of the peace movement.

Peace.

Yolanda King, 1955-2007

ATLANTA — Yolanda King, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s eldest child who pursued her father's dream of racial harmony through drama and motivational speaking, collapsed and died. She was 51.

King died late Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif., said Steve Klein, a spokesman for the King Center. The family did not know the cause of death, but relatives think it might have been a heart problem, he said.

"She was an actress, author, producer, advocate for peace and nonviolence, who was known and loved for her motivational and inspirational contributions to society," the King family said in a statement. (More at HuffPo ...)

I know there is something fundamentally wrong about mentioning Ms. King in the same sentence as Jerry Falwell, but this has led me to think about "heart problems." The blogosphere was filled yesterday with many references to Jerry Falwell's metaphorical heart problem -- i.e. lack of a heart. It sounds like Yolanda King was a gracious and big-hearted person who died way too soon. My heart goes out to her family.

John Gorka, Road of Good Intentions

I found this posted at Crooks and Liars today. It's a powerful song, from the wonderful album Writing in the Margins (which is the title of another song about the War on Iraq.) I was just listening to it this morning, coincidentally.

A hope

The most striking thing about the terrible shooting last year in the Amish community was the fact that so many in that community, where they had just experience devastating loss, showed deep compassion for the family of the shooter. I am holding the family of Cho Seung-Hui in the light (as I am holding all of the families who lost someone in Monday's shooting) and hoping that they are being cared for, not vilified.

(The photo is a pictorial reference to the very lovely song Julian of Norwich by Sidney Carter:

Love like the yellow daffodil is blooming in the snow
Love like the yellow daffodil is lord of all I know
Ring out, bells of Norwich and let the winter come and go
All shall be well again, I know.)

No Words For This ...

The only surprise in this report is that it was published in USA Today. Seeing it spelled out like this makes me sad -- and angry -- beyond measure.

Trauma severe for Iraqi children

Study: In Baghdad, 70% showing signs

By James Palmer
USA TODAY

BAGHDAD — About 70% of primary school students in a Baghdad neighborhood suffer symptoms of trauma-related stress such as bed-wetting or stuttering, according to a survey by the Iraqi Ministry of Health.

The survey of about 2,500 youngsters is the most comprehensive look at how the war is affecting Iraqi children, said Iraq's national mental health adviser and author of the study, Mohammed Al-Aboudi.

"The fighting is happening in the streets in front of our houses and schools," Al-Aboudi said. "This is very difficult for the children to adapt to."

The study is to be released next month. Al-Aboudi discussed the findings with USA TODAY.

Many Iraqi children have to pass dead bodies on the street as they walk to school in the morning, according to a separate report last week by the International Red Cross. Others have seen relatives killed or have been injured in mortar or bomb attacks.

"Some of these children are suffering one trauma after another, and it's severely damaging their development," said Said Al-Hashimi, a psychiatrist who teaches at Mustansiriya Medical School and runs a private clinic in west Baghdad. "We're not certain what will become of the next generation, even if there is peace one day," Al-Hashimi said.

The study was conducted last October in the Sha'ab district of northern Baghdad. The low- to middle-income neighborhood is inhabited by a mix of Shiites and Sunni Arabs. Al-Aboudi said he believes the sample was broadly representative of conditions throughout the capital.

In the study, schoolteachers were asked to determine whether randomly selected students showed any of 10 symptoms identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as signs of trauma. Other symptoms included voluntary muteness, declining performance in school or an increase in aggressive behavior.

The teachers received training from Iraqi psychologists on how to identify and help students cope with trauma-related stress, Al-Aboudi said.

The study "shows the impact of the violence and insecurity on the children and on children's mental health," said Naeema Al-Gasseer, the Iraqi representative of the WHO. "They have fear every day."

The Iraqi government is aware of the problem but largely unequipped to address it, said Ali al-Dabbagh, a government spokesman. "Until we have proper security in Baghdad, there's not much we can do to help these children," al-Dabbagh said in Washington.

Barbara Lee STILL Speaks For Me -- Along With 13 Of Her Colleagues

On Friday most of the House Democrats betrayed their constituents and treacherously voted to continue funding Bush's war on Iraq. (And Iran, you know it's already happening.

Here are the true representatives of U.S. voters. If you feel so inclined, a thank you to each one would probably be welcome. And if your representative is not among them, contact them and voice your displeasure.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich voted NO. Standing firm with him on this NO vote were 13 Democrats: John Barrow [GA], Dan Boren [OK], Lincoln Davis [TN], Barbara Lee [CA], John Lewis [GA], Jim Marshall [GA], Jim Matheson [UT], Michael McNulty [NY], Michael Michaud [ME], Gene Taylor [MS], Maxine Waters [CA], Diane Watson [CA], and Lynn Woolsey [CA]. (from the Kucinich 2008 website)

War is over if you want it. Clearly, most of the members of the House value something else over the lives of the troops and the countless Iraqis who will continue to be killed in droves because of their vote on Friday.

READ. THIS. BOOK.

In case you have forgotten, Rachel Corrie was the 23 year old American woman who was deliberately run over and killed by an Israeli bulldozer on March 16, 2003 while trying to prevent the destruction of a Palestinian home.

The book is a compilation of Rachel's writing from over her lifetime, edited and produced as a play by Alan Rickman & Katherine Viner. It is a short read, perhaps 45 minutes at the most. It's powerful, beautiful, and devastating. With my heart in my mouth, I read her correspondence with her parents when she was in Gaza. The combination of absolute pride that her mom and dad have for their spirited, beautiful, and intelligent daughter and fear for her safety in a dangerous place was agonizing for me, as a parent.

I don't have the words for this book. Please read it.

I am hopeful that our local professional theater will produce it next year. I know it is being considered.

Postscript: I am an outspoken person, unflinchingly dragging my soapbox into any arena. Although I personally believe beyond the shadow of a doubt that genocide is being committed by the policies of Israel toward the people of Palestine, I hesitate to speak out about it. Why? In some ways I have credibility; I am Jewish by birth. Some would probably label me a self-hating Jew, though words like that don't generally intimidate me. I am guilty of not paying as much attention to Palestine right now, as I once did ... and I understand that the circumstances in Gaza in particular, and for all Palestinians, have worsened. Rachel Corrie's death in 2003 touched me deeply and reading this book opened my eyes once again. Read this book read this book read this book read this book ...

Can you catch my words in time?

I've been sick the last couple of days, which has given me a little time to wade through the stack of books next to my bed. This is the book that I just finished, and I highly recommend it.

As a child growing up during the sixties, the war in Viet Nam permeated my life. I grew up a mile from campus in Madison, Wisconsin -- one of the "hotbeds" of war protest. We could smell the teargas at our house, and because they were medical personnel and active war resistors, my mom and dad often volunteered to patch up protesters after confrontations with the police or National Guard.

When the news of the massacre at My Lai broke with the full color photographs in Life Magazine, I pored over them endlessly.
Those images were etched onto my psyche -- where they remain to this day.

Nevertheless, I still know very little about Viet Nam. Lady Borton's book gives some background for what the Vietnamese people call "The American War", and is a testament to what a remarkably resilient and forgiving people the people of Viet Nam are. Lady Borton worked in Viet Nam throughout the war, and then was the first Westerner allowed to live in a Vietnamese village after the war ended. Through her writing the women, who provided much of the resistance throughout the war, tell their harrowing and tragic stories. Yet this book contains so much joy and affirmation.

My friend Mike Boehm, a veteran himself, who realized that his own psychological wounds from Viet Nam were slowly bleeding him to death, founded a project in the early nineties that set up a revolving micro-loan fund for women in the My Lai Province. Since then he has worked to establish a peace park in My Lai, raised money to build a school and clinic in the area, and facilitates art exchanges between students in the Madison area and their Vietnamese counterparts. He was featured in an award-winning Vietnamese documentary, The Sound of the Violin at My Lai. If you have a chance to see it, by all means do.

Mike goes back to Viet Nam once or twice each year. Every time he returns I say, "I wish I could go" and he says, "Anytime you want to go with me, let me know." One of these days ...

An afterthought: Every single woman that shared her story with Borton in After Sorrow suffered grievous losses at the hands of the Americans or the US supported puppet regime -- they lost children, husbands, parents, their homes, their livelihoods, and many of them spent time in prison where they were beaten and tortured. Yet they welcomed Borton with open arms; time and again, they would say "Give our greetings to your American brothers and sisters. They are our friends." I cannot help but compare that with the US response to the attacks of 9/11; 5 years down the road the self pity, the bigotry, the absolute inability or refusal to step into a different pair of shoes to view the world in a different way...

Who's Harming the Troops?

The Democrats in Congress are finally showing a teensy weensy bit of spine in opposing the McCain Liebermann Bush Cheney Rice Rumsfeld et al war, and the Rethuglicans are shedding crocodile tears over the troops that are "in harm's way."

Citing recent comments by Democrats, Bush's Republican allies said repeatedly the measure would lead to attempts to cut off funds for the troops. Outnumbered, they turned to GOP Rep. Sam Johnson (news, bio, voting record) of Texas to close their case — and the former Vietnam prisoner of war stepped to the microphone as lawmakers in both parties rose to applaud his heroism.

"Now it's time to stand up for my friends who did not make it home, and for those who fought and died in Iraq already," he said. "We must not cut funding for our troops. We must stick by them," he added, snapping off a salute as he completed his remarks to yet another ovation.

Oh, please. Did he practice the snappy salute in the mirror in preparation for this moment? That old argument that they continually trot out -- that bringing troops back now will somehow invalidate the 3,100+ soldiers who have already died in this war or the tens of thousands maimed. It makes no sense (unless you are profiting from this war in some way. But no one could be that repugnant.)

House Republican Leader John Boehner (news, bio, voting record) appeared to choke back tears at one point as he read from a letter that a husband of a former congressional aide wrote home before being killed in Fallujah.

Barf. Another method actor from the George W. Bush school of acting. Let's not forget who was in the majority in Congress when troops were being sent to Iraq without proper equipment, when families were raising personal funds to provide their loved ones with armor ... Let's not forget that offensive quote from Donald Rumsfeld:

"As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time."

As if the need for this war (or any war, for that matter) was so pressing. As if that mean stupid old man has sacrificed anything in his life, ever. As if, as if, as if.

And as always, I cannot speak of troops "in harm's way" without remembering that hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens have died -- mostly civilians (i.e. a hell of a lot of children). Unlike the US troops, they have NO CHOICE in the matter of being "in harm's way." It's their home. And they want us to leave.

I'd like to think that the Dems will hold strong, but I don't have a whole lot of faith that they will.

Holding Molly in the Light, part 2

Lovely tribute:

Published on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 by CommonDreams.org We Love You Molly by Harvey Wasserman Our beloved sister Molly Ivins is fighting for her life against cancer, and all we can do is try to send her even a fraction of the brillliance, joy and love she has given us for so many incomparable years. This genuis daughter of Texas turmoil has stood alone for so long as a voice of clarity, wit, common sense and plain-spoken conscience that it’s hard to know even where to start. Perhaps most important to remember is that she has not been just a writer. From her modest but gracious home in the heart of Austin, she has done anything but sit back and snipe with that unique penetrating wit of hers. She could have done it. She could have just gone to that keyboard every day, blown them all away, and built her national reputation from the sheer genius of an insulated ivory tower. But Molly has always been a firm believer in hands-on non-violent combat, which in hands like hers is the ultimate weapon. She puts her heart and soul where her convictions are. She’s fought tooth and nail for The Texas Observer and whatever other worthwhile publications there are that can muster an audience in the Lone Star State. She’s worked with the great Jim Hightower in his climb to elected office. She supports candidates. She goes out of her way. She works hard. She makes her presence felt wherever she thinks it’ll do some good, no matter what the personal cost. All the while being our very premier writer/humorist. If Mark Twain has a female counterpart on today’s political and journalistic scene, it is Molly Ivins. She has that miraculous ability to slice and dice an entire raft of political horse-dung with a single simple sentence, laced with wry, seeded with sweetness, and so often utterly cleansing and clarifying. We can all be thankful that our lucky stars have placed her—where else but—in Austin. Throughout the entire horrific nightmare of George W. Bush, whom she has somehow known personally for decades, it has been Molly and only Molly who’s been on the spot to say exactly what needs to be said in exactly the right Texas tone with precisely the right down home balance of horror, outrage and utterly human wit. Nobody else could be doing it as she does, from the inside out, from the high ground lifting up the low. Could we ever INVENT anyone better suited, with a sharper wit and better sense of the jugular? Except with Molly, it’s the spiritual center that’s the bullseye. With that wry, beautiful smile of hers and that insanely musical Texas twang, she never fails to aim for higher ground. When her eyes roll at the latest unbelievable insanity from this ghastly crew, she still manages to twinkle with that huge, heavenly light that’s only Molly’s. In her personal life Molly has always been every bit as gracious as you can tell she is from her writing. Last time she carted me around Austin, it was in her obligatory pickup. The thing seemed a bit naked without a gun rack. But Molly behind the wheel was armed aplenty, always willing to drive the few extra blocks, even if you are willing to walk. Her southern grace just won’t think of it, no matter how many better things she has to do. And we know there are plenty. To hear her speak is to be dazzled by the music of a true national treasure. To see her heart is to be warmed by a truly magnificent woman who embodies all this country can and should be. That she has been on the job for so long, with such persistence and valor, is something for which we can all be joyously thankful. Molly, we are with you, and we need you, and we love you, as we have needed you and loved you now for so many years now. Get well soon! In Molly’s honor, some of us are sending contributions to the Molly Ivins Fund for Investigative Reporting at the Texas Observer; 307 West Seventh Street; Austin, TX 78701

Holding Molly in the Light

This news leaves me feeling so sad. Molly Ivins is very ill. She is in my thoughts. And I hope that each one of us will take to heart what Molly has written in her last couple of columns (and I hope that they are not the last of the last) about doing something every single day to bring about an end to this immoral, illegal war. And let's get this president impeached while we're at it.

Play the "The Terrorists Hate Our Freedom" Game

It's fun and easy. How do you play? Look around for examples of obscene excess or wastefulness. When you find one, nudge your companion and say loudly, "The terrorists hate our freedom."

Here are some examples to get you started:

• Hummers
• Stretch Hummers
• Massive refigerators with a DVD player built into the door
• Remote-control operated bidets ...

I'm sure you will find many more.

Walking Cheerfully

My writing has taken a decidedly gloomy and cynical turn, and I need to find a place of hope. George Fox famously said,

"I saw ... that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and love which flowed over the ocean of darkness."

I am easily overwhelmed by the very bleak news which, somewhat perversely, I seek out every day. I am trying to tap into some hope, in the midst of a strangely warm winter, the pending escalation of the war in Iraq, petty micro-managing being done by the mucky-mucks in my school district ... it's happening at all levels; you name it, I feel some despair over it.

I tell myself that there must have been times when my parents -- passionate liberals -- saw a similar ocean of darkness. They saw McCarthyism, the sickness of the Jim Crow south, the threat of nuclear war, VietNam, &tc. and managed to raise 6 kids who all do something to make the world a better place. They "carried on crisply" as my dad would say.

Early Quakers suffered through horrendous religious persecution, and yet retained an essentially optimistic outlook. On Sunday I checked out a little book of essays from my Meeting library: Walk Cheerfully, Friends by birthright Friend Seth Bennet Hinshaw. I'm trying out optimism. You'll know how it's going when you read my next few posts.