Brooklyn Turns Out To Discuss Mideast Peace

Feb 21, 2006

You'd expect most people to be home in front of their TV's on a midweek winter night in Brooklyn. But 150 Brooklynites filled the pews at the Prospect Park Methodist Church tonight.

They turned out to hear Phyllis Bennis speak at at a Brooklyn Parents For Peace meeting that was called to discuss the dual occupations of Iraq by the United States and Palestine by Israel. Ms. Bennis is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and a writer, analyst and activist on Middle East and U.N. issues.

After an informative introduction by Bennis, other panelists - members of Brooklyn Parents For Peace - posed questions to the speaker. Some wanted to examine the challenges posed to raising the question of Israel's occupation in the broader community. Could and should the issue of that occupation be linked to the fight against the war in Iraq? Bennis felt that it wasn't a question any longer of whether it should be raised but how. By linking the two questions, it's true, she said, that we might alienate some people and we should try to avoid that through calm and thorough discussion with sections of the population that don't see or understand the nature of Israeli policy in Palestine. But, on the other hand she pointed out that by not raising the question we would be abandoning other sections of the population: Arabs, Muslims and immigrants - those who are the most vulnerable now, suffering from the domestic side of the Bush's war: deportations, renditions to foreign lands, detention without trial, etc.

The audience joined in the discussion with questions and statements. Some agreed and others didn't. An appearance and statement by anti-war City Councilmember David Yassky was appreciated and while he didn't agree with some points, his questions and statements indicated a desire to discuss, debate and listen to opposing points of view. And that should be the lesson learned - we must not shrink from addressing the issue of the Israeli policy and its occupation of Palestinian land because it is intricately related to the U.S. policy in Iraq and the entire mideast. The time is ripe to raise these questions as increasing numbers of people are willng to listen, learn and, perhaps, take action.


Phyllis Bennis addresses a large crowd of Brooklnites at the Park Slope Methodist Church.


Wide ranging questions from the audience.


Questions afterwards.

The Funniest Label Of The Week Award goes to....

... this label on a package of salted black beans that we bought in a Chinese grocery in Manhattan today.



In other words --
• Store in a cool location.
• Avoid breathing the powder.
• Cook thoroughly before eating.

and yes, take a memo to the packaging department:

Hire a translator. The web translation page doesn't quite cut it.

Memo To George Bush From Bob Dylan

You don't have to be a weatherman to know
which way the wind blows. - Bob Dylan.

According to weather forecasters this has been one of the warmest January ever recorded. I watched Dennis Miller the other night. That right-wing comic, stupidly and clumsily attacked the concept of global warming. Like Bush and Cheney, he's in deep denial but, Dylan, not Dennis, speaks the truth and the signs are everywhere.


February 5, 2006, Park Place, Brooklyn -- Confused flora.

Walking down Park Place in my Brooklyn neighborhood, I see plants popping out of the ground but it's only February 5th! Actually, I already had seen shoots weeks ago in mid January. Of course, some weather forecasters will explain it away: "it's because the the cold air (which morphs around the North Pole during the winter) has stayed on the opposite side of the world." Blah, blah, blah. (Accuweather.com ) That may very well be true. But for quite a few days last month, I was sitting outside my neighborhood coffee shop in a t-shirt, and it was almost summery-warm. Further, and this is not scientific but simply anecdotal observations, it seems that, more often than not, there are many more days with much stronger winds than ever before. As a bicyclist, I know what I feel and I've made a mental note of just how often I have to do battle with those strong winds that keep me from rolling forward.

Then there are those increasingly powerful hurricanes and the disasters they have wrought to cities and towns on our Gulf coast. Truly amazing (or on reflection, not so surprising) that Katrina went virtually unmentioned in Bush's State of the Union address last week (162 out of 5306 words). Five months ago a major American city was destroyed by a category 5 hurricane, then left to hang, ignored, by that compassionate conservative. Guess he wanted us to forget his monumental and callous indifference to Americans in desperate need of help from their government and leaders.


While millions of Americans lost their homes or lives in the devastation wrought by hurricane Katrina, Bush, Nero-like, not only went about business as usual, he played the guitar.

NASA's scientists have been scolded by their 24-year old pipsqueak, Bush-appointed, public relations director, George Deutsch, for publicly discussing their research that confirms global warming. This same self-styled overseer, who has no science background, also sent emails to a NASA contractor who was preparing web presentations about Einstein for middle-school students. According to the NY Times, Deutsch demanded that the word "theory" be added to every mention of the Big Bang.

The Big Bang is "not proven fact; it is opinion," Mr. Deutsch wrote, adding, "It is not NASA's place, nor should it be to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator."

If it weren't so fatally serious for the future of our world, the sight of the Oily President calling for an end to U.S. addiction to oil would be fit for a Saturday Night Live parody. After all, this is the Administration that has tried to drill up the Alaska wilderness, gave the axe to the Kyoto treaty, enacted tax incentives for those who purchased gas-guzzling SUV's, stood by as gasoline prices went through the roof (not to mention Exxon's profits) and whose Vice President dismissed ecological concerns as a "personal virtue" (i.e. nothing the government has to be concerned about).

Day by day, the mediocrity, incompetence, immorality and harmful nature of this Administration exposes itself as the worst in our country's history. Let's hope that change comes quickly and the American people, tearing off the blinders of the corporate-controlled media, send a dispossess notice to the current occupants of the White House and their minions in Congress. It could just be that the answer to this nightmare is blowing in the wind.

The Vigil At Hillary's Office Continues

Feb 3, 2006

The rain stopped and the skies cleared as dozens of New Yorkers gathered at 12:30 for a second Friday outside the Manhattan offices of Senator Hillary Clinton at 3rd Avenue and 49th Street. Singing and chanting, we demanded that the Senator end her long-standing support for Bush's war, a support that flies in the face of her pledge to "listen carefully" to her constituents. Polls have shown that New Yorkers, like most Americans, oppose the war and are increasingly calling for the immediate return of U.S. troops from that besieged and occupied country.


Members of Brooklyn Parents For Peace in front of Senator Clinton's Manhattan office today. "Are you listening?"

Today's news featured Bush's request for still another $100 billion to fund the neo-con's military adventures. At the same time, Congress has slashed funding for Medicaid, college loans and other social spending, sending even more Americans into poverty. While New York governor Pataki has called for a $500 increase in State University tuitions, Hillary bemoans the cutbacks and lack of money. But standing logic on its head, she still supports a war which sends our youth to their deaths while robbing our state and country of the money needed for health, education, jobs and housing.


One hundred New Yorkers have lost their lives in Iraq (and many more have been wounded). Our Senator must end her support of this immoral war begun on a pack of lies.

Amazingly, most New Yorkers are not aware of their Senator's pro-war stance. Perhaps, that's the fault of a media that features hours of gossip and fixation on car crashes and crime in the streets while ignoring details about things that really matter - like crime in the suites - ala the White House and Capitol, where decisions are being made that are turning our society back to the Republicans idea of the "good old days" before Social Security and unemployment insuance and public education.


Pataki calls for increasing state university tuition while Congress slashes college loans and Bush asks for another $100 billion for war and more war. Hillary - you're not listening!

But they are also uninformed because the Senator keeps her support of the war cleverly and opportunistically hidden - speaking out of both sides of her mouth (depending on who's listening) and keeping her feet firmly planted - on both sides of the fence (ouch!), the better to please all shades of the political spectrum.

However, a growing body of New Yorkers (and potential Presidential voters across the country) are watching Hillary more closely now. They realize that a pro-war "opposition" candidacy in 2008 will never be successful. It's clear to this writer that for the Democrats to win in 2008, they must galvanize the growing anti-war and anti-Bush sentiment in the country and run with it ... else instead of the White House they'll end up in the dog house. Again.


The vigil will continue: every Friday from 12:30 to 1:30 at Clinton's office -- East 49th Street and Third Avenue. Be there!