The oil spill and Bill (my dad)

I find it disturbing that news reports of beach contamination have consistently shown families with children frolicking on those very same beaches. It astounds me how ignorant people continue to be about the filth with which we are coating the earth...sky, water, and now land, in greedy pursuit of yet more petroleum with which to feed our addiction. Even my 74 year old dad, who used to think I was a tree hugging pinko lunatic, was disheartened by the video of oil coated pelicans.

The magnitude of this disaster has succeeded where I had heretofore failed.....he's quoting Dr. Cornell West. I never thought that the son of an anthracite coal miner would "go green", but the deregulated fossil fuel industry has pushed him there. He has always despised W. He hates that young people are dying every day to stabilize an area which W. invaded because there's oil to be protected. He hates that people are resistant to wind power. When a group opposed windmills because of aesthetics, Bill said, in disgust, "These people have looked at culm dumps for 50 years, and they think a windmill is too ugly to grace the landscape? Jesus!" (Culm dumps are huge mounds of shale and other waste discarded during the mining process)

He grows an organic garden because "The whole point is so I don't have to eat that chemical shit". And, in the wisdom that sometimes accompanies old age, he said "Well, maybe you won't have to write all those letters to stop that whole drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge. Maybe they finally get it."

Let's hope so, Bill.

Summer Reading

Because I have often wished that there was a list somewhere that was not "Esmerelda's Book Club", or the Bestseller List (which, I must say, proves that popularity is immaterial to quality), I offer the following recommendations for summer reading:

Nonfiction

Sh*t My Dad Says Justin Halpern This book is hysterical. I don't even know what to say. Holy shit!

The Bookseller of Kabul Asne Seierstad The author lived with an Afghani family, whose patriarch hid books banned by the Taliban while oppressing the women of his family. This dichotomy was fascinating. The descriptions of life as a woman in Afghanistan are vivid and disturbing.

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn This book is empowering. The stories show the subtle influence women have in developing countries, which, if nutured, can uplift a family or a people.

Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison Piper Kernan I originally learned of this book from a "Modern Love" column in the NY Times Sunday Styles section (or maybe "Lives" in the Magazine) It was about the day she surrendered at the institution. Although Piper seemed (and may still be) a little prima donna-ish, her insights into the women's correctional system are honest and thought provoking. I feel, though, that she minimized her role in the criminal operation which landed her there.


New Fiction

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War Karl Marlantes This is the best book I've read in about 20 years. It was so real and honest. The reader is immersed in the turmoil on each level of command. The book also makes clear how the government and officers played with the lives of enlisted men as if they were actually pons in a chess game. It was heartbreaking, revolting, and fascinating at the same time.

A Reliable Wife Robert Goolrick When I handed my friend this novel and insisted she read it, she said "Well, this doesn't seem to be your kind of book". True though it may be, the plot and the quality of the writing make it irresistable! The prose is masterful. There is one part that drags a little, but you won't mind.

Beatrice and Virgil Yann Martel A very strange novel by the author of The Life of Pi (not that Pi was conventional). The book got mixed reviews. This is, perhaps, because the reader is not provided with explanations of the story and the characters' motivation. There are a lot of loose ends. The reader is left with a lot of unanswered questions.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest Stieg Larsson As Beatrice and Virgil lacked explanations of stories and motivations, this eagerly anticipated "final chapter" in the Libeth Salander saga is nothing but. The end is kinda cool; otherwise, a disappointment. I loved the first two, but this.....

Other Fiction

Unaccustomed Earth, The Namesake Jhumpa Lahiri The first is a collection of short stories. The second is a moving story of a Bengali family whose son tries to bridge the gap between his parents' culture and his life as an American. Ms. Lahiri won a Pulitzer for another collection of stories, Interpreter of Maladies.

Tree hugging Hippie Freak

It is unfathomable to me that the very people who seek to discredit and dismiss anything related to the environment are, by and large, the same folks who are of an age to remember the days before fast food, plastic bags, and industrial farming. My father, whose mother baked her own bread, grew and canned their vegetables, and whose father raised chickens, hunted and fished, sniffs with disdain at what he views as my "tree hugging socialist crap". His sister in law, who uses disposable everything, and eats out almost every night, says, "What do I care, I won't be around." Jeez.

At some point in the late 70's, my father supplied fish that he caught for dinner. It was about the time that we learned that toxic waste from New Jersey (where else would it come from?) was being illegally dumped and making its way into the Susquehanna River. As we were eating, we asked where he caught them....... well, I asked him "What does cancer taste like?" Meal over, thanks to the tree hugger.

He inspects my vegetarian meals with a mixture of disgust and curiosity. He knows I loathe his eating processed foods, ham (GAG) hamburger (GAG), and canned vegetables. He feigns wheezing at the first cut into a clove of garlic, says the recycled toilet paper hurts his ass (then tells me that when he was small, they used a Sears catalog) and whines like a toddler about the low sodium soups I buy for him.

He has made some concessions. He is taking plant sterols for his cholesterol (fear of surgery on carotid artery) given up oval spiced ham (OMG it is the FATTIEST deli meat known to man). He is using the George Foreman grill, which was purchased the evening I witnessed him frying hamburger patties in a nonstick pan containing about a half a cup of oil, which he had added "so the burger won't be dry." He us using a homeopathic remedy for leg cramps, but wants to know why he has to put it under his tongue (because the bottle says so). He lets me grow arugula in his raised bed, and uses natural fertilizers, but drew the line at growing edamame ("What the hell is that?") He rationalizes the organic foods and other products as being because my daughter has health issues, which is better, I guess than having a tree hugging communist weirdo for a daughter!

Does God hate Fred Phelps? I do.

Last week, I finally received "The Laramie Project" from Blockbuster, after having it at the top of my queue for months. As I watched this documentary, which deals with the torture and murder of a gay man in Wyoming, and the prosecution of the two men responsible for the death, I saw a group of protesters who included an elderly man in a red and blue "puffy coat". They held signs which said things like "God Hates Fags". That evening, the ABC national news aired a piece about a case to be heard by the United States Supreme Court which arises from a protest at the funeral of a young man who was killed while serving his country abroad. As footage of the protest was shown, I again saw the elderly man in the red and blue puffy coat, and signs that said "God Hates the USA" and "Thank God for dead soldiers". I was appalled. The man's name is Fred Phelps, and he is the leader of the "Wellsboro Baptist Church".

Yesterday, I saw a You Tube video from a group called "Not in our Town", which promotes acceptance and tolerance. Students in San Francisco area schools organized a show of support for their gay and lesbian brothers and sisters to counteract a planned appearance by....you guessed it....Fred Phelps and company. He is everywhere. His group spends almost a quarter of a million dollars per year in travel expenses to spread their hatred. Where are they getting this kind of cash? His plethora of websites bear names like "smellthebrimstone.com", and feature Matthew Shepard (the murder victim) engulfed in flames, and assertions about Matthew Snyder (the dead soldier) which include that he was raised to serve the devil.

Listen up, Fred Phelps!!! You immoral heartless bastard...... I challenge you to show me anywhere in the New Testament where Jesus directs you to cause heartbreak to parents who have lost a child under tragic circumstances in order to validate your bizarre view of the world. Show me where Jesus says that "God hates fags". Explain to me what that soldier's parents have to do with any of the bases for your protest. Why them?
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus states "Blessed are those who mourn". How does that reconcile with protesting a child's funeral exactly, Fred?

St. Paul wrote: "At the end, three things endure...faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love." Where's the love, Fred? If Jesus exemplifies love, you epitomize hate. I can't even waste my time praying for you, Fred. I will reserve my prayers for the two Matts, and the countless others you've hurt with your venomous actions. Just please, for the love of God, GO AWAY.

Fantasy World in Wilkes-Barre

I read with sadness the Times Leader article about the gang situation in Wilkes-Barre and the response of law enforcement to the influx of these violent groups. The law enforcement response was, essentially, "if you talk to your kids, they won't join gangs", and "we have been dealing with this situation for years...it's just different groups". Ignorance is indeed bliss.

If there is one thing that I have learned through my exposure to the criminal justice system in Hudson County, NJ over the past 15 years or so, it's that the influx of the Bloods has caused a huge increase in violent crimes. The gangs require an act of violence (either a beating, or sometimes, a murder) as the price of admission to the group. There is a hierarchy, who orders "work" to be done (violence associated with territorial disputes, personal affronts, or whatever) by the rank and file members. The Crips, for example, are targets simply because of their gang affiliation. Smaller local gangs are either destroyed or assimilated into the larger group.

The Jamaicans to which the Police Chief refers were more of a local gang, rather than a national network like the Bloods. Their violence related only to drug rivals, and not to the community at large. They were not recruiting from the streets. In stark contrast, the Bloods will declare an area "Blood" territory, and those who live there and oppose the will of the group in any way will be subjected to violence. Children in that neighborhood will be groomed for membership. They will join the gang out of fear, as they will witness the punishment meted out to those who stand in their way.

I saw two guys in Bloods colors at the BP in Pittston. I felt sick. If Wilkes-Barre does not immediately form a gang intelligence unit, and assemble a database of gang members and affiliations, the violence will spiral out of control in the city. Talking to your children about an ideal is of no use to them when their reality is living in a neighborhood rife with others who seek to harm them.

Dear Mr. Fantasy....I mean Chief....WAKE UP.

Are you insane? I am not pushing my child.

My five year old daughter can read. She uses her abacus to do double digit addition and subtraction. She was held back an additional year because, as she says, "I missed the cut off". When we attend her pre K program, it is obvious that she is ahead of the rest of the children. I tell her that education is important, and that her "job", for the next several years, is to do well in school.
Someone told me that I am "making a mistake", because she will be "bored" and will not "behave" in school. I beg to differ. Nick Kristof's column in last Sunday's New York Times listed the finalists for the national science competition. Two names sounded "American".(maybe) The other children were all Indian or Asian. I am certain that their parents, who probably lived fifteen to an apartment, worked round the clock, and ate rice every day when they came to this country, would certainly never tell me that I shouldn't encourage my daughter to soar, and instead, clip her wings before she tries to fly.
We Americans have grown complacent. That's why the world is kicking our ass. It's easier, I suppose, to have a child who plods along with the other sheep. I tell Caroline that people with top grades get top jobs. Those who fail at school spend the rest of their lives wiping other people's asses. She says that's not for her.

Land For Peace, Stupid

This whole settlement disaster has been going on since well before my days at Yeshiva U. That's right, boys and girls, the Kimmeister was a student with a German surname at Yeshiva's law school back in the late 80s and early 90s. The one with the 8x10 photo of Yasir Arafat in her locker.

And, you know, the OBSERVANT Jews with whom I attended Cardozo DID NOT, by and large, support the settlement movement in Eretz Israel. These were the sons and daughters of Holocaust survivors or ancestors of those who lived in the Pale of Settlement, who questioned ANY governments right to push a people off its land. The native Israelis (Sabras) were mostly non observant, and also believed that the Palestinians should be allowed to remain. They have lived with Arabs next door for years.

I remember the day Rabin was shot. It was the death knell for the cessation of settlements, as well as the idea of "land for peace". It was during the Sabbath in the US. After hearing the news, I telephoned one of my classmates, and left a message that said "Elchi, as soon as Shabbat is over, turn on the TV because Rabin has been shot." I knew then that a Right wing loon had just destroyed any progress which had been made in achieving a lasting peace.

Since then, Israel has erected a large portions of a wall they would not need if they were not encroaching on land that is not theirs for the taking. They have revoked the tax exempt status for the Augusta Victoria Hospital, which provides medical care for Palestinians who would not otherwise be able to obtain it. They have closed off border crossings whenever they choose, effectively eliminating the ability of the Palestinians to work, shop, or travel to Israel. The hardest blow, however, came last week when Israel announced that they were going to expand settlement in East Jerusalem, which has been widely touted as the eventual capital of a Palestinian state. Christian groups are concerned by the fact that Christain residents of Jerusalem are an endangered species. The Mount of Olives Housing Project is an effort to provide the means for a continued presence in the City.

The timing wasn't a slap in the face of Joe Biden or the United States. The fact that this so called ally of the United States has so little regard for the international rule of law, the wishes of the world's people, and the rights of the people without whose consent and labor the State of Israel would not exist is more like the Israeli government pissing on the collective legs of the American leaders, and telling them it's raining.

NO settlements in East Jerusalem. Forget tough talk. Tell Israel we will cut off aid. Period. We do it to everyone else who pisses on us, and some who really haven't. It's time to show Israel that there is a limit to our patience. And it has been reached.