I hope that Stevie Wonder will not mind this appropriation of the title of one of his songs. However, the uproar from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party over President Obama’s compromise on tax cuts is misplaced outrage. So what the fuss? Rather than fulminating against President Obama, the more productive action is to turn up the rhetorical heat on the Republicans in Congress and to make the progressive case to the country. This is a contestation of ideas.

First, let us understand that President Obama’s responsibility is to govern. Every political system requires the art of compromise. He cannot govern as an ideologue and get anything done. Next, it is important to understand that President Obama is a pragmatist, not only in the functional sense, but also in the philosophical sense. Barack Obama ran as a conciliator. He did not run as a progressive. We projected our progressive agenda onto him. However, being a pragmatist both functionally and philosophically does not mean that he lacks core principles or is without political courage. He fought valiantly for universal health care when his advisors in the White House advised him to go for something smaller. And those of us who do not have health insurance appreciate the effort because it establishes the principle of universal health care in the United States. It gives us a foundation upon which to build.

“There is a war between the ones
who say there is a war
And the ones who say there isn’t.” (Leonard Cohen)

“Even in authoritarian countries, information networks are helping people discover new facts and making governments more accountable.” (Hillary Clinton, 1/21/10)

Wikileaks has raised a range of fascinating and related issues, starting with the extraordinary information that has been revealed. But should that information have been revealed? Is Julian Assange a hero, a rapist, both, or neither? What has the US done in response, and what should it have done? And what has “Anonymous” done in response, and who are they anyway? I’ve been trying to keep up with the unfolding answers to these questions, surfing as fast as I can, and getting further and further behind the wave. But the most fascinating story is the battle between Anonymous and the US government, a battle so one-sided that it makes David and Goliath look like an even money bet. But, as could only have happened in the 21st century, Anonymous has won at least the first few rounds.

In this corner in the red, white, and blue trunks, the US government. With an annual budget of 3.5 trillion dollars it has enough power that all it takes is for Joseph Lieberman, (whom the Guardian calls “the kind of politician who gives loose cannons a bad name”) to call Wikileaks “implacably hostile to our military and the most basic requirements of our national security,” and things happen. Amazon terminates their hosting of Wikileak’s account, spuriously claiming copyright violation. (As Juan Cole points out, “once a document has become public, no matter how, the government cannot sue for copyright infringement or demand its return on those grounds, at least in the United States” And how secure does your cloud computing feel these days?) Wikileaks domain name provider, Everydns, dropped wikileaks.org off the net (the cyber equivalent of having your phone disconnected). Visa and Mastercard stopped allowing their cards to be used to make donations to Wikileaks, (though you can use these same cards to donate to the Ku Klux Klan). Paypal not only dropped Wikileaks, but locked the account of users whose businesses had donated any money to Wikileaks. Then, feeling that a Wikileaks knockout had been achieved, on Dec 8th the US State department announced “World Press Freedom Day,” because they were “concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information.” Oh the irony, it burns. As Al Jazeera accurately summed up the US response,

“what WikiLeaks is exposing is the way the Western democratic system has been hollowed out. In the last decade its political elites have been shown to be incompetent (the US and UK in not regulating their financial sectors); corrupt (Ireland, Italy; all other governments in relation to the arms trade) or recklessly militaristic (US and UK in Iraq) and yet nowhere have they been called to account in any effective way…. And when, finally, the veil of secrecy is lifted in a really effective way, their reflex reaction is to kill the messenger.”

But in the other corner, apparently wearing no trunks at all, was Anonymous.

By Neil Hanson

Senator George Voinovich

Largely unnoticed in our world of polarized politics today is Senator George Voinovich, Republican from Ohio. One of the last true conservative voices in Washington, he’s retiring early next year.

This is significant today, as many of us hold our nose in disgust at the compromise reached by Obama and Republicans that will extend the so-called “Bush tax cuts”. Voinovich voted against the tax cuts in the first place. He has stated that he will vote against any extension of the tax cuts. His opposition is based on his desire to see us stop madly spending money we’re not willing to raise.

Nobody “likes” taxes. We’d all love it if we didn’t have to pay them. But the reality is that we must pay them in order to allow our government to pay our bills. We’ve taken a very childish and selfish approach to taxes over the past 30 years, since Reagan taught politicians that they could propose this and get away with it. We’ve continued to spend money, while continually lowering taxes. Everyone knows this leads to bankruptcy, which is what we’re on the edge of as a country, but nobody is willing to put voice to the common knowledge that the emperor has not worn clothes for quite some time.

The one group who should oppose the extension of the tax cuts more than any other are conservatives. True conservatives mind you, not these neo-conservatives and neo-liberals who’ve been masquerading as conservatives for the past 30 years. By extending the tax cuts, all we do is force the borrowing of billions more, edging us closer to bankruptcy, increasing the cost of servicing our now obscene national dept. (The current debt, by the way, is $13.8 trillion dollars.)

I’m tired of the excuses being made for Barack Obama’s presidency. I didn’t buy the excuses made about George W. Bush’s term from my friends and family on the Right and I won’t buy into these exhausted reasons as to why we should suck it up and support Obama, “sink or swim.” So many believed in this “Man of Steel,” but this Superman cannot fly.

Obama had a majority Democratic Congress when he first stepped in, yet not much has changed. Our president of “change” has become such a lame duck that even Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners has stated:

“Time and again, we heard Barack Obama on the campaign trail say that Washington was broken, and he was running for President of the United States to change it. He was right about our political system, and his presidency has offered further proof. Washington is a broken system and needs to be changed.” (SojoMail 12.09.10)

Despite my friends on the left’s declarations otherwise, Obama has not been the force of good we had envisioned. Obama has become part of the problem he promised to change.

The Glastonbury Thorn. Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Arboricide. There really is such a word. It means “the wanton destruction of trees.” On December 8th, 2010 arboricide was committed against the legendary Thorn Tree of Glastonbury, a tree that is said to have sprung from the staff of Joseph of Arimathea some two thousand years ago. The tree, whose ancestry has been traced to the Middle East, blooms during the seasons of Christmas and Easter. Each year on December 8th a sprig is cut from one of the tree’s descendants in St John’s churchyard and sent to the queen for her Christmas table. Whoever attacked the tree was likely familiar with the custom and chose the day accordingly. The Thorn Tree that stands – or stood – on Wearyall Hill was felled once before by Cromwell’s troops during England’s Civil War. The townspeople replanted the tree from cuttings, as they no doubt will again.

For the first arboricides, the tree was a symbol of Papist superstition – and perhaps also the wealth and privilege of the established religion. Whenever I hear the word Papist, I know the other “p” word, pagan, is just under the surface. The Cromwellians also made war on Maypoles, Beltane fires, observances of saints’ days, all the old customs that had been baptized and renamed by the Roman Catholic Church. Until the current arboricide is arrested, we can only speculate on the motive.

Some accounts call the arboricide an anti-Christian act which I think is unfortunate and inflammatory. The great thing about a holy tree is that no creed is required for veneration. Whether or not the tree sprang from Joseph’s staff and whether or not the staff was made from the wood of Jesus’s cross, the Glastonbury Thorn Tree is sacred because it is beloved, because it is a place of pilgrimage where people bring their troubles as well as their homage. It is sacred because it connects faith and myth, past and present, nature and miracle. It is sacred because it is a tree, with its roots in the earth and its branches in the sky, because it mediates those two worlds and draws sustenance from both, because, like all trees, it shows us how to do the same.

The veneration of trees pre-dates Christianity and no doubt all organized world religions. The tree is a source of life, offering shelter, food, habitat, fuel, soil preservation and enrichment – not to mention breathable air. In places where trees are scarce or land has been cleared, the tree is a gathering place, a landmark. In a world where we are losing forest at an alarmingly rapid rate, we would all do well to venerate trees, believers and atheists alike. No matter the motivation or beliefs of the arboricide, let’s not forget that it is a living tree that was attacked and living forests that continue to be at risk. May this loss awaken us to our deep-rooted, sacred connection with trees.

Seattle LGBT youth chorus Diverse Harmony (photo by benjiboi)

It had to happen sooner or later: critiques of the “It Gets Better” campaign. But not from antigay religious conservatives; oh no, that would be too easy.

Instead, the critique appears to be coming from the left, and it comes down mostly to the following: the campaign is too assimilationist; it only really supports white middle-class young gay men and its vision for them is that they will turn into Dan Savage, though perhaps with fewer insights about how to write a sex column. Left out of the equation are women, queers of color, transyouth, and poor LGBTQ young people, according to these critiques (well-represented by Jasbir Puar’s piece, which ends by claiming that the campaign might be making things worse for queer youth who don’t fit the wealthy white male profile).

Then there’s Danah Boyd’s research on how teens in general don’t conceptualize bullying the way adults do, with the consequence that well-intended adult attempts to address teen bullying are falling on largely deaf teen ears. This piece doesn’t address sexuality at all, but winds up presenting bullying as a simple (and complex) matter of teen social dynamics. One could read the article and come away thinking this issue really is not about social injustice at all.

On Sunday December 5th, Afghan children and a U.S. combat veteran shared their experiences of the war with each other and people across the world. Their stories were heart-breaking, their mutual calls for an end to the war powerful and clear, and their gift to anyone willing to truly listen and learn about the situation in Afghanistan is priceless. You can take part in the next two conversations on Sunday December 12th and 19th.

“The Tragedy of Obama: a corporatist centrist giving endless concessions to Republicans who (successfully) portray him as a radical leftist.” – Anatoly Karlin, geopolitics analyst and blogger at Sublime Oblivion.

A person reveals a lot by the website they choose for their home page. Some people want to have their own blog; others have Google news. There have been times when I’ve had both of those, but for the past four years I’ve been firmly linked to Reddit. Reddit is a community forum on which people post, either their own comments or links to sites, news, pictures, whatever. Users can comment on these posts, and discussions, sometimes heated ones, follow. There’s nothing unusual with that. The first element that lifts Reddit beyond the ordinary is that readers can click arrows to upvote or downvote both the news stories, and one another’s comments, so that the stories that people find the most interesting are the ones you see in the top 50, and the comments that people have found the most offensive sink to the bottom of the list. The people rule, or at least moderate the website .

The second remarkable element is the size of Reddit. Each month about two million different visitors, go to their selection of its 56,514 subreddits, or separate topics. So if you want people who share your interest in (lightly sampling the ‘p’s) pets, Poland, polyamory relationships, Phish, poetry, or programming there’s a subreddit devoted to that. (There are a number devoted to porn, but as with all subreddits, if you don’t sign up for it, you don’t see it.) To get a sense of the range, look at the current 912 most popular subreddits here, with the name written proportionally to the popularity: the most popular are in the biggest font size. Three weeks ago I wanted to find out the best cellular company for an iPhone in Canada, I posted the question in both the iPhone and Canada subreddits, and within two days had a hugely helpful and educated series of responses. (Consensus answer: it’s a trick question. There are no good cellular phone companies in Canada. Most useful answer: a link to a website that compares costs and plans for all iPhone carriers across the country.)

I had mixed feelings when I first heard about Rabbi Lerner’s proposal to save Obama’s presidency by running a primary challenge against him by a candidate who is a strong advocate of progressive policies. I definitely agree that if President Obama signs an extension to the Bush’s tax cuts for billionaires, many people would be emotionally tempted to view that as the “last straw” and end their support for Obama. Why can’t the Democrats simply and repeatedly call it like it is on this issue – borrowing $700 billion from our children and grandchildren to give to rich people over the next few years? According to a recent poll, only 26% of Americans (and only 46% of Republicans) actually support this tax cut for billionaires.

But I digress, so let’s get back to running a primary challenge against Obama from the left. Didn’t Ted Kennedy try that when he mounted a primary challenge against President Carter in 1980? Carter ended up losing the general election to Ronald Reagan that year, and while I doubt that Kennedy’s challenge caused that, there was a general gut feeling that it was a contributing factor.

I can’t endorse Rabbi Lerner’s proposal here, but after giving it some more thought I decided that there is some merit to his idea. The merit is not necessarily for the reasons emphasized in Rabbi Lerner’s article, or as a winning election strategy for the Democrats, but because of the way it would change the public debate about ideas and policy

In the wake of the latest Wikileaks releases and the predictable response to them by the powers that be we can look to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as an example of someone who persistently and emphatically rejected the standard fear mongering of the political and media establishment. It wasn’t just his powerful critique of the Vietnam War or U.S. foreign policy that deserves attention. We should also remember his explicit distrust of the government fed sound bytes that were designed to evoke base emotions and win popular support for an often illegal and unethical foreign policy. King was so skeptical of his government that he actually advised, “the more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated our enemies” (emphasis added). The tribalistic demonization of entire groups, whether communists or the Vietnamese people was due partly to, King believed, an America gripped by a “war psychosis” that needed to be confronted head on. He stated, “We must demonstrate, teach and preach until the very foundations of our nation shake.” And while it is speculation or perhaps an educated guess on my part, I believe King may have viewed Wikileaks as one of those necessary forms of protest.

King left a staunchly anti-Imperialist legacy which questioned the very fabric of the American Empire. From his early days in graduate school King wrote of the dangers of the “False God of Nationalism” (PDF) which he referred to as a religion.

The watchword of this new religion is “My country right or wrong.” This new religion has its familiar prophets and preachers. In Germany it was preached by Hitler In Italy it was preached by Mussilini [sic]. And in America it is being preached by the McCarthy’s and the Jenners, the advocators of white supremacy, and the America first movements.

The preachers of this new religion are so convinced of its supremacy that they are determined to persecute anyone who does not accept its tenets. And so today many sincere lovers of democracy and believers of the Christian principle are being scorned and persecuted because they will not worship the god of nationalism. We live in an age when it is almost heresy to affirm the brotherhood of man…

According to King the U.S. was the “largest purveyor of violence in the world.” He criticized its economic policies that made possible the racist Apartheid government of South Africa, denounced the use of American military force to crush people power revolutions in Latin America and spoke out against the dangerous pairing of capitalism and the military industrial complex to exploit third world countries. Capitalism according to King had “outlived its usefulness” and was “like a losing football team in the last quarter trying all types of tactics to survive.” The triple evils so perpetuated by the U.S. were poverty, racism and war and he boldly used his public position as a religious and moral leader to speak out against them. He sought to bring a direct challenge to “the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long.”

I haven’t been able to post for a while because we are up to our necks in creating a new website for Tikkun and getting out a bumper 25th Anniversary issue for January 1. That goes to press Wednesday and we are working through the weekend. It lifted my whole day to come into work this morning and find an email from my sister with a link to this video. “On Nov.13 2010 unsuspecting shoppers got a big surprise while enjoying their lunch:”

Because it involves a suggested electoral strategy for the liberal and progressive forces in the U.S., we at Tikkun cannot endorse Rabbi Lerner’s perspective – we are a 501 c-3 and do not engage in supporting or opposing candidates for office. Still, we thought you might find his perspective of considerable interest, as did the editors of the Washington Post. So we are calling it to your attention and will probably post it at Tikkun.org on Sunday.

You can read his views either in the Washington Post itself on Saturday, or by going here on their web site:

And needless to say, we are very interested in what your reactions are to his ideas, and may even in the Spring issue of Tikkun or on our www.tikkun.org conduct a discussion of it – we are allowed to discuss these things, just not to advocate. So send your reactions straight to him: rabbiLerner@tikkun.org (if you haven’t written him before, you may get a Spam Arrest notice, and all that means is that you have to click where it says to click, then copy some letters that they show you to prove that you are a person and not a machine, and then you’ll never have to do that again to write to him.)

My husband just went to the Amnesty link I provided in my last blog post “Coming to Light” and found a warning from google that some pages of the Amnesty site have been infected with a worm. I have not encountered this warning myself, but want to make sure I let people know there may be a problem.

Because I signed up to Write for Rights, I received an email from Amnesty and am going to a particular page with case histories and addresses. I have not encountered a warning, but it is wise to be wary. Sad to think a cause can be undermined in this way.

The Maccabees by Wojciech Stattler (1800-1875)

Christmas and Chanukah share a spiritual message: that it is possible to bring light and hope in a world of darkness, oppression and despair. But whereas Christmas focuses on the birth of a single individual whose life and mission was itself supposed to bring liberation, Chanukah is about a national liberation struggle involving an entire people who seek to remake the world through struggle with an oppressive political and social order: the Greek conquerors (who ruled Judea from the time of Alexander in 325 B.C.E.) and the Hellenistic culture that they sought to impose.

The holiday celebrated by lighting candles for eight nights (the first night is tonight) recalls the victory of the guerrilla struggle led by the Maccabees against the Syrian branch of the Greek empire, and the subsequent rededication (Chanukah in Hebrew) of the Temple in Jerusalem in 165 B.C.E. However, there was a more difficult struggle that took place (and in some dimensions still rages) within the Jewish people between those who hoped for a triumph of a spiritual vision of the world embedded (as it turned out, quite imperfectly) in the Maccabees and a cynical realism that had become the common sense of the merchants and priests who dominated the more cosmopolitan arena of Jerusalem.

By Neil Hanson

I got some really excellent comments and feedback on the first article I did here on the stepped-up searches that airline passengers are now going through. To summarize, my premise is that we give up our dignity and right to privacy by submitting to these searches. The natural reaction a person might have to this is: OK, what would you do instead? Well, what’s the real problem we’re trying to solve here? Terrorism is a symptom of something. What’s it a symptom of? Find that, and you might be closer to the problem that needs solving.

Some 18th Century Terrorists

We were terrorists once. We hid in the woods and shot the British “redcoats” who were oppressing us. Britain eventually decided to just walk away from the mess and leave us to our own devices – their cost to fight their “war on terrorism” 250 years ago became too great, so the terrorists (the United States) won. Why did we resort to terrorism in our fight against the British? It was the only warfare we could use that might win, and it did. The British “ruled the world”, so to speak, and how on earth could we hope to stand up to them in a real war? We resorted to what we needed to resort to in order to throw off the oppressors.

And it worked. Were we really oppressed? We thought we were, and I suspect in many ways we really were. But the fact is that we were sick and tired of this giant military and economic machine coming into our country and ruling us as-if they had the right to do whatever they wanted to do. We were sick of the arrogance. We deserved to decide our own fate. It was clear to us that they were only here to rape us of our resources, and we didn’t like that.

Sound familiar? The US has become the bully on the world stage, filling the role that Britain played 250 years ago. Our addiction to oil has twisted us into something that we’re ashamed to recognize. A couple interesting observations about what we spend on military presence in the world:

Chanukah begins at sundown on December 1, the beginning of what I call the Feasts of Light, the observances and celebrations that carry us through the darkest time of the year.

I am sure I am not the only one to note the coincidence of the recent WikiLeaks happening this same week, leaks that “bring to light” what people in power had every intention of keeping dark. Whatever havoc the revelations may wreak, and however questionable a character Julian Assange may be, I doubtless join many in believing this exposure of secrets is a good thing. What is revealed has a chance, at least, to be healed.

I confess I have fallen out of the blogosphere recently, because I find it daunting to be topical, to make intelligent, inspiring or thoughtful commentary on events I can barely keep up with. I comfort myself that I am doing what I can to save the earth – a particular bit of earth called High Valley. But I admit that though I sign petitions and call representatives on this and that, it is easy to lose sight of the rest of the world.

Today I committed to participation in Amnesty International’s Write for Rights December 4-12 writeathon. Their site provides you with all the information you need for writing letters on your own or for organizing a letter writing event.

The Write for Rights campaign is way of bringing to light the suffering of individuals, groups, and communities, suffering that may be unknown to many or deliberately distorted or obscured by those in power. It strikes me as a fitting way to honor this season.

Joyous Feasts of Light to all!