Buddhism
Fire Under the Snow: Tibet's Self Immolations of Protest
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What the self-immolation of a 21-year-old Tibetan monk means for Tibet and for us.
Politics & Society
The 99 Percent's Precious Indignation
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What is most valuable about the Occupy Wall Street movement thus far is that it tells stories of indignation.
Politics & Society
Playing with Fire: A Minister's Message from the Wall Street Protests
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by Donna Schaper
The author is a senior minister at Judson Memorial Church in New York City. The following is a sermon she delivered on Sunday, October 9. Right now our hopes are playing with fire – and we want to make sure we don’t get burned. Second we want to stay lit. So many people tell each other that they are “burnt out” or a little “fried around the edges.”
ESRA
Occupy Wall St–It's Everywhere where Corporate Power Shapes our Lives, So You Can Occupy it in Your Hometown too!
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The prophet Isaiah stood outside the ancient Israelite Temple and denounced those fasting on Yom Kippur who nevertheless were participating in an immoral society. Said Isaiah (in a statement that is now read in synagogues around the world on Yom Kippur morning though its message mostly ignored when it applies to some Jews’ participation in some of the most exploitative practices of Western capitalism or in support for the current right-wing government of Israel even as it engages in oppression of Palestinians):
Look! On the very day you fast you keep scrabbling for wealth; On the very day you fast you keep oppressing all your workers. Look! You fast in strife and contention.
Healing Israel/Palestine
Answering Obama's UN Address
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by Stephen Zunes
During the Bush administration, I wrote more than a dozen annotated critiques of presidential speeches. I have refrained from doing so under President Barack Obama, however, because – despite a number of disappointments with his administration’s policies — I found his speeches to be relatively reasonable. Although his September 21 address before the UN General Assembly contained a number of positive elements, in many ways it also contained many of the same kind of duplicitous and misleading statements one would have expected from his predecessor. Below are some excerpts, followed by my comments. On Palestinian Statehood and Middle East Peace:
One year ago, I stood at this podium and I called for an independent Palestine.
Politics & Society
The Truth About "Class War" in America
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Republicans and conservatives have done us a service by describing federal policies in terms of “class war.” But by applying the term only to Obama’s latest proposals to raise taxes on the rich, they have it all backward and upside down. The last 50 years have indeed seen continuous class warfare in and over federal economic policies.
But it was a war waged chiefly by business and conservatives. They won, as we show below, and the mass of middle-income and poor Americans lost. Obama’s modest proposal for tax increases on the rich does not begin a class war. On the contrary, it is a small, modest effort to reduce the other side’s class war victories.
General News
Speakers for the "Values Voter Summit" 2011
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The Values Voter Summit will be held this week in Washington (October 7-9, 2011). For only $99, plus housing, food, and transportation costs, summit attendees will have the opportunity to hear a wide array of right-wing speakers, including not only the usual suspects but also the leaders of some up and coming organizations. Since I believe it is important to know what is being said on the Right, I thought it might be useful to compile a list of Summit speakers with links to some of the interesting websites. The first group of speakers at the Summit includes all of the GOP presidential hopefuls, except for Jon Huntsman: Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum. Sarah Palin has not yet confirmed but is listed on the conference website.
General News
Occupy Wall Street Spreads to Over 50 Cities, Reflecting Israel's Social Justice Protests and Arab Spring Roots
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As the initial phase of Israel’s social justice protest movement climaxed this summer – with tent encampments dotting nearly every municipality in the country and massive street rallies shaking Israel’s major cities – many progressives in America looked on from the sidelines in awe, cheering Israel’s youth-driven movement. In a diverse array of online venues, people marveled at the protesters’ success and identified closely with many of their central demands – bolstering social welfare programs, strengthening workers’ rights and reforming those capitalist systems that have served to widen the gaps between the rich and the poor. However, while cheering from the sidelines, many in this country who longed for such a movement to sweep through the United States also expressed feelings of envy. Time and again, the following refrains echoed on news sites, blogs and in social media: it can’t happen here. America is too big.
Judaism
Spiritual Wisdom of the Week: What is this Ecofeminist Doula's favorite Jewish practice? Mikveh!
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This week’s spiritual wisdom comes from Wendy Kenin:
There are so many reasons to love the mikveh (Jewish ritual bath). My love for mikveh inspired me to keep kosher, observe the Jewish Sabbath, and cover my hair as a married woman. Here are a few of my personal favorite things about the mikveh:
1. Immersing into the Earth’s waters
Mikveh water must meet certain requirements of being naturally existing, as from a natural body of water or harvest from the rain. Any large enough body of naturally occurring water can be a mikveh.
Healing Israel/Palestine
Abbas, Netanyahu, & Obama at the UN: Responses from a Palestinian and a Jew
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As we often do in the magazine, the website, and in our emails, here are responses you are unlikely to read or hear or see in the mass media to the President of Palestine Abbas and the Prime Minister of Israel Netanyahu in relationship to what they have been doing at the U.N. Our first respondent is a Palestinian activist in Ramallah, the second a Jewish columnist in NYC. Here is the first response from Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, originally posted on his blog:
Kudos Mr. Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas gave a brilliant speech at the United Nations, getting rounds of applause from most of the representatives. I think it demonstrated clearly and unambiguously that the Palestinian leadership has been “unreasonably reasonable” and has instead seen the hopes of peace and of millions of Palestinians suffering for 63 years dashed on the rock of Israeli expansionist, colonial, and apartheid policies. He explained that Israel has been taking one unilateral action after another each resulting in more pain and suffering for our people. Going to the UN, he explained is putting things back where the problems started (he did not use the last two words but I do).