Last night I was on Flashpoints with Dennis Bernstein about Matt Nelson, who is by all indications the person who immolated themselves across from the Israeli consulate in Boston on Sept.
Excellent insights Sam. These acts of courage should cross the blood/brain barrier to all who have a scintilla of humanity. Thank you so much for writing articulately about such a difficult subject.
Great piece, Sam. Though I have given no thought and have no intention of resorting to self-immolation in protest of Israel's despicable crimes in Gaza, seldom does a day pass without my thinking to myself that it becomes increasingly difficult to live in a world, in a culture, in a country, under a government which aids and abets such hideously destructive crimes for profit and as a matter of political convenience.
For more than 30 years during which, with the notable exception of the incomparable Wendell Berry, I read very little fiction, maybe three or four novels during that period, I read widely and deeply about U.S.-Middle East and -Asian foreign policy, Zionism, Israel, interfaith relations, Russian history, European history, war, media bias, espionage, and related topics. More or less retired now, some months ago I picked up one of Ross Macdonald's novels. I recently completed reading almost all of Macdonald's oeuvre, his short stories and his novels. I'm now deep into Learning to Pray: A Guide for Everyone, by James Martin, SJ, and have recently begun reading Tom Nolan's Ross Macdonald: A Biography, a combination that brings to mind a lyric from a Joan Baez song about it sometimes seeming easier to change the past. (Which song was that in, I wonder?) Ross Macdonald was the pen name of Canadian-American author Kenneth Millar (1915 - 1983). At 75, I am still trying to come to grips with my own PTSD and understand my father's generation, which knew PTSD as "shell shock" or "NP" (neuropsychiatric) and little understood it. Millar served as a communications officer on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific during "the War." Soon thereafter he became "one of the most brilliant graduate students in the history of the University of Michigan. [Scholarships? or the G.I. Bill? I wonder.] While Macdonald's private-eye stories were being published in Manhunt magazine next to Mickey Spillane's (which he detested), Millar was writing a Ph.D. dissertation on the psychological criticism of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. His academic colleagues disparaged or despaired of his detective fiction; his fellow crime writers were puzzled or intimidated by his university work." Millar was a very interesting character. There are many creative ways to deal with PTSD. Writing is one.
"He had to live out his time of trouble, as she had. And there was no assurance that he would. He belonged to a generation whose elders had been poisoned, like the pelicans, with a kind of moral DDT that damaged the lives of their young." -Lew Archer aka Ross Macdonald, aka Kenneth Millar in The Underground Man, page 226
"The hot breath of vengeance was growing cold in my nostrils as I grew older. I had more concern for a kind of economy in life that would help preserve the things that were worth preserving." -Lew Archer in The Underground Man, page 253
"... But don't stop praying."
"What's the use of praying?"
"It keeps the circuits open. Just in case there's ever anybody on the other end of the line." -Lew Archer in The Wycherly Woman, page 191
"We won't argue." Various, Lew Archer
As Mary Gauthier has so eloquently noted in song: We all could use a little mercy now.
Thank you, Sam, for your writings. They are a great help.
CORRECTION: My assumption that Kenneth Millar went off to war and, like so many others, afterwards returned to take up his university studies has proved to be erroneous. In fact, Millar left the University of Michigan where he was involved in a PhD program in English and, after successfully applying for a USN commission, his second attempt, went to Harvard where he studied to be a USN communications officer, and only then, relatively late in the war, was he able to ship out from California, to Hawaii, for service on an escort carrier, the USS Shipley Bay, which saw action off Okinawa. Apparently Millar did not complete his doctorate, preferring instead to join the USN. Financial considerations were a significant factor. His wife, Margaret Millar, preceded him as a remarkably successful author of detective fiction and her work largely supported their family while Kenneth was a graduate student in Ann Arbor, a situation he found very uncomfortable. What a life.
There are those inside Israel who stand for justice and humanity, made up of committed Israelis and Palestinians working together to protect the Palestinians. We need to give them all the support we can. They are taking huge risks.
Work on the Ground: Transforming Lives in Israel-Palestine — American Friends of Combatants for Peace
These are only some of the courageous groups working for justice in Palestine. They all need y/our support now, perhaps more than ever. How can we allow this to happen?
The best thing Pope Francis could ever do is to go to Gaza, or now, to the West Bank. Make his stand in Bethlehem. He has an opportunity that is unequalled, to say "no" to genocide. Not in our name, not on our watch.
Let us make our donations to honor Aaron Bushnell, in memory of Hind Rajab, or Dr Jumann Afra, the mother of newborn twins killed by Israel using US bombs.
Sam, thanks for your dogged work to get the facts of these censored cases.
Regarding the identity of Jane Doe in Atlanta, I wonder if there's an approach through the security guard who was himself seriously burned in intervening. His name is Michael Harris. His family set up a GoFundMe account, which his wife updated on September 1, 2024. Here's a link to the page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/please-help-the-security-guard-burned-in-fire.
It's clear from his wife's statement that Mr. Harris suffered grievous injuries; his recovery even nine months later was still challenging.
Excellent insights Sam. These acts of courage should cross the blood/brain barrier to all who have a scintilla of humanity. Thank you so much for writing articulately about such a difficult subject.
ZioBeasts don’t Like Truth & do their best to hide it
TRUE
WHY do we not get the images of this man 'self immolating' on Mainstream media?
Why are we getting images of the Holocaust in Israel and NOT being able to see a man who CARES?
Great piece, Sam. Though I have given no thought and have no intention of resorting to self-immolation in protest of Israel's despicable crimes in Gaza, seldom does a day pass without my thinking to myself that it becomes increasingly difficult to live in a world, in a culture, in a country, under a government which aids and abets such hideously destructive crimes for profit and as a matter of political convenience.
For more than 30 years during which, with the notable exception of the incomparable Wendell Berry, I read very little fiction, maybe three or four novels during that period, I read widely and deeply about U.S.-Middle East and -Asian foreign policy, Zionism, Israel, interfaith relations, Russian history, European history, war, media bias, espionage, and related topics. More or less retired now, some months ago I picked up one of Ross Macdonald's novels. I recently completed reading almost all of Macdonald's oeuvre, his short stories and his novels. I'm now deep into Learning to Pray: A Guide for Everyone, by James Martin, SJ, and have recently begun reading Tom Nolan's Ross Macdonald: A Biography, a combination that brings to mind a lyric from a Joan Baez song about it sometimes seeming easier to change the past. (Which song was that in, I wonder?) Ross Macdonald was the pen name of Canadian-American author Kenneth Millar (1915 - 1983). At 75, I am still trying to come to grips with my own PTSD and understand my father's generation, which knew PTSD as "shell shock" or "NP" (neuropsychiatric) and little understood it. Millar served as a communications officer on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific during "the War." Soon thereafter he became "one of the most brilliant graduate students in the history of the University of Michigan. [Scholarships? or the G.I. Bill? I wonder.] While Macdonald's private-eye stories were being published in Manhunt magazine next to Mickey Spillane's (which he detested), Millar was writing a Ph.D. dissertation on the psychological criticism of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. His academic colleagues disparaged or despaired of his detective fiction; his fellow crime writers were puzzled or intimidated by his university work." Millar was a very interesting character. There are many creative ways to deal with PTSD. Writing is one.
"He had to live out his time of trouble, as she had. And there was no assurance that he would. He belonged to a generation whose elders had been poisoned, like the pelicans, with a kind of moral DDT that damaged the lives of their young." -Lew Archer aka Ross Macdonald, aka Kenneth Millar in The Underground Man, page 226
"The hot breath of vengeance was growing cold in my nostrils as I grew older. I had more concern for a kind of economy in life that would help preserve the things that were worth preserving." -Lew Archer in The Underground Man, page 253
"... But don't stop praying."
"What's the use of praying?"
"It keeps the circuits open. Just in case there's ever anybody on the other end of the line." -Lew Archer in The Wycherly Woman, page 191
"We won't argue." Various, Lew Archer
As Mary Gauthier has so eloquently noted in song: We all could use a little mercy now.
Thank you, Sam, for your writings. They are a great help.
CORRECTION: My assumption that Kenneth Millar went off to war and, like so many others, afterwards returned to take up his university studies has proved to be erroneous. In fact, Millar left the University of Michigan where he was involved in a PhD program in English and, after successfully applying for a USN commission, his second attempt, went to Harvard where he studied to be a USN communications officer, and only then, relatively late in the war, was he able to ship out from California, to Hawaii, for service on an escort carrier, the USS Shipley Bay, which saw action off Okinawa. Apparently Millar did not complete his doctorate, preferring instead to join the USN. Financial considerations were a significant factor. His wife, Margaret Millar, preceded him as a remarkably successful author of detective fiction and her work largely supported their family while Kenneth was a graduate student in Ann Arbor, a situation he found very uncomfortable. What a life.
There are those inside Israel who stand for justice and humanity, made up of committed Israelis and Palestinians working together to protect the Palestinians. We need to give them all the support we can. They are taking huge risks.
Work on the Ground: Transforming Lives in Israel-Palestine — American Friends of Combatants for Peace
https://www.afcfp.org
For factual information:
https://www.btselem.org
Teach-in Network educating for justice
https://teachinnetwork.org
Gush Shalom has been on the side of peace for many years:
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/index_en.html
ANERA
https://www.anera.org/
ADALAH
https://www.adalahjusticeproject.org/defend
Christian organisations:
FOSNA
https://www.fosna.org
SABEEL
https://sabeel.org
https://paxchristiusa.org/
Jewish organisations:
JVP
https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org
If now now
https://www.ifnotnowmovement.org
These are only some of the courageous groups working for justice in Palestine. They all need y/our support now, perhaps more than ever. How can we allow this to happen?
Keep shopping Amerika and don't watch what is going on in your Country.
The best thing Pope Francis could ever do is to go to Gaza, or now, to the West Bank. Make his stand in Bethlehem. He has an opportunity that is unequalled, to say "no" to genocide. Not in our name, not on our watch.
Please sign the petition and share widely.
https://chng.it/CRQ7qw4Gzn
Let us also support UNRWA. If our governments won’t act in accordance with humanity, then we will. https://www.unrwausa.org/donate
Also we can all support the brave doctors who have gone to Gaza: https://palestinian-ama.networkforgood.com/projects/206145-gaza-medical-supplies-oct-2023
Or
Surgeons to Gaza
https://fajr.org/donate/
Let us make our donations to honor Aaron Bushnell, in memory of Hind Rajab, or Dr Jumann Afra, the mother of newborn twins killed by Israel using US bombs.
Here’s a petition to excommunicate Joe Biden: https://www.change.org/p/excommunicate-president-joe-biden-bf979783-ac08-4576-a53f-c786ea23dc9c
These are a few small things we can do. If we can do more, let us do more.
It seems unlikely that Netanyahu's government would permit Pope Francis to travel to either Gaza or to the illegally-occupied West Bank.
Sam, thanks for your dogged work to get the facts of these censored cases.
Regarding the identity of Jane Doe in Atlanta, I wonder if there's an approach through the security guard who was himself seriously burned in intervening. His name is Michael Harris. His family set up a GoFundMe account, which his wife updated on September 1, 2024. Here's a link to the page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/please-help-the-security-guard-burned-in-fire.
It's clear from his wife's statement that Mr. Harris suffered grievous injuries; his recovery even nine months later was still challenging.
Incidentally, according to the Israeli consul, Israel is the real victim: "It is tragic to see the hate and incitement toward Israel expressed in such a horrific way." https://abcnews.go.com/US/protester-sets-fire-apparent-political-protest-israeli-consulate/story?id=105316215
Such a terrible, but meaningful, stand to take against those who would destroy life itself.
"He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
...
His truth is marching on."