Global

What’s ordinary about life suddenly becomes sacred. This is my definition of poetry — my deepest plunge into being alive.

It seems more relevant than ever, as innocent blood flows in the wars being waged by military-political bureaucracies across the planet. How many more stunned facial expressions will I see on YouTube, of parents who have just lost their children, their spouse, their siblings?

As I have noted, I have recently released an album of spoken-word poetry, plus crazy artwork, thanks to my good friends Andy Mitran and Scott Wills. Much of the poems go back to an earlier period of my life, shortly after the death of my wife from pancreatic cancer. At the time, my daughter was not quite 12 years old. Dad and teenage daughter — those were the days! (We both survived, I’m happy to say.)

Letter to Gaza I wrote 23 October 2023
https://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2023/10/letter-to-gaza.html But the
orgy of slaughter of Palestitinians since October accelerated and is
expected to get worse over the coming weeks of global "holidays" (The
Jewish state does not believe in a Christmas or new year truce). The
perpetrators gloat actually about the efficiency and scale of destruction
and even threatening to do more in the West Bank (already started including
in Bethlehem and Jerusalem), and to do the same in Yemen and Lebanon (two
countries obeying international oblibgations and law by trying with meager
resources to stop the genocide/holocaust that started in Gaza). Horrifying
"firebelt" bombing of whole neighborhoods (including schools, hospitals,
electric grids etc), starvation, and disease have not been used on such

Should there be a ceasefire in Gaza? Yes!

Palestinian deaths in Gaza are approaching an horrific 20,000, plus another 55,000 wounded, as Israel expands its violence into the West Bank.

One hundred and fifty-three member nations of the United Nations General Assembly agreed to a draft resolution calling for a ceasefire. The US voted “NO.”

Is Pope Francis correct in saying this has “gone beyond war. This is terrorism” as he describes what is happening in Gaza? The pope was especially focused on the sniper-murders of Nahida Anton and then her daughter trying to carry her to safety inside the Holy Family Catholic Church compound in Gaza.

Their offense? Going to the only bathroom available.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has described it “an incident.” Contrary to constant Israeli statements to the contrary there were no warnings, no justification.

Nor were there warnings for Yotem Haim and two other Israeli young men – all former hostages – who appeared shirtless, holding a white surrender flag and calling out in Hebrew who they were. They were also killed by the IDF.

We are dismayed by the silence of so many churches. Here is an Open Letter
from Palestinian Christians to Western Church Leaders and Theologians

http://www.defenddemocracy.press/an-open-letter-from-palestinian-christians-to-western-church-leaders-and-theologians/


And my message for Christmas again (since then hundreds more were
murdered):

https://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2023/12/christmas-greetings.html

Top American officials in the “national security” establishment are notably good at smooth rhetoric and convenient silences. Their scant regard for truth or human life has changed remarkably little since 1971 when Daniel Ellsberg risked decades in prison to leak the Pentagon Papers to the world. During the years between then and his death six months ago, he was a tireless writer, speaker, and activist.

Most people remember him, of course, as the whistleblower who exposed voluminous official lies about the Vietnam War by providing 7,000 top-secret pages of classified documents to the New York Times and other newspapers. But throughout his adult life, he was transfixed above all by the imperative of preventing nuclear war.

One day in 1995, I called Dan and suggested he run for president. His reply was instant: “I’d rather be in prison.” He explained that, unlike typical candidates, he couldn’t stand to offer opinions on subjects he really knew little or nothing about.