1. JULY 4, 2024 - Some Thoughts about Independance

As the killing continues in our names and "checks and balances" disappear - putting more power and money in smaller hands - we can be more aware and conscious of our actions and values, trying to bring them closer together. 2. Strive to be coherent. This moment is a huge spotlight on every one of us. And I am surprised by some individual's unpredictable integrity and others' unpredictable greed. We are each showing our true selves.

INFORMATION:

1.Last year BDS was a marginal strategy- today it's driving rebellion on 130 campuses in the US and around the world as students demand DIVESTMENT from holdings that build the Israeli economy and BOYCOTT of normalizing programs with Israeli state institutions. 2. Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) is a nonviolent strategy of a Palestinian organization, PACBI (Palestine Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.) PACBI is 20 years old, and has developed wise, creative advice to those working to pressure Israel through boycott.

1. Lately I have been paying more attention to the groups of my fellow Jews who are describing themselves as persecuted because of the global objections (by other Jews and the rest of the world) to the brutal slaughter in Gaza. 2. These people include the 400 who signed a petition against Jonathan Glaser, to a Zionist right-wing journalist who spoke at the 92nd St Y, to an Atlantic writer to a student from 'Bears for Israel" claiming that people are yelling at her because they are anti-semitic.

1. Thinking about why so many esteemed cultural institutions in New York, sophisticated national publications, and so many American universities, are completely failing to respond to the moral crisis of this bloody slaughter of people in Gaza? 2. It occurs to me that most of these esteemed institutions historically excluded the most interesting and necessary ideas. They debased and marginalized risky exciting movements of forward thinking people while elevating and glorifying avoidant or repetitive work.

1.First I went to the bodega to get water, and then rode my bike to Saint Vincent's to give blood. The line of New Yorkers with the same thought was huge, and there were gurneys and sheets laid out in front of the hospital waiting for patients but they never came. 2.As I stood there I started to see the parade of dust covered people walking up from Wall Street, like chalk coated Butoh players stumbling in slow motion, in their work suits and tennis shoes, clutching their ash covered briefcases.

1.I have no opinion as yet about a Democratic candidate, but I do have feelings about the gay aspect of the Buttigieg candidacy. 2. It is one of the great surprises and frustrations of being a lifelong activist - a person who works with others to push the society forward- to see how the change we seek actually gets implemented.