Jewish Musings, Sunday, 1/22/2017

[savtele]

What’s on your mind — how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.

Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:

Angelika
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy

And for those of you that stop by to read this thread without posting - you are welcome to do that but you are also welcome to chime in!

[savtele]

Boker Tov & Shavuah Tov All! Louise - I saw that you were planning to march - please, tell us about it! Anyone else? (my favorite sign, held by an elderly lady "Now you've pissed off Grandma!")

That being said - I am angry and embarrassed by the violence & rioting that happened on election day. That is NOT protest, nor does it serve any political or other purpose except destruction. Several downtown Portland stores that had plate glass smashed during the November riots had preemptively boarded up their windows.

It's a new day, a new week - and an whole new United States of America, it feels like. I had planned on marching, but then had a funeral to go to. (My DD's bff - they have been besties since HS, raised their kids together. So sad)

I think on many levels (even if we cannot march) it behooves us to find ways to protest! Almost 3 million MORE of us voted for Hillary than voted for Trump - he certainly doesn't have a "mandate from the people!" If nothing else, finding and spreading information. I find myself fact-checking, re-checking & looking at more sources. As I mentioned before (perhaps not here) I feel I need to be scrupulous about information I pass on - simply because my bias is so completely anti-Trump.

Right now, I'm really interested in your take on what YOU can plan to do, if anything. What causes are close to your heart (and wallet)! I know that for me, healthcare, medicare & social security, at this time are paramount! Climate change & education run right on the heels of that. (I did point out on my FB page that I really need to limit my "outrage" - this is a marathon, not a sprint!)

I'll be back to read & comment in the light of day!

[peachymom1]

Good morning!

If I had to choose one issue of concern, it would be separation of church and state. I am sick to death of people using "religion" as an excuse to be hateful, hurtful, ignorant and exclusionary. If we take care of everyone, including seniors, women, the poor, LGBT people, and everyone else, we all benefit.

My sister who lives in the bay area was not able to march because she broke her leg recently. So one of her friends rented a wheelchair and pushed her. Yay! I can't wait to talk to her later today and hear about it!

[lee058]

Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well. 500,000 people marched peacefully in DC yesterday; over a million around the world in all seven continents (even Antarctica!). As was said, women's rights are human rights. I wasn't able to go, but I watched most of the speeches on TV. I agreed with most of them, but I was concerned about the emphasis on Muslims. I would have liked to have seen even one speaker talk about talk and actions against Jews, and how this must be stopped.

I'll be back later. Have a peaceful day, Lee

[louise]

I will be giving thought to what we can do but for starters it is important to keep making our dissatisfaction known. I understand that is not enough to keep us moving forward but when I think of what congress got away with during Obama's term it underscores to me how important it is to keep saying "no, it's not okay."

They say there were 400,000 marchers in NYC. Hard to say because there were so many people that even though they staggered start times the start point was so jammed up people could not move. Our start time was right in the middle and we saw people walking the wrong way and learned from them about the bottleneck so we followed the lead of many others and entered the march from a different point. I heard that it took many hours for the people at the original start point to actually get to walk! Very few venues like the Mall in Washington. The signs were great like "Respect existence or expect resistance" "I'm with her" (carried by men with arrows pointing in every direction) Many signs with pictures of ovaries. Of course many "Love Trumps Hate. It was kind of anticlimactic because at the end, a half a block away from Trump Towers, there was a wall of policemen and we were told to turn off the street - no speakers like in Washington. But still, the participation was amazing - we knew as soon as we got on the subway that the train was unusually full for a Sunday afternoon, and things like that. All of midtown was "stuffed" with people. I was also taken by the variety of causes represented and the range of ages. I saw a woman walking with a surgical boot on her foot!

My nephew and his family just relocated to New Zealand for a few months while on sabbatical. They sent me pix from a rally in Dunedin, NZ they attended!

I'm off to a brunch at the synagogue.

BBL

[momof2]

Boker Tov All,
I'm just trying to digest everything. For me, having a pre existing medical condition, health care is important.
I hear DS waking, it is just after 7, late for him. DD is still asleep, also late for her. I am enjoying a quiet cup of tea before everyone is up.
DH and I have been sick, allergies, who knows. Also discovered a leak under the sink in the hall bath, hopefully someone will come out today.
Need to WI sometime this month, for free lifetime status.
Waving HI to all,
Tamara

[gazelle18]

There were even10,000 marchers in New Orleans!!

For myself, I am recommitting to an organization that trains post college Jews in how to be leaders in social justice and anti poverty movements. This organization, for which I am on the board, is terrific. I have decided to become involved more in the ADL. Also, there is a local organization (non-sectarian) starting up for people who want to protect civil and voting rights. I am going to join that.

[peachymom1]

It is so encouraging to read all this!

[lee058]

Hi again everybody. I've been reading about the various marches around the world today, and I think it's so amazing! I really think that this is a turning point and that a lot of good things will be happening because of this. Of course, there will be a lot of work to be done in the face of hostility, but there are so many of us that we cannot be stopped. WOOT!!!

Have a peaceful evening, Lee

[brgmsn]

I attended in Washington, along with my 2 DD and a friend. To say it was inspiring, and overwhelming, and a once in a lifetime experience would not do it justice. We felt safe, and supported, and empowered.I cannot say it enough--DO SOMETHING. Email a representative. Donate to the ACLU or Planned Parenthood. Write a letter and let a representative know how you feel. Join a group. Not everyone can march, it's easy to complain, but as shown by the worldwide marches, we are not alone.

[hollygail]

I think I told you all that a student of mine became bat mitzvah yesterday, so I didn't have the opportunity to march. However, this morning, one of the girls in my first class (she often wears some sort of knit cap) was wearing a bright pink cap. I asked whether she had been in the march (in San Diego) yesterday, and she said yes, that cap was what she was wearing! YAY! She's going to become bat mitzvah in April.

[happysavta]

Hi, Chaverot,

I had a busy week and a busy weekend. Nice to be back.

My take on all these protests is that they are premature. No legislation or policy has been proposed or enacted against women, social security, medicare, LGBT or Muslims etc. People are just venting their dislike of Trump, which I certainly understand; I too gag every time he tweets and shake my head in disbelief that such a rude, crude personality could win the White House.

But I agree with every goal he stated in his inaugural address. America has changed so drastically in the last 50 years; I barely recognize it. We were manufacturing giants, innovative, leaders in the world, admired by many, and the richest country in the world. My father worked in the American garment industry, which is now practically non-existent in this country.

Here are the goals Trump stated in his Inaugural speech. I went back and reread it. Tell me what you disagree with.

If you disagree with the goal of bringing jobs and manufacturing back to the U.S., I don't.

If you disagree with the goal of revitalizing the inner cities with business opportunities, better schools, and reducing violence, I don't.

If you disagree with taking a new direction in education, I don't. (As a teacher, I can tell you our students are lagging compared to other countries in languages, math, science, history, geography, reading, writing, you name it.)

If you disagree with strengthening the borders, particularly against drug trafficking and illegal immigration, I don't. (We waited 6 years to come to the U.S. legally, and back then, people with criminal backgrounds were not allowed to enter.) Our border laws are not being enforced.

If Trump inspires people to "Buy American and Hire American", as he said in his speech, good!

If he repeals and replaces the Affordable Care Act with something better and cheaper, fine by me. (Every single doctor I know hated that law and chaffed under the restrictions, unable to be true physicians, not just providers of services.)

If the flow of immigrants from hostile cultures and countries, particularly from the Middle East, is limited, that's fine by me too. I've lived among our "cousins" and I'm not naive to the hostility. I also agree that radical Islamic terrorism is barbaric and needs to be eradicated from the face of the earth, as he said in the inaugural.

If he can rebuild our military forces instead of pouring money into the military of Iraq and other foreign countries, good for him.

If Trump does move forward on rebuilding American infrastructure as he said, that sounds like a good goal to me.

If he can make the professional political class listen to the people they represent and realize that they are accountable and have term limits, I see nothing wrong with that statement from his inaugural speech. Congress has been such a paralyzed body for so many years and nothing got done.

If Trump can make any impact on crime, gangs and drugs, as he said in his speech, more power to him.

If he can indeed help "the women and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities", then I will applaud his anti-poverty efforts.

In many parts of his speech, he actually spoke out against prejudice very forcefully. The Bible verse "How good and pleasant it is when we are in harmony together as brothers." We all know that verse. Hiney ma tov u'manayim, shevet achim gam yachad.

And it was inspiring to hear: "It is time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget: that whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots, we all enjoy the same glorious freedoms, and we all salute the same great American Flag."

"And whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, they look up at the same night sky, they fill their heart with the same dreams, and they are infused with the breath of life by the same almighty Creator."
'
There was not a word in his inaugural address about Medicare or Social Security or women's rights or whatever people thought they needed to go out and protest against already.

It's my personal view that problems of poverty and social injustice are better solved by education and economic opportunity than by laws or government entitlement programs. I agree with Peachy that we have to take care of each other, but I would really prefer that "we" was defined as you and me, not the federal government.

I watched my parents and all their landsmen arrive in America with absolutely nothing except the clothes on their backs. They went to school at night to learn English, worked at hard, dirty jobs, lived frugally, saved money and rebuilt their lives. They loved and admired this country and felt it was a unique land. They didn't want, and refused to accept, hand-outs and government programs.

So I wish Trump all success and I wish he would keep his mouth shut and just work at the goals he has set out.