"To be is to stand for."

            "To be is to stand for." --Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

          Too many people have allowed themselves to be brainwashed by the misguided, clearly unsuccessful strategy for safe coexistence with “others:” the purely reactive approach of standing up to haters, standing with victims, and standing against injustice. We see protesters reacting to acts of hatred with defiant superiority (“standing up to haters”), and neighbors reacting with “misery-loves-company” sympathy (“standing with victims”) or self-righteous outrage after someone’s persecution (“standing against injustice”). But this reactive approach is like fire-fighting with individual fire extinguishers in the wake of troops of flying arsonists, while complaining about the reckless abandonment of so much combustible material along the arsonists’ paths. Perhaps it is high time we that implement a proactive approach to preventing conflagrations, to replace the reactive approach to hatred, by focusing on what we stand for—our ideals, our morals—and modeling those ideals. 

          I read this morning that a long-time Republican party official publicly stood for his own beliefs by renouncing his membership in the Republican Party and joining the Democrats. Here is the first of a long tweet  thread from Steve Schmidt, the former campaign manager for John McCain:

29 years and nine months ago I registered to vote and became a member of The Republican Party which was founded in 1854 to oppose slavery and stand for the dignity of human life. Today I renounce my membership in the Republican Party. It is fully the party of Trump.

11:41 PM - Jun 19, 2018

https://www.newsweek.com/former-mccain-campaign-manager-leaves-republican-party-985854

Notice he used the phrase "stand FOR"? This is what we need, more of this. We must all decided who we are, what we stand for. We must raise kids who know what they stand for. We must never forget what we stand for just to stand with others who misrepresent our values and use their power to control us, or just to stand against those who have opposed us in petty politics. Politics are not life. Life is bigger than petty power struggles. Leadership means standing FOR principles. I admire Steve Schmidt. 

#WhyDoYouVote?

And I vote because of young people like these activists, who deserve a world that is safe, accepting of all people, and peaceful. My generation owes them passionate activism, not complacency in the face of the destruction of democratic ideals, of peaceful coexistence, and of our beautiful planet.

Please join me and vote for our future, and the future of their grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on.

Sparked by Injustice, I Wrote This Poem...

Questions Raised by Belittled Testimony

By Susan L. Lipson

Why is it that men who’ve cried out

years after their abuse by priests

are considered brave heroes,

with suppressed memories—

PTSD, in fact—

when they step forward publicly,

painfully recounting memories to the best of their abilities;

supported by the outraged community

who condemns the defiling of innocence;

not interrogated by critics determined to cast doubts

on their very characters,

to victimize them again,

to mentally rape them

with slander;

while women who dare to cry out

about having been molested, harassed, abused, raped, 

and violated in their past youth

by power-seeking men who once were

boys, just being boys

(not “assailants” or “abusers” or “rapists”—just randy boys),

are not considered heroes, but rather:

“politically motivated pawns,” 

“confused and misguided neurotics,”

“vengeful liars or self-righteous exaggerators,” 

or even “attention-whores”?

Why is double jeopardy illegal,

But not double victimization?

Ego and Entitlement: The Source of Social Ills

Do you ever stop to think about how EGO is the force behind all social dysfunction, aggression, and injustice? The attitude of entitlement--stemming from ego--leads to all forms of "supremacy" that make one person feel justified in dominating another. I saw evidence of egotistical entitlement in action today....

I was driving through a grocery store parking lot, and stopped to let a woman cross in front of me to get to her car. I waved her onward, and she smiled appreciatively and waved back--and our shared moment of respect between stranger-neighbors made me smile. Then another woman marched in front of my car, imperiously raising her hand at me with an expression that said, "You wait for ME now!" She flashed no smile, and gave me no nod or wave; she didn't even make eye contact with me. That display of entitlement sickened me. I shook my head and drove onward, passing by a shopping cart left in the middle of a space, just a few feet away from the cart corral. More entitlement...

Now that I'm sitting at my computer, I'm wondering whether I should have called out, "You're welcome!" But that would have been egotistical on my part, and passive-aggressive. Or, should I have called out, "Ma'am, no one owes you anything. You could at least smile at me for stopping"? Or, should I have simply come home and written about the experience here, hoping that someone reads these words and offers a smile of appreciation today for a stranger's simple act of kindness, to mitigate the ripple effects of entitled attitudes on society?

#NationalPoetryMonth

          #NationalPoetryMonth inspires me to add more poetry to both my own and my students' writing collections. So I use prompts with them that also move me to write what I assign. My students liked this, and I hope you will, too.

Inner Riot

(inspired by the poem "Harlem," by Langston Hughes)

by Susan L. Lipson

What happens to social outrage,

never acted upon?

Does it whirl around like a funnel cloud,

in search of captives to uplift and transport,

Or does it hover indecisively,

Then get blown out to sea?

Does it spark like twigs and logs,

carefully stacked and lit,

Or choke like embers

smothered by handfuls of sand?

Maybe it just gets buried,

like nuclear waste?

Or does it burn like a city set ablaze by rioters?

Bittersweet Truths for Writers Who Strive To Share Memorable Words

From my years of writing words intended for many more eyes and hearts than they often reach, I have synthesized the following bittersweet truths and guidelines for myself, as well as for fellow writers:


1) Exasperation over sometimes absurdly long delays in artistic gratification may be part of a bigger plan for eventual success, in which time is irrelevant. Write memorable words and they will be remembered, even if not within the time frame you desire. 

2) Expectations of others' reactions to your words can hinder your openness to hearing those reactions. Listening does not guarantee hearing any more than looking guarantees seeing. Remove your filters--the expectations--and take time to process feedback without simultaneously qualifying its relevance. 

3) There is no such thing as a definitive "final draft." The author must settle on defining "final" in terms of a work's readiness to move others without further revisions--and the author's readiness to move on to another project.

4) Your words are yours to hatch and nurture, no matter how long they have to sit in a journal, a computer file, or your mind; consider them as germinating, not wasting away. 

5) Some obscure comments from editors make sense in their own time, via epiphanies visible only to eyes freshened by time away from a manuscript. Celebrate each realization with a zealous revision and a self-congratulatory hug for your progress.

6) Treasure all comments about how your words moved a reader, even if those words only appeared on a post you wrote on Facebook, Twitter, or your blog. The point is to move people, and if your public works evoke written responses, even negative ones, you have succeeded in evoking emotions and inspiring others to write.

Transitional Moments Captured in Poetry: A Few New Poems by Yours Truly

First, a poem about so many people I know, facing new physical limitations, forced job changes, or abrupt endings to life as they knew it....


Transition 

By Susan L. Lipson                                                      

                                             

"Well, I used to be a..."

He pauses.

Hearing his own regrets

in casual conversation 
sparks an epiphany:

Time to BE,

who he is now.

Time to accept

and roll onward--

forward.

And now a personal poem, about becoming an "empty nester":

Tides of Change

By Susan L. Lipson

Sometimes a wave hits me,

knocks me over with a question:

Is this really not temporary--

are my kids really not coming home to live with me again?

And I think I might drown in my lonely cup of coffee,

at a table meant for five.

But then, into my paddling hands, float lovely seashells:

a phone message, a text, an email

from one of them,

and my buoyancy returns

to keep me afloat.

And finally, a poem based on my first published poem, about a shocking moment in the life of a new doctor--a poem featuring a few simultaneous transitions, colored by irony:

Manicure

Unscrewing the top of the bottle of nail polish,

Aachooing from the odor of the “Pink Pearl” liquid,

Eschewing her desire to paint her left hand first with her steadier right fingers,

Renewing the brightness of her thick, yellowed nails,

Undoing the ancient look of her wrinkled hands,

Subduing the wave of wistfulness she feels about her once lovely skin,

Imbuing every stroke with a feeling of accomplishment,

Reviewing the accuracy of her colorful coverage,

Redoing the nails that show thin spots,

Pursuing beauty until…

 she dies, and a medical student begins

Undoing it all with a scalpel:

Dissecting the withered hands,

Inspecting the bones, tendons, and ligaments of his live model,

Protecting the structure to keep it intact as he is

Detecting the actual parts that were mere terminology until now;

Respecting the complexity of this appendage, while

Rejecting the sight of the chipping pink nail polish to keep it from

Affecting his composure by

Connecting this hand to an old woman, who only weeks ago, was

Selecting this pink color to paint over her nails, and never

Suspecting that the color would outlive her—No!

Correcting his use of her to it in his mind,

Electing to ignore the one sign of humanness that remains, and

Reflecting on that irony.

 The transition of one of my favorite children's authors, Natalie Babbitt, whose writing days ended forever a couple of days ago, made me feel contemplative today. Words left in others' memories carve out our place on this planet better than any tombstone markers.

Poetic Response to a Mass Shooting: Another Day in the Life of America

Sometimes the only response to recent news is an angry poem:

Abomination 

(written after the mass shooting at the Pulse dance club in Orlando, Florida, June 2016) 

By Susan L. Lipson

The Holier-Than-Thous are twittering again,

moaning online and calling for public “moments of silence”

to honor more victims with the passivity of prayer,

victims whom they’ve victimized themselves

by dubbing gay love an “abomination,”

and by restricting their rights to liberty in love,

and to living with acceptance, rather than mere tolerance.

The Holier-Than-Us call out for prayers

to protect our world

(when they really mean their world)

from terrorism

(when they really mean a certain non-Christian religion),

and also from hate crimes

(not including their crimes of exclusion, derision, and delegitimization).

How convenient to pray now for the souls of some of the “sinners”

whom they previously reviled,

to pray in the interests of the “greater” Good

(their greater Good),

and how ironic that they do not dare now

to publicly call that Pulse stopped by evil

“a Divine scourge against sinners,”

only because this time, the judgment was wreaked by those

who also threaten them.

A murderer planned to induce terror,

but instead, he induced a bittersweet moment of forgotten labels and  

       remembered humanity.

A moment of possibility,

lasting only until the next judgmental rant…

TAKING A STAND AGAINST HATRED AND IGNORANCE

I received the ignorance-filled, anti-Muslim email below from a devout Christian, and wrote a reply to everyone on the sender's list, which appears below the email. Rather than merely shake my head in disapproval and delete it, I decided to take a stand against ignorance and the perpetuation of hatred-infused sentiments masquerading as patriotic, "good Christian" values. I decided to use education as my weapon against xenophobia. Writing a "reply to all" message to people I don't know is always risky, but worth it if I can even broaden one mind. As the late great Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said, "To be is to stand for." I stand for fair-mindedness, as much as I can.

On Sat, Jun 18, 2016 at 10:51 AM, [name deleted] wrote:
[I abridged this by removing two irrelevant paragraphs at the end that had nothing to do with food labeling, but with Sharia law.]

Make sure the grocery buyer in your household reads this.

There should be more leading Australians like Dick, he gets to the bottom of important issues and anything that amounts to selling out Australia is very important.

A WARNING FROM DICK SMITH:
You may be aware that " Dick Smith " chain franchise stores are being pressured by the Islamic Council of Australia to gain 'Halal Certification' otherwise they will be proscribed and banned from Muslim custom.

This is their response:

A MESSAGE FROM DICK SMITH.
"We at Dick Smith 's have received a number of letters from people asking if we will be putting the Muslim Halal logo on our food.

To acquire Halal certification, payment is required to the endorsing body (the Islamic Council) and involves a number of site inspections of both our growers and processors in order to ensure that our practices comply with the conditions of Halal certification.

It is important to note that this does not reflect the quality of the food being processed or sold – it only means that the products are approved as being prepared in accordance with the traditions of the Muslim faith.

We are aware of an increasing number of large companies both in Australia and overseas, such as Kraft and Cadbury, who have obtained accreditation to use the Halal logo. We don’t believe they have done this because of any religious commitment but rather for purely commercial reasons. Perhaps these large organizations can afford to do this.

While we have a choice however, we would prefer to avoid unnecessarily increasing the cost of our products in order to pay for Halal accreditation when this money would be better spent continuing to support important charitable causes where assistance is greatly needed.

We point out that we have never been asked to put a Christian symbol (or any other religious symbol) on our food requiring that we send money to a Christian organization for the right to do so. Others would add that money paid to ANY Muslim 'organization' (and you had better believe it: these people ARE 'organized') can easily find its way into the hands of Islamic extremist-fanatics and murderers, irrespective of assurances to the contrary.

What other assurances do we accept from Muslims? Oh, that's right, 'Islam is a religion of PEACE'! How less Australian can companies get, than to place money into the hands of those who seek to exploit us?"

This is an example of how the leaders of Muslims in Aus./NZ. are bullying large commercial organizations (especially in the food industry) into paying what is no more than blatant extortion money. The amazing part is that these weak-kneed organizations (Cadbury/ Schweppes/ Nestles/ Kraft etc.) actually pay the large sums demanded by these self-appointed religious bureaucrats.

Of course, the manufacturers promptly pass this levy on to unwitting consumers as cost increases. Next time you buy a block of Cadbury's chocolate, look for the Halal Certification seal on the wrapper. So, regardless of your own religious faith, you end up subsidizing Islam.

How many more warnings do people need?
Check the produce on the shelf and don't buy anything Muslim extorted.

THANK YOU FOR READING THIS RIGHT THROUGH TO THE END.
You'll forward, yes?

NO, I WON'T. BUT HERE'S WHAT I REPLIED:

Dear __________,

This assertion that purchasing food with a Halal certification is supporting Islam (with the further implication that Islam means "terrorism") is completely false and unnecessarily inflammatory. That's like saying that the Kosher label supports Jews or Israel. A RIDICULOUS ASSERTION. Kosher-labeled products do not indicate a support of Jews, only that Jewish food restrictions have been kept in mind during the production of the food, so that Jews can know that the food is safe to eat, per their religious traditions. The same applies to Halal food--in fact, Muslims also prohibit the eating, per the bible, of "unclean" animals that eat waste products, like pigs and shellfish.

I do agree, however, that no store should HAVE to pay for Halal or Kosher certification, because that is an optional extra expense to be determined by the ultimate financial gains they might receive from doing so--in terms of extra business from observant Muslims or observant Jews. That is a store's choice.

Being an observant Muslim does not mean that one is a terrorist or Islamist. Many of my students this year come from Muslim families, to my Jewish home, for lessons, and they are some of my most respectful and talented students--as are their parents.

I had to point this out to you because emails like the one you sent are contributing to the xenophobia and hatred that are rising in this country like never before. As a peace-loving, proud member of the interfaith community, as well as a practicing Jew, I cannot stand by and not stand UP.

Thanks for listening to my "counter-rant."

Blessings to you,
Susan