30 March 03
Refuseniks at Village Homes
Gil Medovoy has been organizing an Israeli-Palestinian peace series which has been meeting at the Village Homes community center. Today he invited in two refuseniks who have been living in the Bay Area for a couple of years. They both gave eloquent presentations about the Israeli occupation. Several points: they emphasized how Israel society is completely isolated psychologically from the Palestinian presence. Often Israelis who come to the States will meet their first Palestinians here, rather than in Israel. Another thing—the majority of the settlers in the West Bank are there for economic, not ideological reasons—i.e. cheap land and housing. This is significant because with enough economic incentives, they would move back to Israel. And lastly, the American pursestrings are very important. Without the US aid, most Israeli leftists agree, there would be no occupation.
They are both involved with the Bay Area group A Jewish Voice for Peace. Also, I didn’t realize that Gil has a radio show on KDVS where among other things he talks about Israeli-Palestinian issues. We’re lucky to live here within range of three independent FM stations!
30 March 03
Jackrabbits in the dawn
This morning when I got up at around 5:30 (I know, it’s Sunday, but I went to bed REALLY early) the white-crowned sparrows were singing up a storm. They’ll be gone soon.
A jackrabbit was peering out from under the walnut tree. The sky was pink at the base and then various shades of purple—looked far more like a sunset than our normal dawns. The two canada geese that have been showing up every morning for weeks were out on the field grazing.
29 March 03
A Raley Field Outing
Today we skived off from our Saturday morning peace vigil duties and went to see the exhibition game between the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers at Raley Field in West Sac. We went with Cindy, a friend of ours from the Davis Peace Coalition, and her husband Tony.
It was great seeing Ichiro and A-Rod in Yolo County’s very own Raley Field. We were on the lawn, the regular seats having sold out within hours of being put on sale last month. Good view of Ichiro not too far off in right field, and he even lead off the first inning with a home run.
Ichiro and the Mariners inspire celebrations of Japanese culture, or at least the River Cats management think so. There were Sacramento-area taiko drummers pre-game, and the first pitch was thrown by a pitcher from the Nisei leagues. The catcher of this pitch, clad in a buff Fresno uniform, was the director of the Nisei Baseball Research Project, a group that is rediscovering the history of Japanese-American baseball.
28 March 03
Post D-Day Peacenik Depression
From Alternet. The street demonstrations of the past week or so have been primal screams that are emblematic of powerlessness. We need to do the hard work of long-term organizing. The California Peace Action’sCampaign for a New Foreign Policy is moving in the right direction here, trying to present an appealing alternative to the neocon imperialist vision.
27 March 03
First MT Post!
This is my first weblog post ever!