Instagram links [Sweet and Sour]

The link for the second photo:
“I don't know what to do.”

Back to the map... Just as if the UN granted half of say Virginia, or New York, to someone else, the people already living there completely rejected the idea. Now, before you think, “Yes, but the Jews have ancestoral ties to the land so they should go back”, think about the native Americans who considered the land where you now live to be theirs. Are willing to leave without compensation?

There are no easy answers but ignoring the history of how we got to this point guarantees that there will be no peace. Please educate yourself about the conflict—you could do worse than start on a page I created out of a talk I gave to a public speaking class 20 years ago: https://sweetandsour.org/timeforjustice/ You will see a bigger version of the map there.

A useful way to think about anything you hear about this conflict is to ask yourself: Would my view be different if the war in 1948 that established Israel had instead gone the other way and the populations were reversed? In other words, it was Jewish people in Gaza and the West Bank and a Palestinian government that controlled the rest—all of what we now call Israel plus effectively sealing in the 2.1 million people in Gaza (a little larger than double the size of D.C.) and also establishing Palestinian “settlements” for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in a hypothetical Jewish West Bank.

In this alternative version of history, it is inconceivable to me that American politicians would be sending over $3 billion in military aid each year to a Palestinian government that bombs the Jewish people under its control and ... you get the idea.

I just wrote to Mr. Biden through the White House website asking that America demand a ceasefire and that we should not be offering blind support to Israel when its responses are so completely disproportionate. I get the sense that American public opinion may finally be shifting, in part because so many White Americans now have a much better understanding of the racist society in which Black Americans are forced to live… and by extension there are other groups that are suffering structural racism. Please be part of the change.

I am not sure why I am posting this – perhaps out of a sense of guilt, perhaps out of a sense of hopelessness.

The woman in the photo is Angela Belinda Hill and there is an article in the Washington Post about her life scarred by mental illness and now her death a few weeks ago (subscription required). She lived under the bridge where DC-295 passes over Pennsylvania Ave on the east side of the Anacostia River and I ran past her on Sundays in the summer for 9 years when I was training. Usually she was snoozing but when she was sitting up, I'd say hello as I ran by but I don't think I ever got a response.

“Last year, 180 ‘undomiciled’ people died, according to city records, including 80 people of intoxication, 23 of the coronavirus, nine in homicides and four by suicide.” Being homeless is obviously bad for your health, especially when you have untreated mental illness or substance abuse problems. In Angela's case, I figured that she had been there for so long in such a visible location that DC homeless services must know of her and indeed they did but she refused help.

Is it OK to accept the rejection of help if a person is mentally ill? These people need help and the city is often trying to provide it but is unable to. I hope we can agree this is a legitimate role of government – I note that the “pro-life” crowd appear uninterested in helping people such as Angela. So many related issues: unaffordable healthcare, unaffordable housing due in part to zoning rules, poor education (though DC is way better than it was), treating drugs as a criminal problem rather than a public health issue and so on. The 99% Invisible podcast did a fascinating 5-part series on homelessness starting with this one that is well worth listening to.

If you haven't already, please, please watch A Life On Our Planet from David Attenborough. You can watch the trailer on his site and the full documentary/biography on Netflix. We are all on this planet together so it is in everyone's interest to save it.

If "Did Not Vote" was a political party, its candidate would have won nearly every US Presidential election in the last century! In 2020 the final voter turnout was 66.7% so one-third of eligible voters did not vote and slightly more than one-third of eligible voters opted for Mr. Biden. Australia demonstrates that there are better ways to run elections that are more inclusive and fairer. Read more in The Conversation. Also, the article from which the graphic is copied (Washington Post subscription required).

Although the massive suffering caused by the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is well known, so is the technical achievement and the narrative that it brought the war to an abrupt end. However, the fire bombing of Japanese cities caused even more suffering but has been effectively forgotten, another example that history is written by the winners – or not written. Malcolm Gladwell attempts to correct our historical amnesia in his Revisionist History podcast.

Perhaps Mr. Trump would have shown some interest in fighting the coronavirus if people likely to vote for him were disproportionally affected. However, the opposite is true. Read more in The Atlantic.