Samain Thanksgiving Moon
from a facebook feed:
My friend, Cynthia Levinson‘s husband, received this in the mail yesterday. He is a prominent constitutional law professor at Harvard Law School. The postcard reads: “Hey Sandy, You just got your kike ass kicked. Fuck you hymie. We’re gonna drain the swamp at Harvard Law. Juden Raus!” That closing means “Jews Out!” and was a Nazi rallying cry, shouted by the Nazis throughout the ghettos when they were trying to force Jews from their hiding places.
They’ve reported this to the Anti-defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center, as well as to the university.
The Holocaust did not begin with killings: it began with words. Never forget.
And so. Climate is what you expect. Weather is what you get. Trump and his rhetoric is now the national climate for acts of hate. I expect people like the KKK, Westboro Baptist, climate deniers, women haters, anti-Semites have been emboldened to act both by Trump’s rhetoric but also by the violent, thuggish behavior he not only allowed but reveled in at his rallies. In other words the climate relative to non-white, non-male, non-European, non-Christian, non-straight life is turbulent and chaotic, tending toward personal acts of violence and scorn.
On these matters I believe defense is the strongest act right now. Reaching out to the government for help against these grievances will prove futile. Jeff Sessions as attorney general? Come on.
Earlier in the fall when I got up to feed the dogs Orion stood over our fence between the house and the garage, in the southern sky. Still in the southern sky he has moved on since then until he now resides over Black Mountain, several degrees further west. As he moves, he serves, as many constellations do, as a celestial clock of the Great Wheel. The further west he goes, the deeper into winter we are. Weather doesn’t always synch up with his movement any more, but that’s our fault, not his.
Here’s an odd outcome of the election. I’m planning on joining Congregation Beth Evergreen. Strange, huh? Turns out you don’t have to be Jewish. Weird, to me, but true.
Then, there’s Rabbi Jamie Arnold. He’s an unusual guy: an athlete, a good musician, a composer and arranger, too, an intellectual, and an embodiment of compassion leavened with toughness. This combination of skills and character make him a compelling leader.
But mostly there’s the potential for action against the impending Trump regime. Politics is not a solo sport; it requires allies. Congregation Beth Evergreen seems to have a core of folks who’ve done actual work in political situations. It clearly has a number of folks who want to do work on the Trump watch. That includes me. My politics and my spiritual journey have always been tightly wound together so working with folks at Congregation Beth Evergreen seems like a continuation.
Some people say wait. Give him a chance to lead. I say, he’s had a multitude of chances already. He’s responded with mocking the disabled, promoting sexual assault, referring to immigrants as rapists and murderers, challenging a sitting Federal judge who happens to be both Latino and an American citizen. His followers chant lock her up, stop the cunt, White Power and fly the Confederate battle flag. The KKK held a celebration in honor of his election, North Carolina, and David Duke says he has ratified their beliefs.
This week he appointed Mike Flynn as his National Security Adviser. Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Admiral James Stavridis told CNBC on Friday, “I think he will play to the darker angels of this administration in terms of adopting very, very aggressive stance, very hard power, very anti-Islam,” he said in an interview with CNBC’s “
“In an interview with Mother Jones in August, Bannon acknowledged that white nationalists and anti-Semites are drawn to the so-called “alt-Right” movement.
“That’s why there are some unintended consequences of the women’s liberation movement,” he said, according to BuzzFeed. “That, in fact, the women that would lead this country would be pro-family, they would have husbands, they would love their children. They wouldn’t be a bunch of dykes that came from the Seven Sisters schools up in New England. That drives the left insane and that’s why they hate these women.” (Political Vindication Radio, 2011)” Both of these quotes found 