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Lynette O’Grady had a habit of quickly and succinctly identifying a solution to a particular problem, part of what made her a good editor, and who she is.
This day, she indulged another habit: looking at a pair of shoes, in the House of Guillermo, served by Cesar.
“Yes, miss, how may I help you?” he said.
“Everything in here is so lovely. I’ve heard about this place, but this is my first time in. I don’t really need any shoes …”
“Oh, miss, please, never say those words,” he urged.
“A woman -- every woman -- occasionally needs new shoes. It is part of who you are, or perhaps, who you want to be.”
He flashed a smile as he took her elbow and led O'Grady to a wide display of low-heeled shoes.
The showroom was arranged, shoes on one side and other footwear on the other, both by height of heel. O’Grady saw the symmetry immediately.
“This is fascinating,” she commented.
“Let’s see, if we were to replace the shoes you have on with this outfit, I would suggest … Let’s see what size you are,” Cesar said as he led O’Grady to a chair.
In seconds, she was seated and measured and he was off.
Hundreds of people answered the call from Palestine Solidarity Group - Central Ohio and and took to the streets in Columbus in three rallies to stand in solidarity with Palestinians in their struggle for human rights during the 11 days conflict. The gathering on May 21st at Goodale Park was grateful for the ceasefire, but all fully realize that the struggle to end the illegal occupation of the West Bank, the siege of Gaza and the unrelenting daily abuses of Palestinian human rights that provoked hostilities can and must continue.
Hostilities were inflamed by Israel’s plans to evict Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, the closure of the area around the Damascus gate where Muslims gather during Ramadan, and a brutal attack on Muslims praying at the Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan. From eyewitness reports, when the Israeli police forces entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque, they shut down the emergency medical clinic in the mosque compound and welded the door shut.
Hundreds of people answered the call from Palestine Solidarity Group - Central Ohio and and took to the streets in Columbus in three rallies to stand in solidarity with Palestinians in their struggle for human rights during the 11 days conflict. The gathering on May 21st at Goodale Park was grateful for the ceasefire, but all fully realize that the struggle to end the illegal occupation of the West Bank, the siege of Gaza and the unrelenting daily abuses of Palestinian human rights that provoked hostilities can and must continue.
Hostilities were inflamed by Israel’s plans to evict Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, the closure of the area around the Damascus gate where Muslims gather during Ramadan, and a brutal attack on Muslims praying at the Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan. From eyewitness reports, when the Israeli police forces entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque, they shut down the emergency medical clinic in the mosque compound and welded the door shut.
Hundreds of people answered the call from Palestine Solidarity Group - Central Ohio and and took to the streets in Columbus in three rallies to stand in solidarity with Palestinians in their struggle for human rights during the 11 days conflict. The gathering on May 21st at Goodale Park was grateful for the ceasefire, but all fully realize that the struggle to end the illegal occupation of the West Bank, the siege of Gaza and the unrelenting daily abuses of Palestinian human rights that provoked hostilities can and must continue.
Hostilities were inflamed by Israel’s plans to evict Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, the closure of the area around the Damascus gate where Muslims gather during Ramadan, and a brutal attack on Muslims praying at the Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan. From eyewitness reports, when the Israeli police forces entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque, they shut down the emergency medical clinic in the mosque compound and welded the door shut.
Hundreds of people answered the call from Palestine Solidarity Group - Central Ohio and and took to the streets in Columbus in three rallies to stand in solidarity with Palestinians in their struggle for human rights during the 11 days conflict. The gathering on May 21st at Goodale Park was grateful for the ceasefire, but all fully realize that the struggle to end the illegal occupation of the West Bank, the siege of Gaza and the unrelenting daily abuses of Palestinian human rights that provoked hostilities can and must continue.
Hostilities were inflamed by Israel’s plans to evict Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, the closure of the area around the Damascus gate where Muslims gather during Ramadan, and a brutal attack on Muslims praying at the Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan. From eyewitness reports, when the Israeli police forces entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque, they shut down the emergency medical clinic in the mosque compound and welded the door shut.
There’s nothing new about this, which is why I know it’s there before having seen the new budget proposal. The United States funds most of the world’s most oppressive militaries, sells them weapons, and trains them. It has done so for many years. But if you’re going to propose an enourmous budget that relies on deficit spending, and you’re going to claim that a gargantuan military budget (bigger than the Vietnam War budget that derailed LBJ’s domestic priorities) is somehow justified, then I think you ought to have to stand and justify every bit of it, including the 40% or so of U.S. foreign “aid” that’s actually money for weapons and militaries — first and foremost for Israel.
A U.S.-government-funded source for a list of the oppressive governments of the world is Freedom House, which ranks nations as “free,” “partly free,” and “not free.” These rankings are supposedly based on civil liberties and political rights within a country, with apparently no consideration of a country’s impact on the rest of the world.
Here’s a video from one of the facilitators lined up for World BEYOND War’s online course on War and the Environment which begins on June 7th, 2021:
This course could not be more important. A culture of extraction and destruction is closely tied to a culture of war. Questioning that ethos of destruction and consumption is challenging, but it has belatedly begun. Challenging a culture of militarism is even harder.