Purim Gets a Boost

Regular readers of my blog know by now that I have made it my mission to champion lesser known...or at least lesser promoted...Jewish holidays. In particular, I have been trying to raise Purim to the exalted status that it truly deserves. So, I applaud Senator Barney Frank for dropping a Purim reference this past Friday at a breakfast with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. He commented on the Republican party's attempts to make voters believe that only they love President Obama, while the Democratic congress is steering the president in the wrong direction. He said, "Nancy Pelosi is not Haman, Barack Obama is not King Ahashuerus, and John Boehner is certainly not Queen Esther."

Sen. Frank's comment was certainly apt, but what was more impressive was the cavalier way Frank dropped the seasonal reference (Purim is March 10 this year). He didn't back up and say, "...you know, like in the Bible?" It was the best press Purim has received in recent years since Christopher Guest based "For Your Consideration" around the fictional movie "Home for Purim."

By the way, I still have "For Your Consideration" waiting for me on my DVR. I feel terrible that I missed it the first time around, and I still haven't watched it. I hang my head in shame. What kind of Purim enthusiast am I?

American Royalty

At last, America has royalty again.

I watched the inauguration today with absolute fascination. I'm trying not to become an Obama worshipper (as opposed to a simple Obama supporter), but frankly I can't help myself. I am finding myself being pulled into the eddy of the Obama mystique. What is it exactly? Is it the history making event of the first African-American president? Is it the interplay of working class values, progressive idealism, and honest academic credentials? Is it the subtle balance of his cool demeanor with his boundless energy? Is it his focus on intellectualism and science? Is it the stunning beauty and keen intellect of the Obama women?

Incidentally, I am waiting to see which of the Obamas becomes one of People Magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People. My money is on Sasha and Malia sharing a spot.
But to quote the movie Airplane!, "That's not important right now."

How about that inauguration ceremony?

First and foremost, Obama's speech was excellent. It was dire and foreboding, yet still hopeful and empowering. It was everything we wanted to and NEEDED to hear. I think it could be paraphrased thusly:

Thank you. Now we have a lot of work ahead of us because we are up a creek without a paddle. And this situation is not accidental. We got here because nobody stopped the actions of a few greedy, rich elitists. But don't worry. I am going to undo every stupid thing that the Bush administration did. You don't believe me? Watch my dust. And I'll need your help.

Or something like that.

There was a lot to like about the rest of the ceremony. Aretha Franklin proved she is still the Queen of Soul even when singing such patriotic ditties as, "My Country Tis of Thee." And I still have goosebumps from hearing Yitzhak Perlman, Yo Yo Ma, and Anthony McGill (the winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant) play a beautiful arrangement of Simple Gifts by John Williams. It was as if the inauguration planners started one-upping each other just to see if anyone would rein them in.

"I think we should get Yitzhak Perlman to play. He's good right?"
"OK, if you get Yitzhak Perlman, than I want Yo Yo Ma."
"Cool! How about we also get Anthony McGill? He's good too."
"Yeah! Yeah! McGill...didn't he win some big award? And then they should play something by...uh...Mozart?"
"Naa. Not big enough."
"Uh, Bach? Copeland?"
"No, not contemporary enough. C'mon think big."
"John Williams?"
"Yeah! John Williams! And then we'll get Aretha Franklin to sing something patriotic! Cool!"

Etc., etc., etc.

I liked Rev. Joseph Lowery's benediction, although I did a doubletake when he started to get all 70's on us at the end. When he said, "If you're yellow, be mellow," one of my coworkers, who was born in China, starting singing, "They call me Mellow Yellow."

The only low point to me was Rick Warren's invocation. It could have been a good invocation with an important message on religious and ethnic diversity, but it is cosmically impossible to get an evangelical preacher to give an ecumenical speech without mentioning Jesus. And to think that the central theme of his invocation was inclusivity and tolerance. I love good irony.

I wonder if it was coincidental that the scriptural verse Rick Warren picked to start the invocation was the Sh'ma, the most important Jewish affirmation in the liturgy. ("Here, Oh Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.") I can only hope so. It earns him back some points.

But other than that, the ceremony was flawless...or as close to flawless as an inauguration will ever get.

If y'all will excuse me, I need to go sit down and fan myself.

Who Were You When?

I never got around to posting a blog last November after the general election. You would think that I would have something to say, anything...but frankly, there was just TOO much to say. I was thinking of simply writing "YAHOOO!" and leaving it at that, but even that seemed too trite.

And then, while I was thinking of pithy comments for my blog, everyone seemed to beat me to the punch. Everyone else commented on how this was a historic occasion, that we never thought we'd see the day, that hope had been restored to our country, that the rule of the conservatives was over, etc., etc., etc.

I thought about writing, "Ditto!" but I think someone else wrote that as well.

And then everyone started talking about where they were when they heard the news. People of all races and genders were out in Harlem and Chicago and many other cities braving the cold to rally support for Obama. Some people were asleep at home, and didn't find out the news until the next morning. Some were sitting shiva, some were shouting "Baruch hashem!". It was a wild night by any accounts.

Shirah and I started whooping it up early in the evening when the Vigo County election returns were reported. As many of you may have heard, Vigo County has voted for the winning presidential candidate in every election since 1960, and it has voted closer to the national margin than any other county. So, we didn't need to wait for John Stewart to call the election. We KNEW that we had won. Way to go, Terre Haute, Indiana!

You don't hear THAT very often. (Forgive me, Shirah.)

What I have not heard much discussion on is the following question: WHO were you when you heard the election results? Frankly, this is a much more telling question. Were you a black woman in her mid 70s who never, ever, ever thought she would see this day in her lifetime? Were you a young high school student (of any race or ethnicity) who just couldn't see why Obama's race should have anything to do with his qualifications? Were you a member of the academic elite who saw Obama as a return to reason and intelligence in this country (finally, finally, finally)? Or were you a member of the affluent elite who saw Obama as a threat to your hard saved, hard earned, or more likely, hard inherited dollar?

Were you a staunch ultra-right conservative who saw Obama as the beginning of the end, the fall of morality as we know it? Or were you a staunch ultra-left liberal who saw Obama as the end of the beginning, marking a return to morality in our country?

Who were you?

I welcome your comments, good, bad, or ugly.

YouTube Video of McCain-Palin Love Tryst

...would be a totally ludicrous headline. But who reads past the headlines anyway? Certainly the mainstream media has done a horrible job presenting a fair and balanced view of the candidates. How many times have the newspapers called McCain a maverick despite the fact that he voted with Bush 95% of the time (FactCheck.org). Or, how about the media replays of Fox News's false claim that Obama is a Muslim (not that there's anything wrong with that...).

So, here is my underground suggestion for the blogosphere. Let's start publishing blog titles that claim ludicrous rumors. We can explain in the blog text that we simply made up a rumor, but as long as we spread the headlines, the supporting text won't matter.

The headlines should be just within believability. "McCain Loses Count of Personal Jets," is a good example. "McCain and Palin Secret Vegetarians" is a little too silly. I mean, what kind of nut job would be a vegetarian?

Happy Birthday Israel!

A belated Happy Birthday to the State of Israel. 60 years old. Amazing. So young!

May you live to 120...and beyond.

Does Hillary Truly Support Israel?

Here's an interesting conundrum. The United Methodist Church has for the last couple of months been debating a resolution calling for divestment from any company that does business with Israel, such as Caterpillar, the tractor manufacturer, "because the company supplies Israel with bulldozers used in building the separation barrier and in demolishing Palestinian homes. The divestment resolution comes only months after the publication of a church-sponsored report referring to the creation of the State of Israel as the 'original sin.'"

As of today, the United Methodist Church rejected five proposed resolutions urging divestment from companies doing business with Israel. This seems to be largely due to many Jewish groups who worked feverishly with the Methodist Church to convince them to defeat the resolutions.

In this "guilt by association" atmosphere, shouldn't Hillary Clinton have been questioned about her supposed support for Israel? She is a lifelong Methodist, yet I don't remember hearing her speak out against the church resolution. Obama was literally raked across the coals for his relationship with Jeremiah Wright, yet Hillary is being given a free pass. Surely, one could/should argue that if she has been associated with the church for most of her life, it suggests that she supports the church doctrine.

It's not that I believe that Hillary is at all anti-Israel, but NEITHER IS OBAMA. It's a simple matter of double standards. Either you judge the candidates on their associates or you judge them on their own merit, actions, and words. But you judge them both EQUALLY.

Besides, if we're talking about guilt by association, we can have a field day with McCain and John Hagee.

The Purim Fool

Yes, that's me...dressed as a hamantaschen. I made the costume the night before Purim. Technically, I made it the morning of Purim, which kind of shows. But for a costume conceived, designed, and constructed between 11:30pm and 2 am, it's pretty good.

I wore it to Purim services Thursday night, and then I wore it again at the Purim carnival today. It's all about putting your money where your mouth is. It's one thing to espouse the joys of Jewish ritual to your own children and to the kindergarten kids you are teaching at religious school, but until they see their supposedly respectable grown-up teacher walking around dressed like a big folded cookie, it's all academic. My goal is to teach them...and their parents...and everyone else at our synagogue...that Purim is not just a pediatric holiday. It's for everyone. Even respectable teachers like myself.

I got a lot of praise for the costume from my friends at synagogue. But mostly I got a lot of grief from people who watched me try to sit down in the pews in the costume. Let's just say that it did not work. I ended up standing for the entire service.

Speaking of making a fool of himself, Senator John McCain was in the news recently. Poor McCain. He was just trying to show support for Israel in a press conference with Ehud Barak by commenting on the impact of the rocket fire on the children in the area. He said, "As they celebrate their version of Halloween here, they are somewhere close to a 15-second warning, which is the amount of time they have from the time the rocket is launched to get to safety."

Yep, that's right folks. Purim is our "version of Halloween." The entire Book of Esther and centuries of ritual have been reduced to a second-rate version of All Hallow's Eve.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, who was traveling with McCain, had to quickly correct McCain and explain to him the significance of the holiday. Lieberman took responsibility for the gaffe, saying that he had compared the holidays to McCain earlier.

I realize what happened, of course. On the flight over to Israel, Lieberman was probably trying to prep McCain for the pending news conference.

Lieberman: "...Oh, and John, you should probably mention something about Purim. It'll improve your street cred with the Israelis."
McCain: "Purim? What's that?"
Lieberman: "It's a Jewish holiday that starts Thursday night. I guess you could think of it as a Jewish version of Halloween. On Purim, we read the Book of Esther from the Bible. We celebrate how brave Queen Esther saved the Jewish people from Haman, the prime minister of Persia. See, he hated the Jews and wanted to kill them all...kind of like Al Qaeda in Iraq. It's a fun, joyous holiday celebrated by dressing in costumes, eating special cookies called hamantaschen, and making noise whenever anyone mentions Haman's name."
McCain: "...wait, I'm writing this down (mumbling) Jewish...version...of...Halloween. Got it. Thanks, Joe."

I could just hear Lieberman thinking to himself later, "Thank God I didn't mention the part where we get drunk."

What Am I Missing Here?

Just a thought...

Why is it that the general public has bought into the rhetoric that Clinton is the more "experienced" candidate of the Democratic presidential primary? Why will no one stand up and say, "The Emperor Has No Clothes!" or "That Dog Don't Hunt" or whatever catchy phrase we use to question the common knowledge? Barack Obama actually has MORE experience as an elected official than Hillary Clinton does. Obama served in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004 and then in the U.S. Senate from 2004 to present. Hillary served in the U.S. Senate from 2000 to present. That (as far as I can see) is her ONLY experience in elected office. Her time as First Lady DOES NOT COUNT as elected office experience.

Therefore, it is Obama that has more experience overall. True, Clinton has more experience in national politics than he does...but only by four years. I'm not sure four more years of experience is enough to qualify her as the "experienced" candidate.

That dog don't hunt.

Two Interesting Articles That Just Came Through My Email

My friend Kelly Coleman spends much of his time scanning the blogosphere daily (hourly?) and forwarding to his friends and colleagues those articles and blogs that he finds the most interesting. That the articles are all progressive in nature is totally coincidental...as is the fact that his mailing list is called the DFL Newsgroup. (For those of you outside of Minnesota, that stands for "Democratic-Farm-Labor"...but I digress...)

Today he forwarded two very interesting articles that I feel are worth passing along.

The first is an article by Governor Eliot Spitzer of New York in the Washington Post.
Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime
For those of you (like me, I fear) who don't fully understand how the subprime lending crisis happened, he explains that the attorneys general from all 50 states tried to fight the predatory lending practices, and were completely stymied by the Bush administration. It's an interesting article from a well-respected governor.

The second article comes from P.M. Carpenter's blog.
For McCain, From Bad Dreams to Nightmares -- Courtesy Barack Obama
I like Carpenter's writings, but this article seemed to stand out above his other commentaries. He explains how McCain and the Republicans are now complaining that Obama is only mouthing platitudes...when that's EXACTLY what the Republican party has been doing for the last 60 years. It's a classic case of (and do forgive me for saying this) the pot calling the kettle black.