PALESTINE AND THE ARAB SPRING

I have interviewed activists, intellecuals, students and middle class professionals about their assessment of the Arab Spring, and its effects on Palesine. Among them is Mazin Qumsiyeh - a university professor and activist who spent 29 years in the U.S., Mohammed, also a professor and community leader, and Amal, who once was a member of the leadership of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), became disillusioned, and is now an outspoken critic of Palestinian politicians and promoter of Palestinian self determination.
In Mazin's words, Israel is in a hole and doesn't know what to do. The Palestinian Authority (PA) doesn't know either.
But the Arab Spring inspired Tahir Square-type encampments last March in both Ramallah (for 3 weeks) and Nablus (for two weeks). Their demands were for reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah (Gaza and the West Bank), and an end to corruption in the PA. Their effectiveness could be measured by the fact that Fatah and Hamas signed a unification agreement the following May in a fairly obvious move to defuse the protests. Indeed, the encampers packed up and left the city centers. And the agreement went on a shelf.
The reconciliation agreement was not implemented, because in fact both parties like things the way they are. B oth have total power in their respective areas, Fatah in the West Bank, and Hamas in Gaza, and are pocketing many thousands of dollars sent by foreign governments in various aid packages. Reconciliation would mean sharing power, or-- more threatening-- submitting to elections that either or both parties might lose.
Meanwhile, the unaffiliated youth are not well enough organized to carry out a significant rebellion against the entrenched PA, and are also wary of seeming to agree with Israeli criticism. Their priority now is to overthrow the Israeli occupation.
Along with questions about the Arab Spring, I ask everyone their opinion about Palestine's bid for statehood at the U.N. It turns out that these are related issues. First, the U.N. bid probably wouldn't have happened if not for the Arab Spring. Abbas needed to do something to assert his authority and divert attentiion from his critics. However, while everyone would like a state, the conditions do not exist on the ground, and the PA has done nothing to prepare for a real state.
To begin with, there was no public discussion or plebicite to ask the people if they were in favor of such a bid. Abbas is not a popular figure, so his initiative did not have popular support until it was clear that it rattled Israel and the U.S. The PA spent alot of money advertizing for statehood, but should have instead, accordng to Mohammed, put its energy into speaking out and strategizing against settlements, the apartheid wall, home demolitions, and evictions, and for freeing political prisoners and, returning refugees to their homes. But they did none of that. They failed to speak for the Palestinian people; they have failed to lead the fight against the occupation.
In addition, Fatah and Hamas had not reconciled, which was bad for Palestine's image on the world stage. And, most surprising to me, the PA had no plan for what to do when the U.S. vetoed statehood in the Security Council.
Firas, the 26 year old son of my friend Nadia, added another note to this discussion. While change is good and needed, the U.S. is in there somewhere, trying to turn events to its advantage. I think we Americans need to pay heed to this observation when we try to understand what is happening in the Middle East. For example, the Muslim Brotherhood is presented in Western media as a sort of boogey man, but is in fact supported by the US as a destabilizing presence. It is a right wing, self-aggrandizing, pro-imperialist movement. That it won the majority in the Tunisian elections is probably an indication of Western intervention.
Amal has co-founded the Arab Cultural Center in Ramallah in order to gather unaffiliated leftists for discussion, cultural heritage preservation and to support young activists. I attended one of their weekly meetings when the agenda was the Arab Spring, although they didn't use that term. They don't consider the uprisings to be true revolutions. They are mass mobilizations that have been infiltrated and undermined by foreign intervention. An example is Egypt the protesters have only managed to cut off the head of the oppressive system.
Libya was an instance of recolonization by Europe. "NATO does not liberate countries." Instead, it destroyed the infrastructure in order to reassert dominance. Syria is being targeted in a similar manner, in an effort to make it pro-West and pro-America. Currently Syria is allied with Iran, and supports Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza - two "anti-West" groups which the U.S. has labeled as terrorist. Syria represents secular pan- Arab nationalism, which is anathema to the U.S. because it reaches across borders to unite all Arabs .For example, Iraq, under U.S. control, now has 146 political parties, but not one is a nationalist party.
The U.S. has changed its tactics when it comes to Syria because it cannot afford another military intervention such as in Libya. The Arab League is doing the dirty work of cooperating with the U.S., and the media, including Al Jazeera, is lying about the number of protesters and casualties in the streets. There are legitimate grievances against the regime, and there are people protesting in the steets, but this group fears that the U.S. may be fomenting civil war.
One member of the Center said that he has seen democracy in the U.S. where he lived from 2006-2009), and he doesn't want to see that democcracy in the Arab world. In U.S occupied Iraq there are now 146 political parties, not one of them a nationalist party. He said, "I don't buy the story of democracy. It's a nice story. That's all."
The mobilizaations in the Arab world could push Hamas (also Muslim Brotherhood) more toward the Right, towards cooperating with Israel like the PA does. Their main concern is in maintaining power. As one proof of the Muslim Brotherhood's self-serving alliances, the Center members state that the Brotherhood was more actively protesting in the streets during Nasser's popular regime than it was under Mubarak's oppressive regime. I have heard from several sectors of independent thinkers in Palestine that Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood is anti-democratic and anti-populist with a narrow focus on conservative religious authoritarian ideology. They are useful to the U.S. as a pawn in the strategy of divide and conquer.
The changes occuring in the Middle East are complex, exciting and confusing, and here in Palestine they are both embraced and observed with caution.

WHICH SHALL THE WALL TAKE: AL-WALAJA VILLAGE OR CREMISAN WINERY?

A LESSON IN DIVIDE AND CONQUER.



Monastery home to Cremisan Winery



     Last year I went with Mazin to see what was happening in a small village near Bethlehem called Al-Walaja. Israel was in the process of building the apartheid wall all the way around the village in order to expropriate all of the agricultural land from which it lives, and to contain/imprison its inhabitants. The specific reason for taking the land is to give it to one of the surrounding settlements, Har Gilo; and the wall will further restrict the movements of Palesltinians who live so near to West Jerusalem. If you can imagine a small fertile valley full of oliv e and fruit trees and on the hill across the valley a big city - that would be the land that used to belong to Al-Walaja and the Jerusalem that Al-Walajans are not allowed to visit.
     This year Mazin took me and my co-hort Doris to update us on the progress of the wall. But first we went to Cremisan, on the outskirts of the small Christian city of Beit Jala. It is the only Palestinian winery, and is located on the premises of an active Catholic monastery. It includes a beautiful wooded park (the only one in the area) and 1500 acres of agricultural land studded with exquisite terraces, vineyards and olive trees. Israel has given notice that it will build the wall through the middle of the monastery's 1500 acres of land or spare it and build it instead around neighboring Al-Walaja, a clear example of "divide and conquer." The winery has petitioned Israel to build the wall so as to separate the business from Palestine and include it on the Israeli side of the wall -- better for its bottom line.
     The Christian residents of this area are furious with Cremisan for asking to become part of Israel and taking the park, vineyards and trees with them. They are organizing protests in the form of a Catholic mass just outside of the gates of Cremisan. Mazin, Doris and I joined them last Friday afternoon for their 4th weekly protest-mass. While it was a lovely ceremony, quite well attended by about 50 people (grown from 30 at the first protest), it was not effective except as an organizing tool. Mazin, the intrepid activist, intends to try to get them to be more militant, and to join forces with Al-Walaja, their Muslim neighbor less than a mile away.T
     When the mass was over, we drove that mile to Al-Walaja, passing the Cremisan terraces on the way. Our first stop was to view the dirt road that will be the wall's path coming down a hill towards us and a lone house whose owner has refused to sell to the Israelis. Maybe he has legal title that Israel could not easily challenge, so the wall will encircle the house, leaving only one gate from which to leave and enter the home. Thirty feet from the house itself a special tunnel is being built to go under the wall so this family can get to the Palestinian side of the wall to go to work and school, clinics and friends. I am wondering about this very expensive arrangement. Is it to accommodate the family, or to make them pay a high emotional price for their recalcitrance?
     We drove a litle farther up ovver the hill separating Cremsan from Al-Walaja. Here we could see the wall passing within ten feet of a two story house, and then coming to an abrupt halt. Regardless of such gaps in the unfinished project of enclosing the village, the way has already been marked by bulldozed land and an unpaved road. Thus we can easily see how much land Al-Walaja will lose. This sight had a physical effect on me and on Doris. When we got home, we had no appetite for dinner.



 Pritest Mass









Ancient terraces to be lost to the wall.






One family's tunnel under the wall




Mazin and Doris





Al-Walaja's prison wall in construction



Normalization Is Not O.K.

     Normalization sounds good but not here, in occupied Palestine where it implies accepting an oppressive status quo.

     In America we tend to think that if we bring people on two sides of a conflict together to get to know each other, we will be promoting peace. It is hard to be violent toward the enemy you know. But what happens AFTER the encounter is key. Will the participants go home to work against the causes of the conflict ?

     Here, normalization is a term applied to any activity that does not openly oppose the Israeli military occupation and its root cause – the colonization of Palestine. As one of my Palestinian friends says, “Any integration based on a false foundation (colonizer vs colonized),... is a call for both sides to neglect or overlook the genuine cause of the problem. It would be a call for the oppressed to accept the idea of living with oppression, humiliation and inequality. To accept to coexist with apartheid.” Normalization is giving the impression that life (i.e. under occupation) is normal, and there is no need to bring up the terms occupation, colonization, apartheid, etc. and not necessary to speak out against the occupation or the occupier.

     So, for example, normalization includes sports activities that involve children on both sides on the theory that by interacting on the playing field, they will break down some of the barriers between them and carry that experience into a future reconciliation.

Some of us have heard of the Seeds of Peace camp in Maine, which each summer brings Israeli and Palestinian kids together for three weeks to help them to see each other as ordinary people, and to understand the point of view of the other side of the conflict. It sounds like a great idea. But it seems that the Israeli kids return home and join the obligatory armed services, and go to the checkpoints inside the West Bank or otherwise participate in the military that is occupying Palestine.

     The Palestinian kids return to their enforced enclosure behind those same checkpoints and the apartheid wall that snakes through their territory and are not any better off for the camping experience. Even their connections with their new-found Israeli friends dissolves over time, unable to breach the barriers that separate them.

     It saddens me to reject the goals of Seeds of Peace. But I listen to my Palestinian friends, and I respect their perspective. They are the ones suffering from the occupation, and if normalization doesn't work for them, then it doesn't work for me. Yes, one needs to humanize "the enemy" and there are ways to act that do not normalize. For example, Berieved Families Forum is a group that brings together Palestinian and Israeli parents who have lost children to the conflict, with the purpose of renouncing vengeful retaliation or any kind of military solution. However, the burden is on the Israeli families to work not only for nonviolent solutions but to recognize and work against the cause of the violence, which is, in the words of my friend, “Zionist colonization.”

     Another "bilateral" group is the Combatants for Peace, Palestinians and Israelis who have laid down their arms to renounce violence as a tool. They go to schools on both sides to talk about the horrors of war, and they join Palestinian actions against the apartheid wall. And the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions brings international and Israeli volunteers to help Palestinian families rebuild homes demolished by Israeli bulldozers for lack of an un-obtainable permit. Rabbis for Human Rights, based in Israel, goes into Palestinian villages to protect farmers against settler attacks during the olive harvest and speaks out against the checkpoints, the wall, the daily humiliations of the occupying soldiers.

     A more hidden manifestation of normalization is in the form of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive the bulk of their funding from foreign governments. They not only fulfill some of the functions that the occupying power is by law obligated to provide, but they pay high salaries that tend to lull their employees into thinking that life isn't so bad. On the other hand, there are Palestinian NGOs that are funded by individuals or charitable organizations and not by governments, and they provide essential services to people in need. These organizations don't need to talk about the occupation; they suffer its consequences like the people they serve.

     Nine years ago, when I first came to Palestine, normalization was not an issue. For one thing, it was the height of the Second Intifada, which was open warfare, and no one even thought about socializing with the other side. Even if they had, there was no way to do it because of the border closings, curfews and severe restrictions on travel. But in the last few years, while the Israeli military has withdrawn from Palestinian cities and even opened some of the most onerous checkpoints, the occupation has become more insidious, undermining the entire economy so that Palestine hardly produces any of its own products, and creating corrupt systems of collaboration with Israel and cooptation at the governmental level. Many politicians are pocketing vasts amounts of international aid while they enter into endless negotiations that have resulted only in losing more land and resources to Israel.

We must also understand that pouring money into Palestine is not necessarily the answer. At present foreign aid goes mostly to construction of roads and public buildings (and NGos), not ever to building factories that could provide jobs, products and incomes that would free Palestine from dependence on Israel.

     My friend, Amal, explains that Palestinians under colonization and occupation are like US. Blacks under structures of on-going racism – not so overt as slavery, but often successful at dulling the opposition to those systems that oppress them by asking them to co-exist with those systems.

     Palestinian activists who have made ending the occupation their highest priority cannot tolerate efforts, however well-intentioned, that minimize or normalize a system of oppression born of Zionism's drive to possess all of historic Palestine, taking its land, livelihood and culture. When the occupation ends, my friends will be among the first to normalize relations with their equals on the other side.

Freedom Riders for the 21st Century - From Ramallah to Jerusalem

     Why copy the U.S. civil rights activists that got onto segregated buses to confront the systems of discrimination against Black Americans? Why especially if you are not American and not Black?
Six Palestinian activists risked their lives on November 15 just as the U.S. riders did in 1961, exactly 50 years ago. This time is was to defy Israel's apartheid bus system that forbids Palestinians from getting on buses that provide public transportation to and from Jewish settlements The buses travel on Jews-only roads through Palestinian land, taking settlers from their colonies in the West Bank to cities in Israel. There are a few stretches of such roads that Palestinians can use because there is not yet an alternative route designated for them. One of these stretches was chosen for this action. But the participants first gathered in the Palestinian city of Ramallah with the goal of getting to Jerusalem with the same ease as the Israeli Jews.
     My informant, Mazin, as one of the six riders, had expected to be beaten and jailed or worse. He has a record of many previous arrests for his anti-occupation activism which could be used against him, and he knew of the hatred and violence of some settlers and Israeli Border Police towards Palestinians. Thus it was with a sardonic smile that he told us how the secret band set out for the bus stop they had picked to board a settler bus.
     Mazin was in the lead car, and behind him were "about 30 cars of media and supporters." They came to a bus stop, but the organizer who had scoped it out ahead of time wasn't sure it was the right one. "Maybe we passed it." Mazin immediately did a U turn (not legal) and every car behind him did the same thing. It was quickly evident that they had not yet passed the chosen bus stop, so Mazin did another illegal U-turn, and so did all thirty cars! After this hazardous but comical ballet of cars, they arrived at the bus shelter and went and stood in line with other would-be-passengers -- all settlers.
     The first three buses passed them by, but the fourth bus driver didn't seem to know what to do and let them board and pay their fare. When they got to the next stop, the police were waiting. Meanwhile, there was better media coverage than Mazin had seen at any other demonstration for Palestinian rights.
The bravery of these six Palestinians, five men and one woman, cannot be overestimated. The outcome, however, was mercifully mild. Police carried limp protesters off the bus, did not beat anyone, and released them, plus two others who had been arrested at the same time, within a few hours. Since the reasoning behind this treatment, clearly decided on the highest level of the security aparatus, cannot be known, there is no way to predict how future actions will be handled. But the organizers of this Freedom Ride, mostly young people with no political party affiliations, are planning their next moves. Stay tuned.

It's Quiet in Palestine, or is it?

       I have spent yesterday and today with nothing to do but wander around this small city of Beit Sahour, do a little food and umbrella shopping, read my emails and study some Arabic vocabulary. It has been very peaceful. The excitement is all on Al Jazeera News, particularly about the new uprising in Tahir Square, Egypt. Except...
     I went to the website of IMEMC, which you can do too, (http://www.imemc.org/)  to read Palestinian news items from last week, because I knew that this little pocket of peace that I was enjoying was not the full picture of life in occupied Palestine.  But, like the families I had delicious midday meals with on Saturday and Sunday, I was experiencing a welcome bubble -- a respite not to be taken for granted.

Since mainstream media outside of Palestine does not tell about the daily human rights violations and abusive conduct of Israel's army and settlers in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, we get the impression that it is quiet here, so the occupation can't be all that bad. I'm going to pass on the news reports I just read online because they help to remind us of why we need to work together to end this occupation.
     The village of Amenzil in the south of the West Bank can't keep their new solar panels, paid for by a Spanish NGO, because it is an "unrecognized village". Neither the vlllage leaders nor the Spanish NGO could get the required Isreal-issued permit for the panels nor even for the buildings on which they are erected. There are many such villages which are denied electricity, water, schools and roads because Israel wants this land without its inhabitants, and uses every pretext to push the people out. The NGO applied for a permit but, getting no response, installed the panels to supply electricity to the village. Typically, Israel waited until the project was up and running before declaring it illegal.
     Al Khader, a community adjacent to Bethlehem, was the scene of a settler attack last week. When one farmer, his wife and sister went to work their land, they found settlers already there, cultivating the earth around the olive trees that did not belong to them. The settlers from nearby Etzion settlement then assaulted the Palestinians before they left.
Additional incidents for the two weeks from November 3 to 16 were recorded by the Palestine Center for Human Rights. Here are some of them:
     * In Gaza there were 8 Israeli missile attacks in which 4 Palestinians were killed, 14 wounded, a central Marine Police station destroyed and a greenhouse damaged. Two of those killed were bombed in the shelter where they had gone for safety. The Israeli army also fired at working farmers from observation towers along the border between Israel and Gaza.
     *In the West Bank there were 91 Israeli military incursions into Palestinian communities resulting in 14 detentions, which Palestinians call "kidnappings since they don't recognize Israel's right to take police action inside Palestinian territory. Among those detained were some of the men that Israel had just released in the prisoner exchange deal brokered by Egypt just a few weeks ago.
     *The Israeli army tore down and destroyed 3 utility poles connecting two Palestinian villages in the barren south because there was no permit for poles. It is impossible for Palestinians in their own villages, on their own land, in their own West Bank to get any kind of permit from Israel which exercises control over every minusha of civil life. I have seen these villages where the lack of electricity next to well-lit settlements is so shocking that even Tony Blair once admonished Israel for this practice.
     *The settlers from Yitzar settlement uprooted 25 productive olive trees in an effort to drive Palestinians from the land. While this is a common practice by right-wing settlers, Israel never punishes the settlers. To the contrary, the Israeli army's job is to protect settlers even when they are attacking Palestinians.
     *Settlers set fire to three Palestinian vehicles.
     *The Israeli army bulldozed land and uprooted trees near Qalqilia in the North to extend the boundaries of Oramit settlement. The army also bulldozed 4 private homes near Jericho in the East because they were winter homes for Palestinian families. That would be like bulldozing your house on Cape Cod because you only use it in the summer.
     *The Israeli military used teargas and rubber-coated steel bullets to disperse nonviolent demonstrators at seven different protests against on-going, increasing thefts of their land and freedom of movement.

     All of these things happened in two quiet weeks of military occupation.
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　

Palestine - A State or a Bantustan?

Doris and I just had tea with Jeff Halper, the director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, excellent analyst of the Palestinian situation, activist and friend. Jeff helps me remember that not all Israli Jews are alike and some are my allies. Jeff is just back from a 6 week tour which ended in  South Africa where he was an expert witness at the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, held
in Capetown.

It had started to rain, so we arrived at Jeff's new office dripping wet. He showed us around as he finished hanging some framed photos and posters on the wall. Then he suggested we go to a coffee shop to chat. We all ordered tea, and were soon disecting Jeff's trip, the meaning of apartheid, the Arab Spring and Palestine's bid for statehood.

The purpose of the two weeks of testimony at the Russell Tribunal was to see if the facts on the ground in Israel /Palestine meet the international legal definition of "apartheid." Jeff's testimony alone would seem to be enough to prove that they do. Israel's policy of demolishing homes in the rural areas (Area C under the Oslo Accords) in order to force Palestinians into the urban and village areas (Areas A and B) is the same as pushing them into bantustans as occurred in apartheid South Africa.

Israel denies that its policies are based on race and thus it cannot be accused of apartheid. But its policies are clearly based on religion, as Jews are not targeted in the same way as Palestinians. Jeff argues that such policies are aimed at separating the two peoples, to the advantage of Jews over Palestinians/Moslems. And, he adds, Israel does not use the word "apartheid" but does use the Hebrew translation of that word, which is "hafrada". The term “hafrada" came into use under former Prime Minister Ehud Barak as the definition of Israel's policies toward the Palestinians.

Next, I wanted to hear Jeff’s take on l) the impact of the Arab Spring on Palestine and 2) the value of Palestine’s bid for a seat at the United Nations. Jeff agreed with me that last Fall when I was here, hope for peace was at an all time low. He thinks the Arab Spring has given people a new sense of hope and energy. Also, he doubts that Mahmoud Abbas would have tried for a seat at the U.N. if not for this boost from the Arab Spring

As for the actual bid for statehood, Jeff was critical of the nay-sayers among some Palestinian intellectuals and activists who waited until the last minute to raise objections such as Abbas not representing the PLO or the refugees outside of Palestine, and his still calling for a two-state solution when it seems o bvious that there is not enough land left for a separate Palestinian state. But more importantly, Jeff worries that Palestinians do not have a plan or stategy for where they are going. If they don’t get statehood, it is possible that Abbas will resign, leaving a vacuum into which Israel will have to move, most likely with renewed military occupation of the cities.

It is a probem that noone has articulated a one-state goal--given the fact of the settlements strewn throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem which makes a separate state hard to envision. Everyone who supports Palestinians wants the Israeli occupation to end. But then what?? Jeff plans to write another article about this dilemma. Meanwhile, he wonders if Palestinians might take a civil rights approach by demanding a vote within the system that controls them and has taken away so much of their land. If Israel denied them the vote, could it still claim to be a democracy and not an apartheid state?

As a footnote to the above, we had to ask why the U.S. insists on supporting Israel to the degree of seeming to be subservient to it. Jeff named three main reasons: l) the pro-Israel lobby, especially strong among Democrats, 2) the Republican Christian Zionists, and 2) the arms industry. Seventy percent of the huge aid package of $3 billion a year must be spent on U.S. military supplies.

These realities seem intractable , but hope springs eternal. Who could predict the Arab Spring would bring down two dictators - so far.

Occupy D.C., Occupy America

 I voted for Dick Gregory for President of the United States once.  It was 1968.  On October 6^th I heard him speak at a rally in Washington, D.C., and he told the audience that he is about to turn 80.  That says something about how long he and I have been looking for change in America, and why we were both in Freedom Plaza  with the theme of “occupy D.C./occupy America.”

 There have been some changes in the last 40 years.  A Black man in the White House was a revolutionary change, but the revolution ended with the election.   Given the hopes aroused by Obama, it feels like we’ve been going  backwards ever since, but actually things have stayed pretty much the same as during the Bush years.

Being in Freedom Plaza gave me hope that  Americans – the 99% who aren’t rich – might wake up to the reality that our government is lying to us in order to maintain control over us and the rest of the world.  Our numbers weren’t staggering; maybe just a couple of thousand, but we were YOUNG, Hispanic and Black as well as old-timers and White.  And we were all committed to a NONVIOLENT protest.

We were more upbeat than angry, but none of us was fooled: too many were unemployed, in debt, foreclosed, or veterans of meaningless wars. (Vets for Peace initiated this D.C. uprising.)  We know the score. We know we are the vast majority, and we know we are fed up.

     I think  you know the things we’re fed up about : bailing out banks and not homeowners, wars and occupations, climate change, student debt, no jobs/corporate greed, foreign policies that exploit poor countries, etc..  I won’t try to name them all, nor do I want to delve into them.  But I want to give you a feel for the crowd and the color and the energy.

Julie was one of the first people I stopped to talk to.  She had on a pink top and was sitting in a chair holding a sign that read “Join the occupation. Take back our nation.”  At her feet was a spread a large blue tarp with some bundles around its periphery.  She said it was the spot chosen for overnight sleeping by a group from Texas and she was watching over their gear.  I asked if the group was going to risk arrest by sleeping in the Plaza, or was it going to be allowed.  She didn’t know.  She wasn’t from Texas.    We started to chat, and her story came spilling out. 

 Julie worked for 31 years in Washington. Then she developed a strange neurological ailment that affected her vision and made her arms and legs numb.  She had to stop work and apply for Social Security Disability.   There is a five month investigation period before one gets a yes or no to the application, during which creditors will wait.   After five months, she got a “no,” and a rental property she had was foreclosed on. It was supposed to be her nest egg.  She appealed the decision, this time with legal help.  She got a second “no” because, while her vision impairment was confirmed, there was no known cause.  Her legal advocate was so furious that she pulled strings and got the denial reversed.   By then Julie’s own residence was two days away from foreclosure.  In a flurry of  frantic paperwork, she saved her home.

Being a social worker, I had heard enough stories like Julie’s to know she was telling the truth. And that there were hundreds like her, all hidden from public view – having their own private nightmares.   Julie added that her loss was compounded by not being able to work, nor even read because of the vision impairment.  Julie is fed up.  I thanked her for telling her story, and I moved on, feeling that Julie’s experience is one example of how our systems don’t work to reward effort and to affirm life.

From 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. I roamed the Plaza to see the range of issues people had brought there, and I listened to speakers and musicians on the big stage  at one end of the Plaza. One woman artist from Salt Lake City gave a terrific speech, with no notes, that I don’t remember one word of.  But there she was young, articulate and all the way from Utah!

David Rovics sang his songs with lyrics that as usual reach into the heart and conscience. The Raging Grannies, hip hop artists, a hill- billy band, Emma’s Revolution, Chris Hedges, Ted Rall calling for real revolution, protesters from Wisconsin and Wall Street, and young Afghani peace activists, both on stage and skyped from the hills of Aghanistan, whose motto is “the blue sky covers us all.”

Young leaders skillfully facilitated a general assembly open to everyone there, where decisions about how to proceed during the night were decided by consensus.

An Ethiopian-born American woman held a sign that read, “I will believe corporations are people when Georgia executes one.”

These are just some of the events and people who moved me to believe that this could be the beginning of something new and indestructible – a real democracy.