Author: Mark J. Chmiel

The Way It Is

There are hundred thousands of stems linking us to everything in the cosmos, Supporting us and making it possible for us to be. Do you see the link between you and me? If you are…

Easy To Forget

As long as we are motivated by the desire to punish each other, there will be no end to the hostilities and there will be no happiness in me, in you, or between us. –Thich…

Bearing Witness

for Sandra Tamari Yet it was plain to us that by reckoning with Taha’s exceptional personality and poems, many of these American audiences were also reckoning for the first time with a Palestinian—not as a…

“There’s Just a Meanness in This World”

On Charles Reznikoff, Testimony, v.2 The United States (1885-1915):  Recitative I can’t say I was tremendously impressed with this “broken-up prose” (wife Marie Syrkin’s label). Maybe it’s the dating—it’s way back in US history, and it’s hard…

Free Palestine/Cairo

Michelle Conley sent me the following while traveling: Picture from a Palestine support rally in Cairo…the police asked where we were from and we said America, but quickly said we supported Palestine. He asked “are…

The Same Fate as the Palestinians

1. Archbishop Oscar Romero once stated, “Christ invites us not to fear persecution. Believe me, brothers and sisters, Anyone committed to the poor Must suffer the same fate as the poor. And in El Salvador…

Analogies

If past behavior is any guide, Elie Wiesel must be having a fit. I’m not thinking here of the great loss to his Foundation from the audacious and criminal pilfering of Bernie Madoff. No, I…

Activist, What Do You See in the Night?/2

During a recent theological conversation with a friend in Louisville, I mentioned several thinkers and writers who had been very influential on me over these years. That exchange led to this concise collage…. 1. For…