Consider the Source

The Pentagon will gladly supply, on request, such information as the quantity of ordnance expended in Vietnam. From 1965 through 1969 this amounts to about 4.5 million tons by aerial bombardment. This is nine times…

Give, Give, and Give Some More

Give away career advice Give dropping-out-of-grad-school encouragement Give reminders of the lojong slogans (“Don’t ponder others”) Give away Harold Bloom’s Western Canon reading list Give a 9 by 12 b/w photo by M. Puleo Give…

Elie Wiesel and the Question of Palestine

This essay was first published in Tikkun, November-December 2002. In his 1986 Nobel lecture, Elie Wiesel spoke with characteristic gravity on any attempt to reckon with the Holocaust: “There are no theological answers, there are no…

Books

My father had an Appalachian education That went through sixth grade I went after and got a BA, MA And a PhD I doubt my father Ever finished reading a book (I once asked him…

Kafka’s Axe

Dear Bella Levenshteyn, Was reading Kafka’s letters earlier today.  The passage caught my eye: “I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we’re reading…

A Mentsh

For years I read him to get a bearing On the atrocities the U.S. enabled in Central America I wrote my Master’s thesis on him On Israel/Palestine and liberation theology When I met him at…

Cambridge

Now that you’ve been accepted To the Kennedy School of Government Where you’ll have access To current and future movers and shakers Where there’ll be balanced discussions About “America’s humanitarian role in the world” Where…

Message from Elias

I’ve been reading a litte bit of Chomsky and thinking about you. Here is what I liked from Chomsky’s book:  “…you do not do anything unless you’re aware that there’s something that ought to be…