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Coyote in the Headlights


I am here
Caught in the headlights
Frightened and calm
Not knowing where best to run
But sure I can get there
Well, mostly sure.

It’s that damn cat I bet
The one with the green collar
That tasted so good
And then those signs springing up everywhere
With pictures of her!
Like mushrooms after rain
Stapled to every tree it seemed
Saying the foolish thing was missing.

Missing?
You mean consumed, my suppliers
I know where she is
Just check the scat.

And yes, I see you too
I see you all the time
You’re in my dreams
And in my myths
As I’m in yours,
Friends all around
Right?
So turn off the damn lights
And let’s slide into the woods together.
© B.R.Taub, 10/07

POETRY

    Honoring Sitting Bull

    Lakota Law

    Dear Bruce,

    When most people think of December, what comes to mind might be the holidays we celebrate, gathering with family, and the turning of the page to a new year at month’s end. In Lakota Country, unfortunately, the end of the Gregorian calendar year is also inextricably linked with a pair of troubling anniversaries. In solidarity with us, I hope you’ll make a little room to remember them with me today.

    First, Dec. 15, 2024 is the 134th anniversary of the assassination of the great Hunkpapa Lakota Chief, Thatanka Iyotake, or Sitting Bull. I, too, am Hunkpapa Lakota, and I’ll say that Sitting Bull is one of our most celebrated ancestors for good reason. To learn more, I urge you to read (or reread) this blog, which I penned last year to give you more about Sitting Bull’s life, the context of his death, and an action you can take and share to rescind Medals of Honor granted to U.S. soldiers responsible for the second anniversary I referenced: the massacre of hundreds of Natives at Wounded Knee just days later, on Dec. 29, 1890. 

    Photograph of Sitting Bull by David Francis Barry, circa 1883.

    Tied to both of those anniversaries, I’ve been doing research and thinking a lot about the unique, historic nature of policing in Indian Country. In general, cops have never been especially friendly to us — even when they are from our communities. They have always been in direct correspondence with and there to enforce rules made by American governmental officials and corporate institutions that we all face together, even today. In turn, those entities have frequently displayed genocidal intentions and undertaken endeavors, from the Wounded Knee Massacre and the murder of Sitting Bull to railroading pipelines through our sacred lands, meant to degrade or eliminate tribal nations (or, potentially, anyone demonstrating the will to defend American lands and waters).

    In our last message, my father thanked U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Pueblo of Laguna) for her service over the past four years. Let it not be lost on anyone the importance of a Native woman occupying that seat, because for many years, her department was (and sometimes still is) a great nemesis to our communities. 

    And that brings us back to Sitting Bull. In 1890, the Indian agent James McLaughlin, overseen by the U.S. military and the Secretary of the Interior, ordered him taken into custody. As 43 policemen and volunteers arrived that sad morning at the chief’s house and announced his arrest, a crowd of community members gathered at the commotion and began to protest. 150 Lakota arrived to protect him, and his son then led a group who attempted to free Sitting Bull from police custody. 

    Bureau of Indian Affairs police lieutenant Henry Bullhead and police sergeant Charles Shavehead, who bracketed Sitting Bull to prevent his escape, were shot. Mortally wounded, Bullhead then murdered Sitting Bull, shooting him in the ribs. Indian agent Red Tomahawk, who’d been behind Sitting Bull, then assumed command of the police. The ensuing fight resulted in the deaths of six police and eight Lakota protectors. After Thatanka Iyotake’s assassination, his people fled to join Spotted Elk (the brother of Iron Eyes, from whom my family takes its name). Then the band fled toward Red Cloud and the Oglala at the Pine Ridge Agency — and soon thereafter came the massacre at Wounded Knee.

    These events live on with us — not just, unfortunately, as histories. As an Oglala who lives on Pine Ridge, I have witnessed police abuse in the modern day. And I have heard direct testimony and firsthand accounts of abuse of power and undue violence by Indian police over the past few decades. One example, and this is something I plan to expand on for you in subsequent messages, was the Reign of Terror on Pine Ridge in the early 1970s, which ultimately laid the foundation for the American Indian Movement’s occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973.

    There is much more to say about that, and there’s so much more we can do moving forward. I promise you’ll hear more from me again soon. In the meantime, please hold us close, as you would all your loved ones at this time of year. I’m so grateful to be able to share with you, and I know that, together, we can continue to make progress. We can and we must use the often harsh lessons of the past to understand the present and create a future we can be proud of for all human beings.

    Wopila tanka — thank you for your friendship!
    Tokata Iron Eyes
    Spokesperson & Organizer
    Lakota People’s Law Project

    INDIGENOUS MATTERS

      Zionism

      SUGGESTED READINGS, FILMS, and RESOURCES

      VIDEOS FEATURED AT THE SALON(S):

      What is Zionism? (Zionism Defined, Meaning of Zionism, Definition of Zionism, Zionism Explained)”

      Christian Zionists – USA

      How Israel Won the West

      OTHER VIDEOS & PODCASTS:

      Video collection from the Institute for the Study of Christian Zionism

      ‘Til Kingdom Come

      See the VFHL Online Film Salon of February 12, 2023. With unparalleled access, the film exposes a stunning backstory of the Trump and Netanyahu administrations, where financial, political and messianic motivations intersect with the apocalyptic worldview that is insistently reshaping American foreign policy toward Israel and the Middle-East

      • Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism podcasts:

      Arab Labor (TV series) – episode listing on IMDb

      BOOKS:

      Finkelstein, Norman G. Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict (Verso Books, 1995)

      Finkelstein “challenges the general outline on which the Israeli historiographical picture of Zionism is based. He does that first by questioning the main themes in the Zionist historical narrative and then by examining in great detail the empirical evidence brought by Israeli historians to substantiate their claims. Thus, his refutation of Israeli historiography is both ethical and empirical.” Review by Ilan Pappe

      • Forer, Richard. Breakthrough: Transforming Fear into Compassion – A New Perspective on the Israel-Palestine Conflict (Insight Press, 2011) Through meticulous research Forer examines and reframes the most common and misunderstood arguments on both sides of the conflict. He shows that the real enemy is the unexamined mind that projects its suffering onto the other.

      • Forer, Richard, Wake Up and Reclaim Your Humanity: Essays on the Tragedy of Israel-Palestine – “Recognizing that endless conflict only leads to alienation from our true selves, this book encourages readers to look at the documented history of the Israel-Palestine tragedy and get in touch with how they view and interpret that history. It offers readers a path that leads to freedom from false beliefs, enemy images, and the illusion of identity to equal rights for all people and a just peace between Palestinians and Israelis.”

      • Karcher, Carolyn, ed., Reclaiming Judaism from Zionism (Interlink Publishing, 2019). – “In this powerful collection of personal narratives, 40 Jews of diverse backgrounds tell a wide range of stories about the roads they have traveled from a Zionist world view to activism in solidarity with Palestinians and Israelis striving to build an inclusive society founded on justice, equality, and peaceful coexistence.”

      • Levit, Daphna, Wrestling with Zionism: Jewish Voices of Dissent (Olive Branch Press/Simon and Schster, 2020). – “Twenty one Jewish and Israeli thinkers grapple with the evolution of Zionism since its inception on political, religious, cultural, ethical, or philosophical aspects. Daphna honors a tradition of courageous  intellectual inquiry and activism, rooted in Jewish ethical imperatives.”

      • Paas, Steven, Christian Zionism Examined, Second Edition: A Review of Ideas on Israel, the Church, and the Kingdom (Resource Publications, 2020). – This is “an expert look at Christian Zionism and all of its related forms. … an excellent introduction to Christian Zionism and other varieties of ‘Israelism’ in Europe and the West. Paas traces the roots and historical circumstances that have fueled the fires from which Christian Zionism has arisen. He notes its dangers–how it harms our Christian witness, potentially encourages global crises, and undermines the gospel and its fulfillment in Jesus. Anyone wanting to understand the nature of Christian Zionism, including its related movements, its history, and its dangers, must read this work.” – review by Rob Dalrymple

      • Perez, Anne, Understanding Zionism: History and Perspectives (Fortress Press, 2023) – This book is “a detailed introduction to the background and development of the Zionist movement, its various streams, and its impact on government and society in Israel. The book serves as a primer for Christians of all backgrounds–from those keenly interested in Zionism to those who are entirely unfamiliar with the term–to understand basic concepts, historical turning points, and the political and social stakes of Zionism.” (Amazon review).

      • Rabkin, Yakov M., A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism (Zed Books, 2006). – “Since the Jewish opposition to Zionism is a topic not well-known, one must be grateful to Yakov Rabkin’s study, A Threat from Within, that documents the teaching of the Orthodox rabbis who have, from the end of the nineteenth century up to the present day, rejected the Zionist claims for reasons that are properly theological.”

      • Shapiro, Yaakov, The Empty Wagon: Zionism’s Journey from Identity Crisis to Identity Theft.

      • Zionism. The untouchable topic. “Lack of knowledge has led to very confused ideas about religion, even among the chareidim (Ultra-Orthodox Jews). … Sadly, even in our own circles, the mold for shaping public opinion lies in the hands of the state of Israel.” See the VFHL Online Film Salon of November 13, 2022, when panelists, including Rabbi Shapiro, discussed The Settlers.

      Select Sabeel/FOSNA publications:

      • Donald E. Wagner and Walter T. Davis, Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land,

      • Carole Monica Burnett Zionism through Christian Lenses: Ecumenical Perspectives on the Promised Land

      • Naime Ateek, Cedar Duaybis, and Muarine Tobin, Challenging Christian Zionism

      • Naime Ateek, Cedar Duaybis, Tina Whitehead, The Bible and the Palestine Israel Conflict

      • Rev. Dr. Naim Ateek, Overcoming Christian Zionism in the Quest for Justice (PDF booklet)

       • A Sabeel Reflection on Antisemitism: This is Where We Stand” (PDF booklet)

       • Articles by Jack Munayer,

      Chapters authored:

      Palestinian Christians: Colonial Tools or a Prophetic Voice” by Jacob Jack Munayer and Samuel Munayer, chapter in the book Towards a Renewed Mind (2021)
      The Deligitimization of Palestinian Christians by Jack Munayer- chapter in the book Christ at the Checkpoint – Blessed are the Peacemakers.

      ARTICLES & RESOURCE COLLECTIONS:

       • “Our Approach to Zionism,” Jewish Voice for Peace

       • Peter Beinart, The Beinart Notebook

       • Zionism’s History is Also a History of Jewish Anti-Zionism An Interview with Shaul Magid

       • “Malcolm X’s final written words were about Zionism. Here is what he said,” Mondoweiss.net

       • Toolkit: Demand “NO IHRA”, Critical Zionism Studies

       • “Infographic: Zionism and Racism,” International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

      FREE PALESTINE!

        Israel and Palestine borders…

        Failing and Flying

        Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.
        It’s the same when love comes to an end,
        or the marriage fails and people say
        Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.
        they knew it was a mistake, that everybody
        said it would never work. That she was 
        old enough to know better. But anything
        worth doing is worth doing badly.
        Like being there by that summer ocean
        on the other side of the island while
        love was fading out of her, the stars 
        burning so extravagantly those nights that
        anyone could tell you they would never last.
        Every morning she was asleep in my bed
        like a visitation, the gentleness in her
        like antelope standing in the dawn mist.
        Each afternoon I watched her coming back
        through the hot stony field after swimming,
        the sea light behind her and the huge sky
        on the other side of that. Listened to her
        while we ate lunch. How can they say
        the marriage failed? Like the people who
        came back from Provence (when it was Provence)
        and said it was pretty but the food was greasy.
        I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell,
        but just coming to the end of his triumph.
        – Jack Gilbert

        Poetry

          December 15, 2024

          I have come to the conclusion that I have entered a new phase in my life, and that I am trying to adjust my behavior and expectations so that they are realistic and age-appropriate. I characterize this phase as preparing to die, and this involves an immense amount of acceptance as well as personal growth. While my consciousness and intellect seems to still operate at what I would call an adult level, my body is very clearly diminished in its capacities. God forbid I would have a fatal disease and a terminal diagnosis and this would all be more urgent and real. But the fact is that I am 84 years old and significantly weaker, limited, and slowed, and sooner or later I will stop breathing, lose consciousness, and no longer exist as a self-aware person occupying space on planet Earth. I have even come to imagine that there is some aspect of my being that is present in me, that preceded and existed before there was a me as such, and that actually may continue as an energetic entity without there being this Bruce as either consciousness or as an embodiment. Soul or spirit is what this entity is popularly referred to as, but those words really don’t have specific enough meaning for me to use them casually. But it is something beyond individual molecules, although if molecules turn out to be “alive” and energetic, which they must be, then I really have no idea what I’m talking about.

          In any event, in the same way as if I had a terminal illness, I have a terminal is-ness and I know it, can feel it, appreciate it, accept it…and almost welcome it. I have separation anxiety, but not really non-existence anxiety. The universe is simply too immense in all dimensions, but especially time, for me to expect that my personal self-consciousness has any likelihood of persistence beyond my extinguishment. The drop of mist or spray that momentarily appears as an independent entity on the crest of an ocean wave and then falls back as H2O united with the great oceans is still the clearest analogy I can find to the notion of what my individual existence is. It’s actually a nice feeling when I perceive it in that manner.

          And so I lay abed a lot, reading, listening to music, eschewing politics, challenged by how to fill the time, irrelevant and unproductive, comfortably breathing, knowing, being, appreciating. I am almost happy.

          JOURNAL ENTRIES

            Journal Entries and Introspection

            Don’t fall in love with a woman who reads

            Don’t fall in love with a woman who reads,
            a woman who feels too much,
            a woman who writes…
            Don’t fall in love with an educated, magical, delusional, crazy woman.
            Don’t fall in love with a woman who thinks,
            who knows what she knows
            and also knows how to fly;
            a woman sure of herself.
            Don’t fall in love with a woman who
            laughs or cries making love,
            knows how to turn her spirit into flesh;
            let alone one that loves poetry (these are the most dangerous),
            or spends half an hour contemplating a painting
            and isn’t able to live without music.
            Don’t fall in love with a woman who is interested
            in politics and is rebellious and
            feels a huge horror from injustice.
            One who does not like to watch television at all
            Or a woman who is beautiful
            no matter the features of her face or her body.
            Don’t fall in love with a woman who is intense,
            entertaining, lucid and irreverent.
            Don’t wish to fall in love with a woman like that.
            Because when you fall in love
            with a woman like that,
            whether she stays with you or not,
            whether she loves you or not,
            from a woman like that, you never come back.

            ~Martha Rivera-Garrido

            Poetry

              my brain and heart divorced ~ john roedel

              my brain and
              heart divorced
              a decade ago
              over who was
              to blame about
              how big of a mess
              I have become
              eventually,
              they couldn’t be
              in the same room
              with each other

              now my head and heart
              share custody of me
              I stay with my brain
              during the week
              and my heart
              gets me on weekends
              they never speak to one another
              – instead, they give me
              the same note to pass
              to each other every week
              and the notes they
              send to one another always
              say the same thing:
              “This is all your fault”

              on Sundays
              my heart complains
              about how my
              head has let me down
              in the past
              and on Wednesday
              my head lists all
              of the times my
              heart has screwed
              things up for me
              in the future
              they blame each
              other for the
              state of my life
              there’s been a lot
              of yelling – and crying
              so,
              lately, I’ve been
              spending a lot of
              time with my gut
              who serves as my
              unofficial therapist

              most nights, I sneak out of the
              window in my ribcage
              and slide down my spine
              and collapse on my
              gut’s plush leather chair
              that’s always open for me
              ~ and I just sit sit sit sit
              until the sun comes up

              last evening,
              my gut asked me
              if I was having a hard
              time being caught
              between my heart
              and my head
              I nodded
              I said I didn’t know
              if I could live with
              either of them anymore
              “my heart is always sad about
              something that happened yesterday
              while my head is always worried
              about something that may happen tomorrow,”
              I lamented

              my gut squeezed my hand
              “I just can’t live with
              my mistakes of the past
              or my anxiety about the future,”
              I sighed
              my gut smiled and said:
              “in that case,
              you should
              go stay with your
              lungs for a while,”
              I was confused

              the look on my face gave it away
              “if you are exhausted about
              your heart’s obsession with
              the fixed past and your mind’s focus
              on the uncertain future
              your lungs are the perfect place for you
              there is no yesterday in your lungs
              there is no tomorrow there either
              there is only now
              there is only inhale
              there is only exhale
              there is only this moment
              there is only breath
              and in that breath
              you can rest while your
              heart and head work
              their relationship out.”

              this morning,
              while my brain
              was busy reading
              tea leaves
              and while my
              heart was staring
              at old photographs
              I packed a little
              bag and walked
              to the door of
              my lungs
              before I could even knock
              she opened the door
              with a smile and as
              a gust of air embraced me
              she said
              “what took you so long?”

              Poetry

                Cape Cod

                November, 2012

                I love Cape Cod. It is sweet, and soft, and impermanent. I return here for two weeks – after the San Francisco visit, which I saw as such a triumph – for what seems like too few days. I come home to Joy, of course, and my most lovely cottage, about to get lovelier, and my most lovely son. To Thanksgiving, which for me is a National Day of Mourning, because, as we say, every day is a day of thanksgiving, and only some need to be marked for mourning, Columbus Day, and Memorial Day, for example.

                The Indigenous People of MA are descendants of Massasoit, the Wampanoag chief betrayed by those lovely Pilgrims seeking religious freedom, his son’s head displayed on a pike in the village of Plymouth for twenty years after the white warriors returned home from Connecticut to celebrate the burning of 70 Pequot women and children in the first Thanksgiving. Yet the Wampanoag are still here, their language still spoken, their children still proud, the Earth still their mother, offering hope and good wishes to all, feeding 300 guests, calling for an end to war, offering hope and fellowship to their brothers and sisters struggling to protect their land and preserve their culture … in the Americas, in Palestine, and in all places where the guns and warships of the oppressor threaten the lives of the indigenous people.
                IMG_3183.JPG

                MISCELLANEOUS

                  Miscellaneous, different, other, etc.

                  At Home – Al Fin

                  I arrive home from Africa on a Monday morning at 2 A.M., drive down to the bay to see and smell it, to feel it blow and tingle. There is a strange light low on the night horizon glowing to the North Northwest, maybe Boston. The house itself is shocking in its level of disrepair and disorganization. I take off my Maasai watch and I get down to work, mostly on my back, in bed, in my office. The writer is in. Also the lawyer. And the lover. Once or twice the lawn and garden care guy. And, inevitably, the guy with foot-in-mouth disease.

                  I don’t leave the property until late Thursday afternoon – and then reluctantly – no car rides, no stores, no yoga, no phone. Glad I got home early given imminent PreTrial appearance date and obligations thereto. Even glad I’m here for the finals of the home renovation experience. Do a fair amount of straightening, laundry, floor sweeping, furniture moving, pissing off the crew. Watering houseplants. Measure out pills for the week. Hang out my shingle: “The writer is in.” Write. Play at being the housekeeper. Even cook. Listen to a lot of music. Don’t criticize myself. Clean things. Organize and put away things. Rest. Spend a lot of time feeding the fire. The house smells of smoke, incense, and paint.

                  I make cranberry lemon biscuits, cornbread, lemon-blueberry tea, pots and pots of coffee, Kenyan roast potatoes, and Zanzabarian sage merlot bean and potato stew with shallots and fresh garden kale.

                  Joy works. It’s what she does in addition to making music and spending a little time with me, even though I trust she finds me precious, even adorable.

                  I start to work in the yard and on the gardens. It feels so good to have clippers and a rake in my hand. Start to clean and organize the shed. Prepare witness lists and pretrial memoranda.

                  Sometimes I talk to Joy about Africa. But it is hard … and far away … and I’ve turned into a very here and now, present centered sort of fellow. I haven’t had a watch on for 5 days. And it is “crazy” being home, although if i don’t step outside the house i seem to be able to exert adequate stimulation control to stay grounded.

                  AFRICA

                    TRAVEL DIARIES

                    Alone – Jack Gilbert 

                    I never thought Michiko would come back

                    after she died. But if she did, I knew

                    it would be as a lady in a long white dress.

                    It is strange that she has returned

                    as somebody’s dalmatian. I meet

                    the man walking her on a leash

                    almost every week. He says good morning

                    and I stoop down to calm her. He said

                    once that she was never like that with

                    other people. Sometimes she is tethered

                    on their lawn when I go by. If nobody

                    is around, I sit on the grass. When she

                    finally quiets, she puts her head in my lap

                    and we watch each other’s eyes as I whisper

                    in her soft ears. She cares nothing about

                    the mystery. She likes it best when

                    I touch her head and tell her small

                    things about my days and our friends.

                    That makes her happy the way it always did.

                    POETRY BY OTHERS