Sunday, February 16, 2003 Jews and
Palestinians from all six Bay Area Dialogues walked with 200,000 others in San
Francisco to insist on alternatives to war in the Middle East.
Millions of citizens worldwide, in hundreds of cities,
similarly called for collaboration over confrontation.
See the photos at https://pix.sfly.com/VHbzQXD_
Appreciate American history being
re-directed -- diverse, responsible citizens coming together in advance of
violence as never before.
Unprecedented numbers of mainstream families and
children.
Groups who previously stayed to themselves, or stood
only for their narrow interests.
People who could hardly walk or couldn't walk.
Or barely breath, pulling their oxygen tanks behind
them.
Choosing human unity, understanding the alternative is
no life at all.
The day was a prayer for human
unity going around Earth at the speed of spirit and of the Internet.
From the beginning, there was a Muslim call to prayer,
two rabbis' blessings, a cantor's voice appealing for our highest,
Christian guidance, and Buddhist wisdom.
Two days earlier, the Jewish Bulletin of Northern
California featured Rabbi Patricia Karlin-Neumann's column: "Jewish
tradition can't justify a pre-emptive strike on Iraq." You can read
it at:
http://www.jewishsf.com/bk030214/comm1.shtml
The rabbi concluded: "If we are to value each
human life, if we are to bring to fruition an era in which tolerance and
understanding reign, we cannot do so through pre-emptive war, discretionary war
or political violence. We can do so only by measuring the value of human life,
Iraqi lives as well as American lives, and by remembering the dreams of those
on the cusp of doing something significant for humanity."
Millions of citizens circling
Earth did "something significant for humanity" this weekend.
They helped history take a distinct turn more into
The Peoples' Century.
That's how we'll describe yesterday to our
five-year-old grandson when he's old enough to understand.
And we'll tell him about the placard a woman brought
to the day: "War is SOOO last century."
-- L&L