Ring by Spring (+ 6 years)

Hi everybody, I got engaged on Saturday!  If anybody actually still reads this thing, I'll post more.

Homecoming

Did anyone make it to homecoming this year? I got the "highlights" email from the alumni association and started wondering if any of you made it back to our soul mother?

Yes We Can

It's a good day. A very good day. We still face lots of enormous challenges as a country (the current recession, the enormous economic divide that preceded the recession, the need for all Americans to have access to health care, the energy crisis and the corresponding ecological crisis) BUT I feel today that the country is ready to face those challenges, to put aside the dog and pony show of the culture wars and work on the needs of the people-- a government FOR THE PEOPLE! What a radical idea.

I'm pretty spent-- physically, emotionally, mentally-- but I wanted to write something today, on this good day, this good day when we, as a country, decided to look towards the future.

peace

Post 401: A Comemoration

Some of you were lucky enough to be in Wheaton this weekend for a 5 year reunion. This got me thinking and I realized that this blog, though now mostly dormant, has been in existence for almost that entire time. So, using the fantastic free ap, Wordle, I created an image of our work together. 4 years, 40,000 words (not including the comments!), 400 posts. There's a certain symmetry to all of this, isn't there? PS- I am definitely doing this with my dissertation when I finish it--no one will ever want to read it, but it can become an art piece for my wall. A fitting end, indeed.

Newbie on the Floor

Since no one's adding any recent posts, I decided to have a major life event so I could report it. Another addition to the T6 family! I hope some of you will be coming to the Wheaton reunion in October so you can meet her. Elena Michelle Morehouse was born on Thursday morning, July 31st, and she was 7lbs 14oz, 19in. Rachel did an incredible job of delivering our baby, and Elena has been a joy. She had some difficulty with fluid in her lungs for the first hour or so, but she coughed all that up and has been doing beautifully ever since. It definitely feels like an alien invader has intruded upon our home, and I sort of wonder who decided that we were responsible enough to take care of her, but we're doing it. As each day goes by, I become a little more familiar with Elena and she starts to seem like a part of the family. More photos at adamrachel.shutterfly.com.

DC people:

Any of you guys in DC, please pull some strings to get me a job there, preferably lucrative but whatever will do. My qualifictions are that I'm a genius.

Thanks.

Nicholas Kristof writing from Hebron

I was going to refrain from posting more NYT links, but I read this immediately after seeing John Hagee on television preaching about how much God loves the state of Israel. I've always found Evangelical Zionism more than a little strange, but I wonder what causes the blind approval of anything the Israeli state does. Is it ignorance of the social and political realities in the Middle East, or does ideological commitment outweigh the facts? And would that ideology be religious ("God's chosen people") cynically political (condemning Israel's imperialism would indict the US) or some mix of the two? Is it a perverted reaction to the terrors of 20th century antisemitism and the Shoah? I ask because the motivation that lies behind this uncritical support of Israel determines how (and even whether) we can profitably engage with Evangelicals about Israel's human rights record (a damning history that we, as Americans, have funded economically and supported politically for decades). Any thoughts?

Kristof's piece:

The Two Israels

A sample:
"It is here in the Palestinian territories that you see the worst side of Israel: Jewish settlers stealing land from Palestinians (almost one-third of settlement land is actually privately owned by Palestinians); Palestinian women giving birth at checkpoints because Israeli soldiers won’t let them through (four documented cases last year); the diversion of water from Palestinians. (Israelis get almost five times as much water per capita as Palestinians.)

Yet it is also here that you see the very best side of Israel. Israeli human rights groups relentlessly stand up for Palestinians. Israeli women volunteer at checkpoints to help Palestinians through. Israeli courts periodically rule in favor of Palestinians. Israeli scholars have published research that undermines their own nation’s mythologies. Many Israeli journalists have been fair-minded toward Palestinians in a way that Arab journalists have rarely reciprocated.

All told, the most persuasive indictments of Israeli actions come from Israelis themselves. This scrupulous honesty and fairness toward Israel’s historic enemies is a triumph of humanity.

In short, there are many Israels. When American presidential candidates compete this year to be “pro-Israeli,” let’s hope that they clarify that the one they support is not the oppressor that lets settlers steal land and club women but the one that is a paragon of justice, decency, fairness — and peace."