Writing / Published Works

An activist artist friend of mine in San Francisco, Richard Kamler, said to me recently: "We all know what war looks like; there's no reason to create any more art that picks at the scab of that wound.  But what does

peace

look like?  How can we, as artists, present the imagination of peaceful coexistence?"

I am calling for the creation of a non-profit organization whose constituency would be

Americans. This institute would ignore political affiliation or economic clout when evaluating events in the political field. Issuing its decisions in policy papers, op-ed articles, press releases, scorecards on the votes of public servants and reaching out in other manners, this non-profit watchdog would create an agreed upon

center from which to judge the legislation and the public actions of our elected leaders.

Dear Julie,

I was not kidding yesterday when I said that talking to people “on the Left” about politics made me want to vomit. I swear to God, if I hear one more person use the word “revolucion” with that starry eye in their voice, I will upchuck on the floor.

Look, I know what you’re going to say, but just hear me out.

Perhaps no single medieval thinker so represented the interweaving of the three Abrahamic faiths, as did Solomon Ibn Gabirol (1020-1058).

History is meaningful only as long as it informs our current understanding of the world.  Unfortunately, all too often, the "history" that influences the political and social spectrums is negative; ancient wrongs and age-old oppression, selectively highlighted, that informs our view of the current relations between peoples.

History is one of the first casualties of war.  Not all history, of course - facts that stoke enmity and help exacerbate tensions between combatants are "uncovered" by political leaders and media outlets and used to justify hostilities.  It is only the chronicles of better days between warring peoples that are deemed unnecessary, perhaps vaguely unpatriotic.  The curren

The staccato sound in this particular story of Muslims and Jews is not, for once, that of gunfire. Here, the clickity-clack echoing off of stone walls and down narrow alleyways in Middle Eastern medinas, or market areas, is the sound of footfalls - Jewish footfalls - making their way steadfastly to take tea with a Muslim neighbor.

My friend David, who recently moved to the United States from Israel, said that he was looking forward to living in a place where the stones didn't ooze history. "It will be so nice," he said, while still living in Tel Aviv, "to live in a country where the earth itself doesn't moan about past injustices and ancient hatreds."

The open-minded practice of Sufism is known as a mystical system that can easily attract believers from other religions. Today, as in the past, Jews, Christians and followers of other religions have flocked to this practice, studying under Sufi masters and learning the Sufi Way. The Sufi chronicler Idries Shah has outlined past Sufi influence on St. Francis of Assisi, the Troubadours, St.