SLEEPING ON THE STREETS OF ALBUQUERQUE
Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier ~ reincarnated ~ strolls exuberantly along a sunny street of Albuquerque.
If the street had a face, a peaceful smile would be on it. Its breath ~ a balmy wind. And if the street wore a hat, the hat would be made of Chinese Elms and Cottonwood Trees.
The eternal frontiersman, Davy, pulls a small half-pint of Jim Beam out his butt pocket and partakes in a long swig, as he strolls along. He is celebratin' ~ celebratin' freedom ~ has slipped out the gate of Veterans Campus, a Transitional Zone for the homeless. And he has not gone back.
Phenomenally, he recalls the old campaign motto from his successful run for Congress in the early 1800s, "Be sure you're right, then go ahead!" In the year 2002, Davy is sure. Davy is right. Thee olde settler isn't looking back. Glug. Glug.
He tosses the empty. He buys a pint. He tosses another empty. And buys a fifth. Glug. Glug. Glug. He sways and swaggers and does a little fandango with his bottle down the sunset lane and howls with glee!
The sunset, incidentally, is so fragrant that all of Albuquerque could swear that the sky, besides looking like a red-fringed turquoise rose, smells like one too.
Thee olde drunk, Davy, harmonically baritones, "No more tranzeetional living for meeeeeee! Cuz now I am so indeeependent n' freeeeeee!"
Oh, how the light do shine around the street lamp of no return! Or is that a glowing white buzzard glidin' around in front of me eyes? Oops, here I lay. And my brand new boots seem to be stolen off me feet. This neighborhood ain't looking too sweet. And was it I who threw the rock that busted that light? Where am I this stark stark night?
Well, Mr. Crockett has wound-up passed out on the sidewalk somewhere between the neighborhoods of Martinez Town and Wells Park, not far from several agencies that serve homeless sisbos and brobos such as himself.
According to a report by a native of Albuquerque who goes by the name of Timmy Tipacanoe, opposing youth groups of these two mixed-blood communities have been knocking each others' brains out ~ over turf and girls and stuff like that ~ for about 50 years.
However, these youthful sopranos are getting along pretty well with each other, informs Tipacanoe, this summer, the summer of '02. The reason being that many of them distract themselves, instead, with the bonny sport of bruising the bones of sleepy-eyed homeless folks in the middle of the night. These youthful nutcracker suites like to do it with pipes and baseball bats.
And this just might be why poor old Davy Crockett, that reincarnated son of an inn-keeper, wakes-up two days later in the VA hospital, stiff with splints and covered with bandages, groaning, whining, and jacked-up with pulleys, cables, pain, woe!
"Mayor Chavez should know about this!" cries Davy.
"He doesn't care," replies the bed-ridden patient one bed over, who happens to be none other than Timmy Tipacanoe. "The last time Chavez was mayor, 12 years or so ago, he had all the homeless dumped off on the edge of town ~ until a class action in court stopped him from doing it," informs Tipacanoe.
"Well, shucks, can't someone reform those youth gangs, get them to clean up their neighborhoods and throw dances, instead of beating-up on us?" moans Davy.
Tipacanoe, who suffers a drive-by gunshot wound delivered that morning in the same area of Albuquerque, with a grin sharply replies, "Well, in a way they are cleaning up their 'hoods, and didn't they just recently throw a dance on top of your head?"
Davy glumly says nothing more. He's read in the newspapers throughout the years "anti-gang" this and "anti-gang" that. He doesn't believe in "anti-gang" anything. That's war against youth ~ and that's not what it's all about. Thee olde backwoodsman, who as a Congressman fought for Indian rights against Old Hickory in another age, believes in gang reform. That's the ticket. Turn 'em into social clubs. Get 'em new jackets for the upcoming winter. Get 'em to escort their gals to the next big fiesta downtown. Disarm 'em and get 'em to settle their turf wars by playing baseball.
What's the big idea, anyway, Davy littering their "hood" with his drunken carcass? How did that happen? Obviously Davy still has no control over his, God forbid it, alcoholism. He should still be at Veterans Campus attending 12-step meetings, blankety blank blank dog gone it! Will you take me back?
According to the ongoing report by Tipacanoe, there's no place else to go. One mission is closed for renovation. The other two are overcrowded and a-frenzy with giant prehistoric lice. The Open Space Rangers have cut down the woods by the Mighty Rio. The bosque is off limits now. And all the homeless ones in the city are trudging around with tickets in their pockets turning into warrants, destined for Chavez's new jail. Keep moving or get a job!
Released from the hospital ~ Davy Crockett, miserable, numb, sweating profusely, shuffles with crutches along a street ablaze with jalapeno heat. He's heading for the RS&VP office, which is the tunnel of love back to Veterans Campus ~ if he's allowed.
About ten feet away from the door, he falls to his knees. Tears well-up in his eyes. These tears break thru stressed-out dams and river-down his ragged cheeks. Slowly, so slowly, he approaches (My God, I'm on my knees!). With trembling fingers, he reaches for the doorknob ~
Go ahead, Davy!
~~~~~
It's Getting Harder & Harder
To Ignore Palestine
A talk by Rabbi Yisroel Feldman of Neturei Karta International
delivered at the International Conference To Review The Holocaust
in Tehran, Iran
(December 11-12, 2006)
With praise to the Almighty may my words find favor in His eyes.
I want to begin with gratitude and great respect to the Iranian government in general and to the Honorable Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei and to His Excellency, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Much has and will be said at this conference concerning the debate of European Jewry during the Second World War. I am neither a scientist nor a professional historian and am not capable of responding to many of the questions discussed here.
What I propose to do though, is to speak about the morality of what happened to European Jewry and the morality of using their fate as an explanation for other political and cultural activities.
No matter how we may debate some of the details of what was done to the Jews of Europe there is no doubt that they were treated brutally and that this brutality included all men, women and children. The Jews were physically attacked and murdered. Their possessions and homes were taken. They were shipped across Europe like animals jammed into cattle cars with little or no food and water. Millions died. And many of these were defenseless women and children. These are facts. The worldwide Jewish community is by and large descendents of those who survived this horrible hell.
It would probably lend much credibility to those who wish to study the destruction of European Jewry if they would clearly condemn these actions committed during the holocaust. There is no moral justification for what was done.
However, there is also no moral justification for using these events to dispossess and occupy another people who have nothing whatsoever to do with what was done in Europe. Let Europe make amends for what took place if they so desire, not the Palestinians.
Plus, it is our belief that it is not the appropriate role for Jews when they live in exile amongst the nations to adopt any position of antagonism towards any other peoples or nations. We believe that Jews are called upon to lead by example by serving as a positive role model for all of mankind, not as dictators of public policy.
Zionism violated many tenets of the Jewish faith. It sought to deny the metaphysical reality of Jewish exile and the Divine command that we live at peace with other peoples. Its cruelty towards the Palestinians was and is notorious.
The founder of Zionism, Theodore Herzl, wrote in his diary that he felt the existence of anti-Semitism was a healthy thing because this would make Jews mistrust the other nations of the world and come running to the state he wanted to create for them...
The advent of Zionist ideology, even before the creation of the state, met with tremendous opposition from great Jewish leaders who saw in Zionism two major problems: One, that the Jewish people had been commanded not to try and leave exile by force, but rather to live peacefully as subservient loyal citizens wherever they would reside. And secondly, that we had similarly been forbidden from assuming ownership of the land.
That these things have come to pass and that they have been achieved through the wide scale oppression of another nation is absolutely in dissonance with Jewish faith and law. The great Rabbis who witnessed the birth of Zionism predicted that this movement would bring terrible catastrophes upon the Holy Land and upon the world, and many refer to this development as the foremost reason for the holocaust itself. The Rabbis saw Zionism as a horribly rebellious phenomenon and felt that by embracing Zionism the Jewish people were invoking the Divine wrath, and in fact, in our time, it is clear that Zionism has created untold tragedy.
Throughout the centuries Jew and Muslim lived side by side amicably, but those times predated the Zionist era. The situation is such that we need a miraculous salvation from what Zionism has wrought.
What is most important, though, is that when approaching the all-important topics of Zionism and the holocaust that we keep our balance and moral clarity. What was done to the Jews and to other European peoples, such as the Poles and Gypsies, was a great evil. If its parameters need to be explored, let them be freely explored, but all the while realizing that we are exploring the reality of an evil deed. This is the delicate clarity that is so needed when approaching this sensitive issue.
Similarly, when studying Zionism we need to always distinguish between Zionism and Judaism, between those caught in its grasps and those actively committing acts of Zionist aggression, between Torah True Jews and those who have strayed from our faith and traditions. These are the distinctions that need to go forth from this conference. They will lend its deliberations credibility and add to the ultimate goal of peace between peoples, the eradication of all cruelty, and the overall moral and Divine agenda of all mankind.
May God be with you.
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