I just want to say that this writing is brilliant. It is compassionate, it is true, it is celebratory of a great young life gone too soon and honoring to young lives continually thrown on the fire of hate. It's deeply insightful. Thank you.
Pat - a truly remarkable piece. I have just finished reading a detailed piece on Theodore Hertzl and his efforts with early Zionism. There was HOPE, but the Jews worked for their dream and realised their hope. Hope in action. I read this at exactly the right time. Your writing made something "Click" into place. Thank you for lighting all the candles on the 🕎 menorah for me.
Excellent piece of writing, and spot on. Thank you!
This paragraph sums it up, "Giving Palestinian people hope would undermine the strategy of the Palestinian movement. People with hope do not self-detonate. People with hope do not lose their humanity to the extent that they can decapitate babies and immolate families alive. People with hope cannot raise their own children to kill and be killed. People with hope teach their children to advance a future of coexistence and peace."
I have voiced this opinion for many years, but I’ve never seen it expressed so logically and brilliantly. Kudos to Pat Johnson. This should be the centerpiece of every Rosh Hashanah sermon this year. Spectacular opinion piece. Thank you!
Wow, so astute. I wish our political leaders had a clue about this. They keep harping about a two-state solution that the Palestinians keep saying they don't want. What do you think it would take to get hope back to the Palestinian population, and the Lebanese population under Hezbollah? New leadership, obviously, and new leadership that doesn't get executed, but really, how could this be achieved? Do you (or anyone) have any ideas?
I'm afraid I do not have the answers. What I do remember, in times of bleakness, though, is that we of a certain age never dreamed that the Iron Curtain would fall peacefully and that apartheid would end without revolution. Things CAN change, often when we least expect ti. That's about all I've got, I'm afraid!
I have a thought. I am old enough to remember when police periodically raided the gay bar in Providence, RI because it was illegal to be queer. I remember when Matthew Shepherd was murdered and when someone picked off a lesbian couple in a Vermont state park with a high speed rifle and no one ever suffered any consequences for violence against queers. I remember seeing a queer guy bleeding and stumbling around in a ripped raincoat on Atlantic Avenue in Boston sometime in the early 90s, having apparently just been beat up. I remember all that. Yet things changed, and I think it's due to decade upon decade of positive coverage of queers in film and TV. A concerted effort to normalize homosexuality. People felt the queer on the screen was their friend, in the way we have one-way relationships with celebrities, and over time, that created a sea change.
If Palestinians were able to watch films that could give them hope and also get them to hate less, decade after decade, we could see a way out of this. The problem, of course, is that such films would be verboten.
The Iron Curtain fell almost solely because the same kind of baloney defeatist leadership in the West was replaced by three people, Reagan, Thatcher and Pope John Paul II. If there were a precise opposite of that it would look exactly like Antony Blinken.
I’ll bet I’m the oldest person commenting here. Yes, a brilliant essay which I will supplement with this fact: just a few days before Harvey Milk was gunned down those of us then alive and old enough to pay attention got another lesson in the horror of fanatical roads to nowhere when, on November 18, 1978, the Rev. Jim Jones orchestrated the slaughter of more than 900 souls at Jonestown in Guyana. It happened as I sat watching Yale beat Harvard in their annual football clash and it haunts me to this day.
And about three weeks after those horrors, about 35 dead guys were pulled out of John Wayne Gacy's crawlspace. Late 1978 was not sunshine and lollipops.
A great piece. And this is where Greta Thunberg fits right in as the movement’s mouthpiece - no hope, only anger; no solutions, only empty slogans devoid of the desire to create something better, something new for all involved.
In the harsh light of day, it turns out Milk was having sex with adolescents as young as 16. Maybe not the best example.
And don’t worry. There will never be a separate Palestinian state. The two state solution has been a fantasy for 20+ years, probably since Oslo.
What there I’ll be in one state incorporating all of Palestine, including what is now Israel, with, at least at the start, about the same number of Jews and Arabs. Israel will dominate the new state at first, of course.
It’s possible that a couple million more Jews will immigrate, but it’s doubtful many of them will be Americans giving what they’re witnessing now. Indeed, it’s possible that more may go back home to the U.S. than arrive in Israel since they’ve kept their get home free US passports. Demographics make it almost certain that the Arabs will be in the majority in 25 years or less.
Ethnic cleansing, sustained ethnic preferences and Bantustans have been off the table since truth and reconciliation in South Africa. A similar process will need to eventually occur in Palesrael or whatever the new country for the two tribes of cousins will be called.
I know I won’t be alive for it. But it will occur. The Palestinians can’t kill all the Jews and the Jews can’t kill all the Arabs, even though they’re giving it their best efforts now. And neither tribe is leaving.
This is just the reality. I personally hope my fellow Americans now in Israel/Palestine come back to their homeland in the United States. You’re welcome here and have been great Americans.
The Ancient Jewish had no narrative of hope the Modern Jewish doesn't either. Salvation was brought by a wife and kids and a happy sabbath. That was all there ever was there isn't anything else.
Good piece but later nooz 'bout Milk colors him a little "curdled." Whereas Milk was once indeed a good fella ta look up to (for gays an' friends of gay folks which would be me--in the thee-ate-'er biz there's a lotta friends of Dorothy!) I fer one was greatly disturbed 'bout his relationships with underage boys--some of which were coercive (takin' advantage of poor kids) An' yes, I know many others whose work I admire did the same (Michel Foucault fer one).
Saddened hearin' this stuff--just as it saddened me to learn MLK was not just unfaithful (they all are) but that he was abusive to multiple female partners includin' those "hired." But as a supporter of many things LGB (I don't include the rest of the alphabet soup it's baloney), hearin' this kinda stuff doesn't sit right with me...
"...sixteen-year-old McKinley was looking for some kind of father figure...“…sixteen-year-old old McKinley was looking for some kind of father figure…within a few weeks, McKinley moved into Harvey Milk’s Upper West Side apartment…and settled into a middleclass
domestic marriage.. At 33, Milk was launching a new life, though he could hardly have imagined the unlikely direction toward which his new lover would pull him." (pages 30-31)
Coldly agreed with a former lover’s suicide threat “…the phone rang. As soon as Harvey heard the voice, he rolled his eyes impatiently at Jim. ‘It’s Jack McKinley,’ he said. He paused and listened
further. ‘He says he’s going to kill himself.’…‘Tell him not to make a mess,’ Harvey deadpanned. Jack hung up.” (Source: Randy Shilts, The Mayor of Castro Street, p. 126)
"It would be to boyish-looking men in their late teens and early 20's that Milk would be attracted for the rest of his life." (page 24)
"Harvey always had a penchant for young waifs with substance abuse problems." (page 180)
"Harvey confided one night that at twenty-four, Doug was the oldest man Harvey had ever started an affair with." (page 237)..
So... if Harvey wanted ta offer hope that's all good BUT I'm not so sure he'd be a good example fer young'uns just comin' outta the closet as I'd think they kin now hope fer a lot better than trollin' their juniors (yuk). I know back in the day nobuddy knew this stuff... many idols have fallen...
How 'bout Jerry Herman instead? -- such talent! He wrote "Milk & Honey" about Israel too! ;-)
I just want to say that this writing is brilliant. It is compassionate, it is true, it is celebratory of a great young life gone too soon and honoring to young lives continually thrown on the fire of hate. It's deeply insightful. Thank you.
Thank you Bari!
“It’s that Palestinianism is not a nation-building endeavor.” You have summarised the whole charade so perfectly
I am so glad I found you. I much appreciate the content and the way you express yourself. The moral support is so important for us in Israel.
Pat - a truly remarkable piece. I have just finished reading a detailed piece on Theodore Hertzl and his efforts with early Zionism. There was HOPE, but the Jews worked for their dream and realised their hope. Hope in action. I read this at exactly the right time. Your writing made something "Click" into place. Thank you for lighting all the candles on the 🕎 menorah for me.
Thanks Sylvan!
Excellent piece of writing, and spot on. Thank you!
This paragraph sums it up, "Giving Palestinian people hope would undermine the strategy of the Palestinian movement. People with hope do not self-detonate. People with hope do not lose their humanity to the extent that they can decapitate babies and immolate families alive. People with hope cannot raise their own children to kill and be killed. People with hope teach their children to advance a future of coexistence and peace."
I have voiced this opinion for many years, but I’ve never seen it expressed so logically and brilliantly. Kudos to Pat Johnson. This should be the centerpiece of every Rosh Hashanah sermon this year. Spectacular opinion piece. Thank you!
Thank Steve. Incredibly kind.
Wow, so astute. I wish our political leaders had a clue about this. They keep harping about a two-state solution that the Palestinians keep saying they don't want. What do you think it would take to get hope back to the Palestinian population, and the Lebanese population under Hezbollah? New leadership, obviously, and new leadership that doesn't get executed, but really, how could this be achieved? Do you (or anyone) have any ideas?
I'm afraid I do not have the answers. What I do remember, in times of bleakness, though, is that we of a certain age never dreamed that the Iron Curtain would fall peacefully and that apartheid would end without revolution. Things CAN change, often when we least expect ti. That's about all I've got, I'm afraid!
I have a thought. I am old enough to remember when police periodically raided the gay bar in Providence, RI because it was illegal to be queer. I remember when Matthew Shepherd was murdered and when someone picked off a lesbian couple in a Vermont state park with a high speed rifle and no one ever suffered any consequences for violence against queers. I remember seeing a queer guy bleeding and stumbling around in a ripped raincoat on Atlantic Avenue in Boston sometime in the early 90s, having apparently just been beat up. I remember all that. Yet things changed, and I think it's due to decade upon decade of positive coverage of queers in film and TV. A concerted effort to normalize homosexuality. People felt the queer on the screen was their friend, in the way we have one-way relationships with celebrities, and over time, that created a sea change.
If Palestinians were able to watch films that could give them hope and also get them to hate less, decade after decade, we could see a way out of this. The problem, of course, is that such films would be verboten.
The Iron Curtain fell almost solely because the same kind of baloney defeatist leadership in the West was replaced by three people, Reagan, Thatcher and Pope John Paul II. If there were a precise opposite of that it would look exactly like Antony Blinken.
I’ll bet I’m the oldest person commenting here. Yes, a brilliant essay which I will supplement with this fact: just a few days before Harvey Milk was gunned down those of us then alive and old enough to pay attention got another lesson in the horror of fanatical roads to nowhere when, on November 18, 1978, the Rev. Jim Jones orchestrated the slaughter of more than 900 souls at Jonestown in Guyana. It happened as I sat watching Yale beat Harvard in their annual football clash and it haunts me to this day.
Yeah, I remember that vividly.
And about three weeks after those horrors, about 35 dead guys were pulled out of John Wayne Gacy's crawlspace. Late 1978 was not sunshine and lollipops.
The Palestinian National Movement is a murder cult. Shame on the world for continuing to enable it.
A great piece. And this is where Greta Thunberg fits right in as the movement’s mouthpiece - no hope, only anger; no solutions, only empty slogans devoid of the desire to create something better, something new for all involved.
In the harsh light of day, it turns out Milk was having sex with adolescents as young as 16. Maybe not the best example.
And don’t worry. There will never be a separate Palestinian state. The two state solution has been a fantasy for 20+ years, probably since Oslo.
What there I’ll be in one state incorporating all of Palestine, including what is now Israel, with, at least at the start, about the same number of Jews and Arabs. Israel will dominate the new state at first, of course.
It’s possible that a couple million more Jews will immigrate, but it’s doubtful many of them will be Americans giving what they’re witnessing now. Indeed, it’s possible that more may go back home to the U.S. than arrive in Israel since they’ve kept their get home free US passports. Demographics make it almost certain that the Arabs will be in the majority in 25 years or less.
Ethnic cleansing, sustained ethnic preferences and Bantustans have been off the table since truth and reconciliation in South Africa. A similar process will need to eventually occur in Palesrael or whatever the new country for the two tribes of cousins will be called.
I know I won’t be alive for it. But it will occur. The Palestinians can’t kill all the Jews and the Jews can’t kill all the Arabs, even though they’re giving it their best efforts now. And neither tribe is leaving.
This is just the reality. I personally hope my fellow Americans now in Israel/Palestine come back to their homeland in the United States. You’re welcome here and have been great Americans.
The Ancient Jewish had no narrative of hope the Modern Jewish doesn't either. Salvation was brought by a wife and kids and a happy sabbath. That was all there ever was there isn't anything else.
There really isn't anything else.
Good piece but later nooz 'bout Milk colors him a little "curdled." Whereas Milk was once indeed a good fella ta look up to (for gays an' friends of gay folks which would be me--in the thee-ate-'er biz there's a lotta friends of Dorothy!) I fer one was greatly disturbed 'bout his relationships with underage boys--some of which were coercive (takin' advantage of poor kids) An' yes, I know many others whose work I admire did the same (Michel Foucault fer one).
https://www.amazon.com/Mayor-Castro-Street-Times-Harvey/dp/0312560850
Saddened hearin' this stuff--just as it saddened me to learn MLK was not just unfaithful (they all are) but that he was abusive to multiple female partners includin' those "hired." But as a supporter of many things LGB (I don't include the rest of the alphabet soup it's baloney), hearin' this kinda stuff doesn't sit right with me...
"...sixteen-year-old McKinley was looking for some kind of father figure...“…sixteen-year-old old McKinley was looking for some kind of father figure…within a few weeks, McKinley moved into Harvey Milk’s Upper West Side apartment…and settled into a middleclass
domestic marriage.. At 33, Milk was launching a new life, though he could hardly have imagined the unlikely direction toward which his new lover would pull him." (pages 30-31)
Coldly agreed with a former lover’s suicide threat “…the phone rang. As soon as Harvey heard the voice, he rolled his eyes impatiently at Jim. ‘It’s Jack McKinley,’ he said. He paused and listened
further. ‘He says he’s going to kill himself.’…‘Tell him not to make a mess,’ Harvey deadpanned. Jack hung up.” (Source: Randy Shilts, The Mayor of Castro Street, p. 126)
"It would be to boyish-looking men in their late teens and early 20's that Milk would be attracted for the rest of his life." (page 24)
"Harvey always had a penchant for young waifs with substance abuse problems." (page 180)
"Harvey confided one night that at twenty-four, Doug was the oldest man Harvey had ever started an affair with." (page 237)..
So... if Harvey wanted ta offer hope that's all good BUT I'm not so sure he'd be a good example fer young'uns just comin' outta the closet as I'd think they kin now hope fer a lot better than trollin' their juniors (yuk). I know back in the day nobuddy knew this stuff... many idols have fallen...
How 'bout Jerry Herman instead? -- such talent! He wrote "Milk & Honey" about Israel too! ;-)
Yes, he was problematic in many ways. No doubt.