- Havdalah
- Posts
- Havdalah #19: Nakba Day, Memorial Day, and Advocacy
Havdalah #19: Nakba Day, Memorial Day, and Advocacy
18 Iyar, 5784 / May 25, 2024
White Rose RI
May 25, 2024
Greetings, Neighbors.
We’re in the home stretch of counting down the Omer just as I feel my bones stretch in anticipation of summer. It’s been a trying spring, really what’s felt at times like an extension of winter’s frosty fingers. The wanderlust has hit me like an itch to accompany my seasonal allergies. And a welcome addition to these sensations: I feel the return of a desire that gripped me this time last year, a pull from behind my eyes to research something, to learn something, to start a new story, answer a question, launch an endeavor. An energy perfectly befitting the coming of Shavuot in a few weeks.
First, there is still work to do. Still projects to wrap up, loose ends to knot, contracts to complete. School’s not out, not yet, we’ve still finals to get through. But we can smell it, can’t we? The air is different, it’s warm, it breathes of sunlight and dandelions. The sea salt and the bonfires are waiting patiently, and so are our friends, the people we miss and the people we’ve still to meet, the loved ones we will run to in train stations and the loved ones we’ll receive in our arms at T.F. Green.
But enough of that, let’s not keep them waiting too long, hm? Let’s finish the work. It is havdalah, after all.
This issue, Katherine does the work of remembrance, the duty many of us would rather forget. Lee has done the diligent work of tracking bills as the legislative session too approaches its recess. And FashWatch has its usual homework assignments, a couple of these suggested by friend of the newsletter, Nate (who you may remember for his devastating Sidebar in issue #13).
Enjoy Gaspee Days, plan your trips and happy returns, and dance barefoot in the streets when the humidity breaks with thunder and clear water. Do with this summer what would let you look back on this red letter year with something more than regret: with love, with relish, with something that might grant you resilience.
Bella ciao.
James
Health Care Provider Shield Act
Bill Number: H7577
Summary: This bill creates a protective legal shield for healthcare providers, precluding any civil / criminal action by other states / persons against healthcare providers involving persons seeking access to transgender and reproductive healthcare services provided in RI.
Our position: FOR / IN SUPPORT OF
Current Status: This bill has passed in the Senate, but the House version is currently being “held for further study”, and we are urging our legislators to move it forward for a vote.
Resources: The Womxn Project has an email template you can use to contact the House Judiciary Committee regarding this bill: Email Template to Support H7577.
Freedom to Read
Bill Number: S2281
Summary: This bill encourages and protects the freedom of public libraries to acquire materials without limitations and prohibits materials being removed from public libraries due to partisan or doctrinal disapproval.
Our position: FOR / IN SUPPORT OF
Current Status: This bill has been placed on the Senate Calendar.
When: May 30, Rise of the Senate (around 4:00pm)
Where: Senate Chamber, State House
How You Can Help: Please consider contacting your State Senator before May 30th to tell them how important it is that they pass this legislation.
Look up your senator here: Politician/Voting Lookup Page
Same Day Voter Registration
Summary: This bill will give voters in November the choice to remove the thirty-day voter registration deadline from the State Constitution and pave the way for same-day voter registration in RI.
Our position: FOR / IN SUPPORT OF
Current Status: These bills are currently being “held for further study”, and we are urging our legislators to move them forward for a vote.
Resources: Let RI Vote has a great summary of the bills and an online form you can fill out to contact your legislators: Online Form to Support S2779 / H7474 .
Save RIPTA
Bill Number: Joint Resolution H7774
Summary: This resolution would make an appropriation of $78 million to the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA).
Our position: FOR / IN SUPPORT OF
Current Status: This resolution is currently being “held for further study”, and we are urging our legislators to move it forward for a vote.
Resources: Providence Streets Coalition has an online form you can use to contact your legislators: Online Form to Support Funding for RIPTA.
Community Needs Pantry at the West Warwick Public Library
The West Warwick Public Library has a take what you need, give what you can community needs pantry near the front entrance. Please stop by to take something or to donate. The pantry is most in need of pasta, pasta sauce, shelf stable milk (all kinds), cereal, oatmeal, peanut / nut butter, and toilet paper.
Where: 1043 Main Street, West Warwick, RI 02893
Katherine (she / her)
I should care more about Memorial Day than I do.
My parents are both veterans; my mother was one of the first women admitted to West Point. My maternal grandparents are both buried in Arlington; my grandfather served in three different wars. I’ve been to those graves, watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
And yet —
I wonder if my grandfather’s exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam contributed to the health problems that shortened his life and meant I never met him.
And yet —
For all that my parents sung my brother and I jodies as lullabies, and told us stories of boot camp horrors, mandatory hazing at West Point, and what it was like to be stationed in Germany during the Cold War (I’m always surprised when not everyone knows what Checkpoint Charlie is), there was no push to serve ourselves. They weren’t career military, though my grandfather was; they did their hitch and got out. They were lucky in their timing and their service.
And yet —
There’s a pebble in my shoe, on Memorial Day. It’s meant to be a somber reflection on the cost of war — and for some it is, a tending of graves, a remembrance of loved ones lost, politicians’ mournful speeches — but for most it’s just a holiday, only nominally connected to the cost in blood and treasure of the wars — “police actions” — that have been fought with American soldiers and American weapons and American money.
It’s all rather a part and parcel with how veterans and service members are treated in American culture; Memorial Day, “thank you for your service”, and priority boarding on airplanes somehow mean that we don’t have to actually honor their service — by making sure that the wars they fought in were worth the cost. That they could serve with honor and come back with support.
And yet —
America glories in the soldier, citizen, professional and volunteer: the last full measure of devotion — live, serve, and die, we pray, West Point, for thee — these are the times that try men’s souls — as if that honoring could hide from us what we ask them to do. And how we fail them after. Even the most just of wars is a horror, even the most necessary war; and so many wars have not been necessary.
Long ago, in early Christianity, all soldiers were required to undergo penance when they returned from war, even ones fought for theoretically right reasons, for it was considered that even a good war was still sinful. There is something in this; I wish my church had kept this attitude. War deadens and damages even the best of persons; it is inimical to the human spirit and human body. So many of us forget that Memorial Day is — should be — a day of mourning, of thankfulness for others, of regret, of repentance.
Of remembrance.
Needle Drop: “Last Full Measure of Devotion”, 82nd Airborne Division All-American Chorus
News Round-Up
Jewish Voice for Peace RI protests at Congressional delegations’ homes in honor of Nakba Day (May 15, 2024, Jewish Voice for Peace for Steve Ahlquist)
Op-Eds & Deep Dives
Rain is Coming (May 15, 2024, Mohammed El-Kurd for Mondoweiss)
Mayor Smiley’s War on the Poor (May 15, 2024, Steve Ahlquist)
Beyond Analogy: Fascism and the Morbid Symptoms of the Moment (May 19, 2024, Kelly Hayes in Organizing My Thoughts)
Pod Recs: It Could Happen Here
Collapse Ft. Andrew (March 1, 2024)
No, The Supreme Court Has Not Banned Protest (May 13, 2024)
A Guide for New Activists (May 20, 2024)
Vid Recs
In Search Of A Flat Earth (September 22, 2020, Dan Olson in Folding Ideas)
The Nakba Explained (May 15, 2023, Mohammed El-Kurd for The Nation)
Continuing Actions for Palestine
Power Half-Hours for Gaza
When: every day, Monday through Friday, 3:00pm EST
Where: online
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is holding Power Half-Hours for Gaza every day — join us as we channel our fury and sorrow into collective action to stop genocide.
JVP RI Weekly Flyering
When: Every Wednesday, 5:00pm-6:00pm
Where: Providence Train Station, 100 Gaspee Street, Providence, RI 02903
JVP RI invites all to join them in their efforts to spread the word about their work and simple actions people can take to demand an end to the genocide in Palestine. They meet on the Statehouse side of the train station.
Weekly Kaddish
When: Every Sunday, 1:00pm-1:30pm
Where: Michael Van Leesten Pedestrian Bridge, Providence, RI 02903
JVP RI and allies will be hosting a weekly gathering on Sundays to recite the Mourners Kaddish and communally grieve the Palestinians murdered by the Israeli military. You need not be Jewish to attend; all are welcome to participate.
Ceasefire Today Toolkit
This toolkit has a variety of links, including call scripts, groups accepting donations, phone banks, petitions, and more.
News Coverage
As always, especially when getting news from social media, be aware of who is sharing information and why they’re doing it.
Al Jazeera Coverage of the War on Gaza has continued to be a reliable source.
Note: you may have heard that Al Jazeera has been banned from Israel; it is still trying to do good reporting in Gaza and Palestine. However, it has been shut down from operating in, reporting from, or broadcasting to Israel, and the future of information output from Gaza is still up in the air.
Mondoweiss is another news source doing good work in this space.
