The Stage

"Dreams are the touchstones of our characters. We are scarcely less afflicted when we remember some unworthiness in our conduct in a dream, than if it had been actual, and the intensity of our grief, which is our atonement, measures inversely the degree by which this is separated from an actual unworthiness. For in dreams we but act a part which must have been learned and rehearsed in our waking hours, and no doubt could discover some waking consent thereto. If this meanness has not its foundation in us, why are we grieved at it?"

Photograph by Lee Greenfeld © 2018

Words by Henry David Thoreau from A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, 1849

A Blinding Light

Just this past week when I was in New Orleans trying to take a break from the real world for a bit, I encountered antisemitism while having a drink in my hotel bar. The guy who very nearly caught a fist to his jaw was nice enough, and I actually doubt he had an inkling as to the ugliness of his words, yet he felt comfortable making a crack about Jews to someone he just met.

Today, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, I think it's crucial to remember that a lack of understanding of people different from you — their collective experiences and culture — leads to desensitization, and ultimately dehumanization; dehumanization being just one of the tools which craven politicians use to fool people into accepting what should be the unacceptable, and as history has taught us, the unspeakable.

Immortality

"There is a certain part of all of us that lives outside of time. Perhaps we become aware of our age only at exceptional moments and most of the time we are ageless."

Here Comes The Judge

Hon. Jerome Cohen

Rest In Peace

Fare thee well to Coney Island’s own "Judge Jerry." This Brooklyn boy was a World War ll hero and Purple Heart recipient, who also fought for our vets long after the war as National Commander of the Jewish War Veterans (at one point telling Nixon face to face to get our boys out of 'Nam). Jerry, it was always a pleasure to have a mid-week drink with you, talk politics, and hear all your amazing tales; knowing you was a pleasure and a real honor. Sleep well, my friend.