dd April 17th, 2007
Professor Liviu Librescu Saved His Students
At The Cost Of His Own Life
I just discovered through ABC News and a VA Tech blog that one of the professors killed in yesterday’s rampage was a real hero who saved the lives of his students by barricading the door while they escaped out the windows. His name is Dr Liviu Librescu, originally from Romania. He was 76 years old and a survivor of the Holocaust. What more is there to say?
dd April 6th, 2007
Here’s the setup. I was out shopping today - what a mistake that was. Guess everyone is out because of the Easter weekend. By the time I got to Eckerd’s drugstore and perused the aisles looking for some stuff, the urge to pee became overwhelmingly strong. Finally, I asked if there was a restroom. “Just around the corner.” Terrific!
So, I scampered around the corner. My first glance caught the women’s room. Second glance caught the men’s room with the big “Out of order” sign. Crap.
Well, with only a second or two hesitation, I knocked on the women’s room door. No answer. I turned the door knob, gingerly stepped in, and went to lock the door. Uh-oh, no lock. I couldn’t hold it much longer so I positioned my little shopping basket in front of the door and went for a stall. Finished up, walked out and no one was the wiser.
Modesty or potential embarrassment but relief - which would you have chosen?
dd April 3rd, 2007
Last night we celebrated the first night of Passover with a Seder (which means “order”) at our home. The 50,000 foot view of the holiday is that it is the story of liberation from bondage and a journey to redemption.
I’ve always put a lot of effort into planning the service portion of the evening. Barbara has been responsible for the menu and most of the food preparation (and it was delicious). But, first we spent almost 2 hours telling the story, discussing it, raising and debating questions. One of the parts of the service involves asking (usually asked by the youngest child although we did not have anyone younger than 30 last night) 4 questions about how this night is different from all other nights. At some Seders, there is a 5th question that someone will invariably raise, “When do we eat?” At my Seders, participants know it will be a long haul before we get to the main meal.
This year I decided to incorporate readings and questions about Darfur, Sudan because people there are suffering an even worse fate than my ancestors did at the hands of the Egyptians. For example, we spent a long time talking about this question:
How can we carve out time and energy for faraway Darfur when we face struggles in our everyday lives that leave little space for it? On the other hand, didn’t people offer similar justifications for inaction when faced with evidence that the Holocaust was taking place?
Then, the discussion turned to what each of us can do as individuals and whether anything we do will make a difference to stopping this genocide in Darfur. Some thought it was up to our political leaders or media owners. I disagreed as I’ve done before on this blog. I offered two rejoinders:
So what can stop this genocide? At one level the answer is technical: sanctions against Sudan, a no-fly zone, a freeze of Sudanese officials’ assets, prosecution of the killers by the International Criminal Court, a team effort by African and Arab countries to pressure Sudan, and an international force of African troops with financing and logistical support from the West.
But that’s the narrow answer. What will really stop this genocide is indignation. Senator Paul Simon, who died in 2003, said after the Rwandan genocide, f every member of the House and Senate had received 100 letters from people back home saying we have to do something about Rwanda, when the crisis was first developing, then I think the response would have been different
At a later point in the Seder, I read this meditation from renowned Rabbi Harold Schulweis, who has been very vocal in protesting the situation in Darfur:
At Passover we celebrate z’man cheruteinu, the time of our liberation. We were enslaved, oppressed after hundreds of years of bondage in Egypt. “So we cried unto the God of our fathers…The Eternal heard our voice and saw our affliction, our burden, and our oppression” and brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand from the house of slavery
(from the Passover haggadah).A great gift of freedom was given to us. This Passover, as we begin the telling of the story of our ancestors, let us open our hearts to all those for whom the Exodus has not yet occurred, as well as our ears to the silent cries of all those without a voice who still live in the shadow of darkness.
“…We Jews see with ancient eyes and attend with ancient ears.
We were not born yesterday.Not long ago we swore over the cremated bodies of our fathers,
mothers and children a solemn oath. From the depths of our souls
we cried, “Never Again.” That oath carries the past into the
present and pledges to do today whatever is in our power to
prevent the perverse plots to extinguish the promise of life.“Never Again” will we allow the world to dissemble, to pretend that
we are voiceless, soundless, without legs or hands.Ours is a solemn oath in memory of those who were slaughtered
in deathly silence.We are pledged to wake the world from the paralysis of will.
We are partners with God in protecting His Children.
We dare not shut our eyes or our mouths or our ears.Who is Darfur to us? And who are they to us? They are us.”
Another custom I’ve adopted for our Seder is that when we talk about the 10 plagues visited upon the Egyptians before they let the Israelites go free, I ask the participants to mention a plague that the world is suffering today - e.g. genocide, global warming, tsunamis. This year someone mentioned George Bush. We all nodded our heads. Then, I “collect” these plagues in Elijah’s cup - yielding a cup of plagues.
Toward the end of the Seder, when we open the door for the prophet Elijah, I take the cup and ask people to offer a blessing they have experienced or witnessed in the past year. Examples are family, friends, music, etc. This year one of my best friends, who is not Jewish, said he is thankful for interfaith experiences like this one tonight. That really touched me. So, I say that we have turned plague into blessing which is our job on earth - to repair the world. The connection to Elijah, you may be asking? Well, when Elijah comes, we think the world will be overflowing with blessings. I hope your cup will be overflowing with blessings for the next year.
It was a wonderful evening. And, the food was magnificent. More about the food and another take on the Seder.
dd March 23rd, 2007
Dylan resting after his 2 day ordeal
Our 2 dogs wandered off yesterday around 7 A.M. The whole story can be found in this post and this one by Barbara. Ironically, I had just posted a video of Jake, our speaking hybrid retriever a couple of days ago. In fact, Barbara in a moment of distraughtness (i know it’s not a word but it should be) suggested that maybe someone saw the video and then kidnapped our dogs. I told her that was pretty far fetched.
And, now we can totally dispel that notion. Jake came wandering home by himself yesterday afternoon. It was the first time that he had abandoned our old black lab Dylan (they have wandered off before whenever Jake has successfully “picked” the lock of our gate - in the event we screwed up and didn’t double bolt it). So, we were really worried about Dylan out there alone, old, nearly deaf and blind.
I spent a good deal of today following up with all the animal shelters and talking to new ones. I called the Police and a couple of Vet clinics. No one knew anything about Dylan.
But, around 5:30 P.M. this afternoon, I got a phone call:
Caller: Did you lose a dog? This is Fairfax County Animal Control.
Me: Yes, both of our dogs wandered off yesterday morning, but one came back.
Caller: What’s the name of the missing dog?
Me: Dylan.
Caller: Describe him
Me: He’s a 13 year old black lab. Nearly blind and deaf.
Caller: I’ve got him! I’ll deliver him in a few minutes. Oh, by the way, do you have proof of a current Rabies vaccine? And, what about his county license?
Me: I’ll look for them as soon as I hang up. Thanks so much for bringing him back to us.
Well, I found proof of the rabies vaccine easily enough, but no county license. Guess we never got around to that. But, the young female police officer was kind enough to tell me how this works. Turns out that if I go the the County Animal Shelter, pay $5 for a license and get her a copy, I won’t have to appear in court or pay the $100 fine.
So, all’s well that ends well. Our family is reunited. Our children (one in Boston and one in Berkeley) have been really worried about Dylan and are so relieved. We don’t know how much longer Dylan has, but at least he won’t die of cold and starvation alone out in the woods.
dd December 26th, 2006
How I Spend Christmas Day
Chinese food and a movie, what else? Take a listen…
