Dear runner,

They wouldn't be thriving without the massive American
support, and what about the Palestinians? Where do they
fit into your scenario? Oh that's right, they have to put
up and shut up in this "democracy."

' They wouldn't be thriving without the massive American
support, and what about the Palestinians?'

come on Foxy I thought someone as well read as you would know that Palestine is a made up state who has been given much land. They will not be content until they destroy Israel (someting that will never happen). Your poor interpretation of history and the Scriptures is certainly helping your bias.

Dear runner,

Talking about bias perhaps you need to actually do
a bit more historical research yourself. There's an
excellent book by Antony Loewenstein, "My Israel
Question,"which gives the history of the area.

Israel has been calling the shots since 1967, always
without Palestinian consultation, and clearly believes
that the USA will support it no matter what. Sadly,
once again the international community has placed a
higher value on Israel's vision of its historic
destiny than on the humanity of the Palestinians.
Loewenstein tells us that:

"The Kadima vision is of a concrete wall, with Hews on
one side and as many Arabs as possible on the other.
Sooner or later, Israel and the Palestinians will...
have to listen to each other's grievances and negotiate
with honesty. Only then - and on the condition that both
Israel and the Palestinian state achieve safety and
security - will this conflict be resolved. Neither
side has a monopoly on suffering, but only one party
has the power to end the occupation and to recognise that
Israel and Palestine are destined to share the same
homeland."

Dear Foxy,

In the fourteenth century Lithuanian Grand Duke, Prince Gedimas, like his ancestors put his faith in the god of thunder, Perkunas, who ruled over the many other gods in the Lithuanian pantheon. When emissaries of the pope attempted to convert the prince to Christianity in 1324, the prince told them that he would like to be treated by them as he treated those within his domains: He did not interfere with the Christians who worshipped their God according to their laws, and he hoped that he and his subjects would be left to worship in their way.

Unfortunately the Livonian and Teutonic Knights kept crusading against Lithuania to get the ruling house and the people to adopt Christianity. The long dominion of the pagan gods over Lithuania came to an end in 1386, with the politically impelled marriage of the Lithuanian ruler Jogaila (1351-1434) – Jagiello in Polish – and the Polish princess Jadwiga. She was eleven years, her pagan husband three times her age. Their union, and the resulting political union of Poland and Lithuania, created a state that was much more powerful than either state alone.

I am glad that Christianity did not completely destroy your grandmother’s religion, and she believed in the God of Thunder.

Dear David F.,

I am also glad that my grandmother still believed in
the God of Thunder. Many Lithuanians still do:

"I come from a tribe of nature worshippers,
pantheists, believers in fairies, forest sprites, and
wood nymphs, who heard devils in their windmills,
met them in the woods, cloven-hooved and dapper
gentlemen of the night.
Who named the god of thunder,
who praised and glorified bread, dark rye waving
waist-high out of the earth,
and held it sacred, wasting not a crumb,
who spent afternoons mushrooming in forests of pine,
fir, and birch,
Who transferred Jesus
from his wooden cross, transformed him
into a wood-carved, worrying peasant,
raised him on a wooden pole above the crossroads
where he sat with infinite patience
in rain and snow, wooden legs apart,
wooden elbows on wooden knees,
wooden chin in wooden hand,
worrying and sorrowing for the world...
these people who named their sons and daughters
after amber, rue, fir tree, dawn, storm,
and the only people I know who have a diminutive
form for God Himself - "Dievulis" , "God-my-little-buddy".

Any wonder I catch myself speaking
to trees, flowers, bushes - these eucalyptus so far
from Eastern Europe - or that I bend down to the earth,
gather pebbles, acorns, leaves, boles, bring
them home, enshrine them on mantelpieces or above
porcelain fixtures in corners, any wonder
I grow nervous in rooms
and must step outside and touch a tree,
or sink my toes in the dirt, or watch the birds fly by."

(written by Al Zolynas - American Lithuanian poet).

Dear Foxy,

Thanks for telling me about Al Zolynas. I love the poem you cited. I relate to his poem, “An old man’s desire”. I’ll look up more of him.

I get poems every day in my in box.

Poem-a-Day from poem-a-day@poets.org

Do you go mushrooming, too?