PRIDE AND STRAIGHT PARENTS 

Pride Month in San Francisco concludes Sunday with the annual parade up Market Street. Carolyn and I have a personal connection.  We have a trans son, Yosi, and a gay son, Aaron—and gay son-in-law Jeremy. Also, a straight son, Seth. We love them equally.  Pride serves as a celebration for two straight parents who learned…

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SLACK AGAINST THE GRAIN

What if you looked in the mirror and couldn’t see yourself? For many Americans and others around the world, that’s reality. But Jason Collins is putting his reflection back where it belongs—in plain sight. Let’s not force others to disappear in the process. Two weeks ago, Brittney Griner, the 6-8 basketball All-American from Baylor, announced…

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A MISLEADING QUESTION

Yesterday’s Opinion Pages in The New York Times asked, “Can the United States stay engaged with modern democratic Middle Eastern countries that have sizable anti-Western populations?” The answers by the chosen debaters were reasonable. The question was misleading. Modern democratic Middle Eastern countries don’t exist—with the exception of Israel. Now let’s be clear: Millions of…

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YOU’RE WELCOME

Periodically, a Muslim shares in the media a particularly wonderful bit of wisdom. So it was last week. Yet the speaker or writer always seems to remain unaware of that wisdom’s source. It’s borrowed from Judaism. Such recognition might help to eliminate the hatred that many Muslims exhibit towards Jews. The Quran (Sura 5:32) states:…

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INSULT TO HUMANITY

David Brooks, the New York Times columnist, offers fascinating insights into the workings of the human mind in his book, The Social Animal. Brooks points to how we often judge people in milliseconds based on stimuli recognized only the subconscious. I had that experienced with a recent photo in the San Francisco Chronicle. I immediately…

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THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT

From time to time, the leader of a Torah study session or Shabbat services will ask the group to come up with an Eleventh Commandment. (The Ten Commandments Moses received on Mount Sinai are well known but often misunderstood.) One of the earliest of these Eleventh Commandments was Holocaust survivor Emil Fackenheim’s instruction to survive…

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A TALE OF TWO COUNTRIES

Some people believe that outrage in the name of religion—or religious hatred—only happens “there.” Not quite. But along with the bad news, there’s also good news. In Cologne, Germany, a regional court banned circumcision for children stating that the procedure does bodily harm without consent. German Jews and Muslims—along with co-religionists worldwide—protested vociferously. For Jews,…

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SMILING FACES

Life seems awfully confusing these days. So it’s only natural to believe that things were better “then”—when everyone (or so it seemed) liked Ike, watched “Ozzie and Harriet” and wore suits and hats (with gloves for the women) downtown. I have my doubts. I call to witness the American Conservatory Theater’s production of the Kander…

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DIRTY LAUNDRY

You don’t really need to find out what’s going on You don’t really want to know just how far it’s gone Just leave well enough alone, keep your dirty laundry “Dirty Laundry” by Don Henley, released 1982 In today’s San Francisco Chronicle, Chip Johnson asks why so many Oaklanders focus on the killing of a…

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FOCUS ON WHOSE FAMILY?

I saw a TV commercial last week featuring small children quoting and commenting on John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have life eternal.”  Now, I have no brief with people of any religion expressing their faith.…

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FAMILY

Libyan rebels have taken the Tripoli compound of Muammar el-Qaddafi (New York Times spelling). The Libyan poet and writer Khaled Darwish wrote in a Times op-ed piece yesterday, “My son Mohammad waved our new flag of independence in one hand and held a martyr’s picture in the other as he chanted, ‘The blood of martyrs…

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HOORAY FOR THE HYPHEN

What goes around comes around. Recently, several European leaders declared multiculturalism a failure. Europeans, who once avidly condemned America’s racial and religious shortcomings, have encountered their own challenges involving large Muslim minorities from North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. French President Nikolas Sarkozy declared on February 10, “If you come to France, you…

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BEYOND DEFINITION

Earlier this week, I did a ten-minute stand-up comedy set at San Francisco’s Purple Onion. It was open-mic night for the San Francisco Comedy College. I’d taken their five-week beginner class as part of the research for a novel I’ve just begun. My guests laughed. The rest of the crowd—a whole lot younger—did, too. Thank…

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IRAN: SO WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?

On January 22, six world powers (U.S., France, Germany, China, Russia and Britain) attempting to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons ended their latest attempt at negotiations. Once again, they failed. We can applaud such diplomatic efforts, but I wonder if our government and others really expect the Iranians to respond. Consider these items: •…

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THE GOVERNOR OF ALABAMA AND THE PRIEST OF MIDIAN

You have to open your mouth pretty wide to put your foot in it, but it can be done. The last week offered ample demonstration. Sarah Palin, denying that conservative rhetoric led to the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona), condemned liberals’ “blood libel.” This medieval fantasy accused Jews of killing Christians for their blood.…

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