so here is what I was advertising…

2012-09-05 09:55:00 Christian-Jewish Deut.4:24 views via shared struggle, and FB Autobiog? Well, I woke up this morning with my mind…   pondering the question a good friend called me with the other night, regarding the strange story of how Ziporah rescues either Moses or their son on the way to see Pharoah in Egypt.  She asked my point of view on this "Bridegroom of Blood" story, and I happened to have an Etz Chaim handy, which agrees on the strangeness of this story, so I pulled it out and agreed -it is odd!  Looking at those three verses that tell this story, I was struck by how differently her commentary (a Christian commentator whose name I do not recall at the moment) approached this question.  While the Etz Chaim commentary (a commentary by committee, I believe) focused on analyzing the words which connect this story to others, and the symbolism of blood in various Ancient Near Eastern societies, her commentator focused on symbolisms leading to a more other-worldly set of focii.  Not surprising, but rather different from other conversations she and I have had, where we both brought our own personal perspectives to the story more strongly.  Both of us were members of the Jr. ROTC at Dunbar, an inner city DC high school famous for many reasons, historically and in the 80´s, when we attended, and both of us have fought through struggles in our lives.  How interesting that now, while we are both strongly committed to our respective faiths, we are able to enjoy discussing our common books from the different perspectives of those two faiths, yet perhaps due to our shared backgrounds, we understand these books in ways that most other people seem not to be able to do.  I have had only one other good friend, my mentor Rosamund Stock, in London, who was such a devout Christian and yet able to share so intently (this time the medium was my favorite SF show, Babylon 5, to which Ros introduced me, ok, after Rich did, but she re-introduced the show to me from a faith-based perspective that simply blew me away with the difference that that new perspective made…).  Ros too has fought through stunning adversity, and presents another example of committment and cooperation with other points of view.  We love discussing the differences in our faiths, but seen through the lens of a shared core perspective, Community Cooperation, that allows us to find the meaningful interlocking peices which bring beauty to those differences. Since so many of these conversations find their way onto FaceBook, I wonder if one day FB will be used to aggregate and publish as autobiographies, the lives of ordinary people? Peace, (I find this ironic, now that I am back to being an atheist, and less in touch with my religious friends…) Read, Write, Dream, Teach !
 ShiraDest 
19 February, 12016 HE

Cooperative Community is, as Tim Miller points out in his article “A Communitarian Conundrum

Why a World That Wants and Needs Community Doesn’t Get It

” a difficult, and possibly even a lost cause in our moder society. Nevertheles, we must fight for it. Whether it is currently practical or not, and whether it can be implemented in ways that are statistically significant or not, now or ever, we must continue to strive to set the example of fighting for the seemingly impossible, for at least two reasons. First, many ethical codes require this stiving, against the odds, as the Talmud points out: “”You are not required to complete the work, yet you are not allowed to desist from it.” – Pirkei Avot, 2:21 ” and second, perhaps more importantly, the historical record.

Whether we succeed or not, in the long run, it is important that there have been an effort made to counter the individualistic trend toward which our society is now headed.

to this endeavor, we continue to pledge our lives, our fortunes and our Sacred Honor.

2012-08-23 09:57:00 unf*ing believable. men. (except for you nice ones) So much for an honorary adoptive brother, or even friend. 3 months of talking about Octavia Butler and telling him to stop commenting on women’s thongs (that started about 1-2 months ago) and he says I am too attractive to be friends. what is it with people? 
2012-08-24 08:25:00 Marriage Cooperative: not religious -Emotional Health and Safety I need to start a « Wait until marriage for sex, but be affectionate and caring now » movement. People do not seem to have any comittment these days. Neither to friends nor to principles. No wonder there are so many walking wounded in our increasingly uncivil society. and I am starting a Marriage Cooperative.
 The idea is that single people looking for spouses form a group and take turns being the match-maker for each other.  Each single person would find 4 trusted long-term friends/family to form his/her  marriage panel.  That panel of 4 persons would be empowered to look over the match-maker’s possibile matches for the single person, and then meet with the marriage panels of the possible dating candidates.  The match-maker and both marriage panels then meet and discuss the match before the two singles are introduced to each other.  That way at least 8 people who know the two singles have a chance to agree on whether those two could form a healthy happy marriage, and there are 9 people guarranteed to support the marriage. Thoughts? 

 (Well, the thoughts I got on this were interesting: I appear to be devoid of understanding for human weakness, and “No 4 people can agree on pizza toppings, let alone who a friend should marry.” hmmm…
 Read, Write, Dream, Teach ! 
 ShiraDest 
23 February, 12016 HE

2012-04-12 18:16:00  
DC Social Forum consensus: Build Cooperative Society The joint presentations today at the DC Social Forum, which was held in the DC Friend’s Meeting House, a wonderful historical building, were fascinating.   And disturbing.  Fascinating because they all centered around the need to move from our consumerist and big box model of capitalism toward one which includes all of the people in the governance process.   Disturbing because everyone also agreed on the need for us to have a societal culture of cooperation and egalitarianism, or a willingness to cooperate to create and use a level playing field for all people.  Then everyone agreed that getting there from here would take a very long time. One of the tools mentioned included Public Banks, such as the one in North Dakota, and currently being considered by the Mayor in DC, apparently.  This is something to look into for the immediate future as a completely doable step which has in fact already been implemented in many places, according to the presenter. Another tool is Time Banking and the creation and use of various complementary or community currencies, such as Ithaca Hours, or Anacostia Hours here in DC alongside the local time bank, DC Time Bank.org.  Time Banks in particular create and build trust and cooperation in an egalitarian mode within the community. A further tool was the use of non-hierarchical methods and clarity on the point that groups must be set up with no more than 150 members in order to avoid creation of hierarchy, with lessons being drawn from the Cuban revoluntion of 1959 by a Hungarian professor presenting. A final vision was one in which society is entirely cooperative, resulting in the contributions of all members being valued.  Cultural change toward a valuing of equal participation, voice, and cooperation was espoused, along with the understanding that this does not happen overnight.   With consistent work and faith in our evolving ability to cooperate, we continue forward. 
Peace, ShiraDest
 2012-05-14  (Thanks to Andra for her edits to this flyer…)
UNIQUE! Musical Walking Tour: Early Integration Neighborhoods of DC: Shepherd Park With Singing Licensed DC Tour Guide Shira Destinie Jones
Join us for a walk back through DC history, to the turbulent times of BlockBusting and Cooperative struggle uniting White, Jewish and Black Neighbors to integrate neighborhoods, drawing on The Lost Laws, Labor Tactics Precedents,  even Presidents to form new community structures.
WHERE?  (S4 or D31 metro buses, or 1 mile south of Silver Spring metro station)
  2012-05-17:  We enjoyed yesterday evening’s Singing tour of Historic Takoma Park!  .. The tour Sunday went very well, although we did not get to walk down to the site of the old YMHA as we spent nearly an hour sharing with the nice gentleman who heads the building in the old Talmud Torah building.  He paid me the highest compliment I could wish for: an older native Washingtonian of Color exclaiming that I had taught him things this day about his own city which he had not known, and me 30 years his junior!  I was so pleased I sang some more!   🙂   We enjoyed discussing the sources of my downtown Jewish DC tour, including some standard DC historical books, as well as the autobiography of Marvin Kaplan, and The Secret City, which I used to combine information touching the Jewish and Colored communities (both enslaved and free) as we walked past former jails, synagogues, the all-important Carnegie Library down toward old Central Market but had to miss the old YMHA. This will be my third time giving this tour, each in a different direction, as I am still figuring out how to fit all of the various sites in to the 2 hours, and accomodate various walkers. exhausted.
  Read, Write, Dream, Teach !
 ShiraDest
24 February, 12016 HE

I was honored to be invited to present. I also took notes.

DC Social Forum consensus: Build Cooperative Society

The joint presentations today at the DC Social Forum, which was held in the DC Friend’s Meeting House, a wonderful historical building, were fascinating. And disturbing.

Fascinating because they all centered around the need to move from our consumerist and big box model of capitalism toward one which includes all of the people in the governance process.

Disturbing because everyone also agreed on the need for us to have a societal culture of cooperation and egalitarianism, or a willingness to cooperate to create and use a level playing field for all people. Then everyone agreed that getting there from here would take a very long time.

One of the tools mentioned included Public Banks, such as the one in North Dakota, and currently being considered by the Mayor in DC, apparently. This is something to look into for the immediate future as a completely doable step which has in fact already been implemented in many places, according to the presenter.

Another tool is Time Banking and the creation and use of various complementary or community currencies, such as Ithaca Hours, or Anacostia Hours here in DC alongside the local time bank, DC Time Bank.org. Time Banks in particular create and build trust and cooperation in an egalitarian mode within the community.

A further tool was the use of non-hierarchical methods and clarity on the point that groups must be set up with no more than 150 members in order to avoid creation of hierarchy, with lessons being drawn from the Cuban revoluntion of 1959 by a Hungarian professor presenting.

A final vision was one in which society is entirely cooperative, resulting in the contributions of all members being valued. Cultural change toward a valuing of equal participation, voice, and cooperation was espoused, along with the understanding that this does not happen overnight. With consistent work and faith in our evolving ability to cooperate, we continue forward.

Peace,

Gregorian Date: 12 April 2012
MEOW Date

or so I believed when I wrote this…

“Marriage and community: the real true meaning importance of same-sex marriage and or why society we must should support all marriages.”

1. society exists to facilitate the maximization of potential of each member of society.
2. Couples give more to society if the community (society in miniature, molded to a group) support and encourage the couple to stay together and contribute as a stable couple to society.
3. A synergistic relationship forms where the couple gives more to the community, and is in turn reinforced by the community, enabling them to be more effective both as a couple and as members of the community. Both members of the couple and the community are able to accomplish more through this mutually beneficial relationship.

Summary translation of 25 March post: “La Biblia no está contra la homosexualidad, sino contra la tortura “

The Bible is not against Homosexuality, but against Torture

A friend and I were talking of the execution of Haman in Megilat Esther.  Earlier translations say he was hanged on a gallows, but newer ones translate it as impaled on a stake.  It is understanding the cultural context which leads to this different transltion.  

That brought up the topic of cultural context in Biblical translation and interpretation.  To summarize my longer Spanish language post, two cases which come to mind are that of ´man shall not lie with man as with a woman´which, taken in the context of widespread use of rape as a means of punishing prisoners, and particularly the status of a free man, doing this to a man was not an act of sexuality nor one of desire, but simple torture and deliberate humiliation.  Likewise with the prohibition of temple prostitution cults -many cities in the ancient world required all girls (and sometimes all boys also) to serve in the temple of the local diety until gaining at least one coin in the service of the patron god.  This seems an effective rite of passage that forms a shared cultural experience, thus bonding each generation together in that society, but it is an incredibly damaging and insidious way to control the psychological development of the citizenry.  Effective, but evil.  Thus yet another form of torture is outlawed by the Bible. 
  These were very progressive ideas 5000 years ago, curtailing violence both explicit and implicit in order to build a healthier culture leading to a society with growing equality, evidenced by commands to ópen your hand and give to the poor.   

Peace,
Shira Dest