Kudos to Columnist
I am the author of two books. I am contacting you about “Another Fresno Opportunity” (January 2024 issue) written by Ruth Gadebusch. Born and raised in Fresno, I have never had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Gadebusch, however, I know her name and reputation well.
Thank you Community Alliance for your publication. I want to extend a special thank you to Ms. Gadebusch for a much needed article. I have high hopes for the downtown and Chinatown revitalization and plans for the future, including the high-speed rail station here in Fresno.
God bless our westside future!
Mikki Addison
Fresno
HART Team Is a Sham
With the elections coming up, when and how’s a good time to speak to the [Fresno] City Council? I am outraged that a tent I donated to some poor unhoused individuals was taken and cruelly thrown away by the City right before their eyes, right before this atmospheric river deluge of rain!
It is a lie that the police are holding items confiscated to be retrieved downtown. They throw away people’s IDs and blankets right before their eyes while people are pleading to save their meager essential belongings like shoes and socks and tarps! The HART (Homeless Assistance Response Team) is a complete sham!
Abby Roberts
Israel Is Hamas’s Best Recruiter
I am Jewish and have deep family connections to early Zionism. My great grandfather resigned from the Austrian Army in 1896 to become head of security for Hertzl and the Zionist movement. My other grandfather was a childhood friend of Chiam Weizmann.
My parents donated regularly to the JNF (Jewish National Fund). I used to carry a paper can around to my neighbors to collect “Dimes for Israel.” I was bar mitzvahed at Temple Beth Jacob in Fresno in 1959.
I grew up in the tradition of progressive humanitarian politics. I have been an antiwar, labor and civil rights organizer. I am a human first, an American of Jewish extraction second. Anti-Zionist does not equal anti-Jewish or anti-Israel, and you should be smart enough to know that.
Rabbi Hillel, threatened by Roman soldiers to stand on one leg and tell them about what it is to be Jewish, stood on one leg and said, “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” Being pro-ceasefire is not anti-Semitic, it is not even anti-Israel. It is anti-violence.
Quotes from Hertz’s original political writings make it clear that the elimination of the Palestinian people was a cornerstone of Jewish re-occupation of the homeland. This is called “genocidal politics.” This is irreconcilable with the Golden Rule, the cornerstone of Judaism.
After 90 years of demeaning and violent treatment by a government, what would you do to obtain your own freedom? What did the 13 colonies do? What did the Native Americans do? What would you do?
Can you imagine what a 10-year old Palestinian boy would think if he saw an Israeli soldier kill his mother and sisters? What would you do?
The government of Israel is the best recruiter that Hamas ever had. Israeli Zionists cannot be the more powerful political force and then claim “victim” when their actions gain the predictable result (Shylock’s fate).
We have put down the other leg and done evil, using our own gain as the excuse.
In the name of the next generation, in the name of Hillel, in the name of our commandments, we should be demanding a ceasefire and a two-party state because it is the human thing to do. It is what we would wish for ourselves.
Be a conscientious Jew (not a Zionist) and do what’s right. God is watching.
Joel D. Eis, Ph.D.
San Francisco
American Gerontocracy
U.S. President Joe Biden is 81 years old.
Prison-bound Donald Trump is 77 years old.
Supreme Court “Justice” Clarence Thomas is 75 years old and still talking about Coke cans.
And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is 82 years old.
What the heck, folks? Was it ever seriously the planned intention in America for the vast majority of the mostly powerlessness adult public to be ruled and abused by our elders, like lost and forgotten children hiding from the oncoming next horrific Holocaust in a neighborhood friend’s filthy, fearful of fascists attic, with not even one unwilted flower among any of us? For shame!
I would never want to draw any unwanted attention to certain societal institutions of particular note here that may have had a role in the creation of our relatively new American gerontocracy, but by necessity, here goes:
Israeli Huckster Benny Hinn is 71 years old.
Texas Taliban’s John Hagee is 83 years old.
The Catholic Pope Francis is 87 years old.
And the United Kingdom’s King Charles is 75 years old.
Homer’s dad, Grandpa Simpson, is 83 years old, and the onion belt story is getting old.
Jake Pickering
Arcata
Controlling the Democratic Committee
Why do Fresno City Council members want to control the county Democratic committee?
Three City Council members have dumped almost $15,000 into a PAC to elect Democratic county committee slates presumably to act as toadies for their interests. But to what end?
One of these slates even includes Council Member [Nelson] Esparza and his partner (who just happens to work for [Rep.] Jim Costa). And a third person on the same slate works for [Assembly Member] Esmeralda Soria. Moreover, several candidates who actually do the hard work of running the party are getting pushed aside.
Why put that kind of money into getting Council influence on the county committee instead of giving the money directly to the party itself, where it could be used to help elect Democrats across the board?
Something smells foul here,
Saul Ross
Selma
