Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 31 March 2004 — Page 26

NAT 2 March 31. 2004

Jewish Post & Opinion

Maybe You'll Agree

The last time 1 saw my mother alive, she was waving to me from an ambulance. I had left her with a very kind hospice volunteer and was returning home as she was leaving for the hospital. Hearing the sound of a siren has always made me cringe. Now that 1 am caring for my father who is 95 - albeit in good health - that feeling has gotten worse. 1 have a fear that like my mother, something will happen to him while 1 am away. A couple of years ago I cut out a Bill Keane cartoon from the Sunday comics. It is only one frame. In the middle of it there is an ambulance making a loud sound. To the left is the brother wearing a frown, covering his ears saying, "Oh no! That siren means somebody's in trouble!" To the right is the sister with her hands clasped together and a smiling face saying, "Ah yes! That siren means that somebody is getting help!" If only I could think of it the way the girl does, but that did not work for me. A study group meets at my house twice a month in the evening. For an hour and fifteen minutes we read from a Jewish text and discuss it. Recently a subject on ethics came up in our discussion. It had to do with hearing a siren while driving toward one's home. A man hears a siren and then sees a fire engine headed in the direction of his house. As he arrives home, he is relieved to find that it is not his house on fire. The person in the study group finished his comments with, "This man is not supposed to thank God that his house is not burning down because he would also be thanking God for the misfortune of someone else." I do not know where this teaching comes from, but I have to admit that I am frequently guilty of doing this. My father and I live two blocks from a fire station and one mile from a major hospital. I hear sirens in my neighborhood almost every day. When I lived in San Francisco, I read the book Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh (pronounced Tick Naught Han). He is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist. During the war in Vietnam he worked tirelessly for reconciliation between North and South Vietnam. His lifelong efforts to generate peace moved Martin Luther King, Jr. to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. Now almost 70, he lives in exile in a small community in France where he teaches, writes, gardens, and works to help refugees worldwide. He has written more than 75 books. In the Sept. 19,2003 issue of Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, Bob Abernathy interviewed him. Although most of the interview was about Iraq, there was a question about peace in the Middle East. Q: You mentioned the Middle East generally - Israel and the Palestinians. It seems that one act of violence there produces another. What would you recommend? A: We have been inviting Israelis and Palestinians to come to our practice centers, and we always succeed in helping them in becoming brothers and sisters; removing wrong perceptions; cultivating brotherhood and mutual understanding....For those attending it always brings reconciliation. Nhat Hanh's message emphasizes simple practices. Concentration on every activity - walking, breathing, eating, everything. He says this mindfulness leads to understanding the roots of suffering, which encourages compassion that can dissolve anger. In Peace is Every Step I read about a situation he experienced when he was living in London. Nearby, loud bells would ring every hour. They would startle him and inter Continued on page 4

The JPO is published in Indiana, which is so vanilla Midwest American that fast food restaurant chains and other companies use Hoosiers as their test market for new products. But even Indiana has a good mixture of people. Our state Department of Education says Hoosier school children have more than 200 native languages. Probably dam few compared with California, but enough to make my point. I have a strong hunch that some of those languages and kids are from distant lands where folks worship according to religions that did not originate in the Middle East. Which is one of the reasons I hope atheist Michael Newdow wins his case. Newdow recently argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that the phrase "under God" should be stricken from the

Pledge of Allegiance to the flag recited daily by millions of school children all over America. I am sure there are little atheists, agnostics, and believers of various faiths who resent having to say or pretend they are saying that phrase, which was inserted during the Cold War to help let the godless USSR know that God was on our side. The Supreme Court already has ruled that schoolchildren cannot be forced to say the pledge. Newdow says that is not good enough. When a teacher, paid by taxpayers, stands up and leads the pledge, it is unrealistic to expect small children to opt out, Newdow says. He sees it as a breach of the wall between church and state. I'm a U.S. Army veteran. I sent my kids to a Continued on page 4

About the Cover

At the age of two, Bonnie Gordon-Lucas reached from her high chair to finger-paint a colorful "Cooked Beets with Carrots" on the wall of her grandma's newly painted kitchen. Such early talent was met with mixed reviews. "Don't spank that girl, frame it!" - Aunt Bella, Wallingford, Conn. "Good, needs salt!" - Poppa, Brooklyn, N.Y. Years later she found a more lucrative artistic outlet in advertising and animation design. A freelance illustrator for over 30 years, Gor-don-Lucas' work has also been commissioned for greeting cards, rubber stamps, CD album covers, wallpaper, fabric, puzzles, magazines, and children's books. Her images are vivid and imaginative, with a lyrical, almost musical flow. Gordon-Lucas studied journalistic art at New York's School of Visual Arts and attended Brooklyn College and Ivy Tech in Indianapo-

lis. Her paintings are sold as museum-qual-ity fine art prints. Personalized Blessed Event Certificates (for weddings, bar/bat mitzvah invitations, birth and adoption) are a popular gift request. The border art of Bonnie Gordon-Lucas featured on the cover is from Uncle Eli's Spccial-For-Kids, Most Fun Ever, Under-The-Table Passover Flaggadah, by Eliezer Lome Segal, professor of religious studies at University of Calgary. Published by No Starch Press in San Francisco, it can be purchased on line at www.nostarch.com (click Catalog, then click Backlist) or at local bookstores. It is also available in a number of synagogue book/gift shops. Gordon-Lucas and her husband, Lee, live in a renovated farmhouse in Bloomington, Ind. Studio and garden tours are available by appointment. Call 812-339-6001, or you can visit her on the Web at http: / / www.mybonnie.com.

How To Kill A Business In Ten Easy Steps

1. Don't advertise. Just pretend everybody knows what you have to offer. 2. Don't advertise. Tell yourself you just don’t have the time to spend thinking about promoting your business. 3. Don't advertise. Just assume everybody knows what you sell. 4. Don’t advertise. Convince yourself that you’ve been in business so long customers will automatically come to you. 5. Don’t advertise. Forget that there are new potential customers who would do business with you if they were urged to do so.

6. Don’t advertise. Forget that you have competition trying to attract your customers away from you. 7. Don't advertise. Tell yourself it costs too much to advertise and that you don’t get enough out of it. 8. Don’t advertise. Overlook the fact that advertising is an investment in selling — not an expense. 9. Don’t advertise. Be sure not pro^ vide an adequate advertising budget for business. 10. Don’t advertise. Forget that you have to keep reminding your established customers that you appreciate their business.

You decide... it's your business in good times or bad.