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Posts by Janet Hammer

Mar 28, 2024

Cesspool of psychological filth & the redemptive hope of education 3/28/24

by Janet Hammer

I start my post today by comparing my achingly beautiful surroundings in our awesome Florida jungle with the ache of ugliness I perceive in this world  
 
It is drippingly humid. The birds are so happy and the sounds are muffled by the pervasive dampness. You can smell the plants and so…

Mar 26, 2024

Hatching Escape Plans? - 3/26/24

by Janet Hammer

 

Do you know anyone with escape plans?
Lately I am hearing an ever increasing number of friends or sometimes more marginally connected acquaintances say they are hatching escape plans for the civil disruption ahead of us. What can they imagine ? What scenario can they concoct that will…

Mar 25, 2024

I Ask Why! - 3/25/24

by Janet Hammer

 

171 Days 
Sunday….. Sam and I joined up with the Clearwater Florida  Walk for Their Lives group.  Every Sunday we meet locally in a public gathering calling for the release of all hostages held by hamas. We are one of 180 groups that gather and send our messages of hope and love …

Mar 10, 2024

A Biblical Moment in the History of Israel - 3/10/24

by Janet Hammer

This is The Second War of Independence.
 
I have told you that right now Israel is fighting for survival, for the right to exist, for the future.
 
Remember 1948? That was the year of the first War of Independence. What ensued after October 7 is considered by many Israelis to be a kind…

Mar 8, 2024

Love and creativity were killed - 3/8/24

by Janet Hammer

Today Sam and I are driving north to Chattanooga. It is 5:30 am and the roads are beginning to feel frenetic with commuters heading to work. Trucks steadily occupy the right lane. Things feel orderly and predictable in the early morning darkness. There still is no hint of the nearby sunrise.…

Mar 7, 2024

The Freedom of Truth - 3/7/24

by Janet Hammer

Free our girls.  Free our women. Free our boys. Free our men. Free our babies! Free them from the filthy bonds that tie them in the darkest tunnels of Gaza. 

 
 
Free us and the rest of the world. Free us all. Free us from the reptilian lies our enemies promulgate against us. Free u…

Mar 6, 2024

The Neville Chamberlin Prize in Appeasement - 3/6/24

by Janet Hammer

DOES ANYONE EVEN WANT TO READ THIS ?!?!?!!
 
This is what I screamed this morning at my home audience ….Sam. 
 
I am totally frustrated. 
 
 
I’m frustrated that the media frames the news as it is time to move onto the next cycle and call this war a “Wrap.”
 
Reall…

Mar 5, 2024

TRUTH or: The days you hate yourself - 3/5/24

by Janet Hammer

The days you hate yourself. Yes. There are those days.
 
You are guilty. You are marked.
 
Sam worked with a Jewish woman who escaped Warsaw in 1939 just before it fell to the Nazis. These were her words. She said that in the 1930s you couldn’t escape these thoughts however insane th…

Mar 4, 2024

The kids are tired - 3/4/24

by Janet Hammer

The children are tired
 
The parents are tired
 
Is everyone tired?
 
Sam’s weekly zoom meetings teaching English to young teens in our sister region of Israel (Hadera-eiron) is a lot of fun. 
 
Part of the fun is the unpredictableness of it all. Where will the conversation go…

Mar 3, 2024

You be the judge or: When Darkness Declares You As Its Enemy - 3/3/24

by Janet Hammer

Dear readers,
 
After days and seeming weeks of paralysis in early October Sam and I grew more certain of our role in this horrific extended moment of Hamas terror and its consequences. 
 
We came to realize what is perhaps obvious. There’s nothing we can do about the world situatio…

Mar 2, 2024

The only thing I trust is my need to question - 3/2/24

by Janet Hammer

Three elderly hostages are dead. The first I heard of this sad news item cited the palestinian News Ministry. It flashed across my phone as I was talking to one of my kids.
 
Chaim Gershon Peri, 79, Yoram Itak Metzger, 80, and Amiram Israel Cooper, 85 are three of supposedly 7 hostages re…

Mar 1, 2024

The Evil Psychological Tattoo - 3/1/24

by Janet Hammer

Today I am attending a memorial service for a dear friend’s mom. Her mom died well into her nineties after what we call a good “long life.”
 
Death is a poignant moment and grief knows no boundaries. Whether it is after a life well lived or a life cut off too soon the ensuing grief …

Feb 29, 2024

We Are All Hostages - 2/29/24

by Janet Hammer

In ancient Israel life revolved around seasonal harvest. Pilgrimage walks from all corners of the Land of Israel brought people together to observe religious rites. In the process their individual prayers/devotions became empowered. 
 
In ancient Israel and in traditional Judaism there w…

Feb 28, 2024

It’s Not Happening Here. Is It??? - 2/28/24

by Janet Hammer

There was a time, not too long ago, when the very notion of having to hide your Jewishness in America would have seemed unfathomable. Kind of. I mean, we have a good 150 yers of hiding our Jewishness here in the United States, changing our names, shedding our rituals, folding our kippahs nea…

Feb 27, 2024

Angry Birds and a World of Possibilities - 2/27/24

by Janet Hammer

As I look at myself writing I become more conscious of the mission I’m on. What started as a collection of observations about my recent trip to Israel has morphed into a place where I record my thoughts, impressions, and feelings about the events that have unfurled since October 7. Things …