It’s raining pretty good. Writers are taught never to start with the weather. It’s a sign you don’t have anything to say. So, it’s raining pretty good. LOL. The leaves on the maples are thick and heavy and glossy from the rain, shining like beeswax on an apple. The tree limbs are full and hanging low across the yard and I can barely see the pond, just a small portion of water over the scaffolding holding the oak boards for the dock I have not completed. The rain is persistent on the silver and green surface of the pond and I regret I have not fished it all summer, not one cast. I will change that. Not this week, but, for sure, next week.

 

I’m taking today off. I’m not going to open the roadstand. The forecast is too problematic. It’s a shame. Historically, today, this Sunday, is a peak day for sales. The day will go into the ledger as a big zero. It’s tough out there. Sales are way down this year. Locally, there’s more competition for the farm-to-table dollar. That’s fine. That’s good to see. Also, it has come to my attention that a large number of people do not shop at my stand for political reasons. They don’t like my politics. Some have called me a “hater.” I’m not sure where that comes from, as I am certainly not a hater. I wonder if they actually know what my politics are? That’s fine too. It’s a form of free speech not to shop at an establishment. And part of my politics is a firm belief in the right of free speech. Should I summarize my political beliefs? I don’t think today is the day for it. I said I’m taking the day off.

 

But, damned. If my editor would be kind enough to allow me this small transgression, I will lay out my stance as succinctly and understandably as I can and then, if you disagree with me, feel free to show up at my stand and to debate the details. Let’s start at the top.

 

Since I do not believe there is a supreme being, or a god, then it follows that there can be no “chosen people”.. Lots of groups claim to be chosen. You can look it up. Yes, that means I support a Palestinian state. That, in turn, does not mean I support, or have ever supported, Hamas. Are all the people of Gaza guilty of the crimes of Hamas? No more so than I am guilty of the Secretary of “War” Hegseth’s murder of people in small boats. Israel is a complicated subject. I have no intention of spending the rest of this column on the subject. Let me just say, I lived in the Arab Quarter of Jerusalem. I walked to the Praying Wall and climbed the hill to the mosque on the Temple Mount. Outside Damascus Gate, I watched as IDF solders taunted an Arab shoeshine boy and took his shoeshine kit and threw it into the moat below the bridge to the gate, the road to Damascus. I stood there watching them, my long hair reflecting the time, the late hippie times of 1975, the Vietnam War finally over, and I think my presence tempered their actions as they could see I was an American watching them, and that simple fact may have prevented more serious harm to the boy. I don’t think it would make any difference today. 

 

From Jerusalem, I traveled by bus and by hitchhiking to the kibbutz, Sdot Yam. Do you know what a kibbutz is? Lot of talk about communism being thrown around these days. In my view, real communism existed in only one place: on the early kibbutzim of Israel. I spent a month on the kibbutz working with other volunteers and eating in the communal dining room with survivors of the Holocaust. Maybe people confuse communism with totalitarianism. One is an economic and social system, while the other is a type of government. You can have a communist inspired system that is at the same time democratic, as the early kibbutzim were in their principals and desires. They elected their leaders. They had a dairy barn, a banana field, chicken sheds for delivery in the early morning to the market in Tel Aviv. There are so many clear memories. But let’s not get bogged down. The point is a person can believe in a free Palestinian state and not be an antisemite. Word mongers try to confuse the issue. Don’t let it happen. 

 

Here we are in a war with Iran. It’s all related. Palestine is the key. But I am out of time. Let me summarize some other observations I hold which might prevent people from shopping at my road stand.

 

Trump’s is the most corrupt administration the country has ever seen: crypto and stable coins (buy your Melania coin yet?); manipulation of the oil market and the stock market by executive order announcements and tweets on Iran, the Straits, and broadcasting bombing plans; the sale of pardons; the weaponization of the Department of Justice; government contracts to cronies and family members owning interest in benefiting companies. The tip of the iceberg. We will never know the full scope of the corruption. Overwhelming the system with criminal activity is part of the plan.

 

The barbaric treatment of powerless immigrants is a national disgrace. Deporting people to countries not even on their birthplace continent is a vicious and intentionally cruel practice. 

 

Secretary of Defense Hegseth, Secretary of the Treasury Bessent, and other members of the cabinet have sown themselves to be unapologetically cruel, punishing in their policies and pronouncements. 

 

Illegal tariffs? So what? Let’s do more.

 

No permission to tear down the East Wing? So what? Let’s tear down the Kennedy Center too!

 

If you don’t like my politics, fine. I hope you can make sense of your own beliefs. Meanwhile, the roadstand will be open. If you have an issue, try to catch me in.

 

Oh yeah, universal single-payer healthcare. And tax the billionaire bros.

 

I was wrong. Someone called seeking honey. They came to the house. Fifteen dollars in the ledger. Grey day, lights on, more rain on the pond.