[do it again, but better]

It's finally 2012. We really are living in the future now. Soon it will be 2019, and then 2042, and then 2078. My grandchildren could be born in the 2050s.

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But that is a long way away from today. Right now, the world is in chaos. War, famine, natural disasters, crime, gender inequality, occupation, and unhealthy habits abound.

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This is the year that things are going to change, for better or for worse. This year, Presidential elections in the United States will change how Americans are viewed around the world, how international foreign policy affects war and peace, and how domestic policy affects the lives of millions of people.

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This year, governments and activists around the world are preparing to deal with the effects of global climate change: intense heat waves, outbreaks of malaria, increased floods, more cases of food poisoning (which increases along with average temperature), increased pollution, melting polar ice caps, continued deforestation and desertification, and the continued unnecessary endangerment of plants and animals (including us!).

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On the other hand, people everywhere are mounting an ever-stronger resistance to tradition, capitalism and occupation. All over the world, people are claiming their rights to equality and independence, to control their own fate.

And I believe, along with Paulo Coelho, that when you want something, the whole universe conspires to help you achieve it.

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For me personally, 2012 is a year of momentous change. This marks the first year in which I have been free from the traditional bounds of education and the restrictive schedule and expectations of college.

I am 22 years old, and I am ready to make my own change. I am not following anyone else's lead now. Nothing is original, and I am preparing to steal and innovate on the worthy ideas of others this year.

I am brainstorming organizations that will support my own creativity (check back soon for official announcement), and that provide opportunities for others (friends and strangers) to do the same. I am living according to a system of morality that never keeps me awake at night. I am taking more risks. I am dreaming bigger, and slowly beginning to make concrete connections between my dreams and reality.

I have been around for more than two decades, and I'm not wasting any more time.

This year:

• I am prioritizing my health. (I will not eat gluten, nor will I consume animal products of any kind. I will eat as locally as possible, and I will minimize sugar consumption.)
• I am prioritizing my happiness. (I will not regret or resent time spent dreaming or recharging. I will value creativity and the simple pleasures in life.)
• I am prioritizing my intelligence and my dreams. (I will not let my own ideas and convictions fall by the wayside in the face of challenges from others. I will continue to educate myself and to seek opportunities to translate thought into action for the benefit of all living things. By the end of 2012, I will be operating my own non-profit.)
• I am prioritizing my loved ones. (I will be vulnerable with my friends and family, and I will support their dreams and well being as I support my own.)
• I am prioritizing my planet. (I will educate myself about environmental issues and sustainability. I will take steps to offset my own contributions to global climate change, and I will participate in meaningful activism that protects and respects the earth.)
• I am prioritizing peace. (I will not spend any time or energy on activities that do not directly contribute to increasing peace, whether they be in my personal or professional life, amongst family, friends, or co-workers, or on a local or global scale. I will engage in meaningful conversations and actions that encourage genuine peacemaking and reconciliation, as opposed to surface-level resolution.)

What are your commitments for 2012?

[the profane in the holy land]

I've spent the last few weeks trying to gain a better understanding of what daily life in Palestine is like. From everything I've read thus far, it seems to me that the Palestinian experience and identity is shaped not only by a shared narrative and intense collective memory, but also by interactions with the 'Other'. In this way, Palestinians define themselves, but Israel, or opposition to Israel, also defines Palestine.

Israel claims a monopoly on legitimacy, politics, resources, morality, and international support. I recently stumbled upon an article with an accompanying video that I'd like to share: http://ht.ly/5eyth ("Israeli police wrestle US citizen to ground, put knee on his neck," from electronicintifada.net).

The video includes 19 year-old Lucas Koerner's explanation for his presence at the rally, and shows footage of at least three Israeli police roughly pushing Koerner to the ground and pinning him down beneath their knees as they handcuff and carry him to their vehicle.

(Lucas Koerner, from electronicintifada's article)

From what I can tell, the young man (American-Jewish) was being a nonviolent presence and standing in solidarity with the Palestinians at an Israeli settler rally on Jerusalem Day earlier this month. He had affixed a Palestinian flag to his kippah and another to his keffiyeh. The video showed the clear transition from surprise to confusion to anger at this seeming clash of symbols. As the young man stated on his blog,

"For them, Judaism and its physical symbol, the kippah, were inseparably bound up with the particular strain of ethno-religious nationalism associated with the state of Israel. It simply never occurred to them that a Jewish person would, in the name of Jewish ethics, stand in solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people in their struggle for freedom. I feel that it was precisely this cognitive dissonance on a societal level that formed the motivation for my arrest."

I am interested in identity formation at the societal/communal level and how such an identity can aggravate conflict or set the stage for peace. Koerner mentions the conflation between national and religious symbols in mainstream Israeli identity. Israel is guilty of portraying Palestinians as hopelessly fused with Islam, fundamentalism, and terrorism. And it's not alone.

Not all Jews are Israelis, and not all Israelis are Jewish. Not all Palestinians are Muslim, and not all Muslims are Palestinian. It may sound ridiculous to state such obvious facts, but the way that we characterize, conceptualize, and use our language to frame a situation have great impact on how we perceive the participants, behavior, and possible solutions.

It's not about anti-Semitism. It's not about Arab terrorism. It's not as simple as Israelis versus Palestinians. Those categories are so much bigger and more complex than a single person, a community, a religion, or a state.

Next: Hamas and Fatah meet in Cairo.