I've always thought of the internet as a kitchen where every web page, every email, every embed is a menu of creative delicacies feeding the soul of our culture. Every image, every word, every interaction carries meaning for the post or page where it is found. Collectively, all those billions of moments are not just being archived for as long as the blog or website is in place. Together, they are transforming our consciousness -- the way we talk, the way we speak and, more importantly, the way we think of each other.

When I started blogging in 2001, there were fewer than two-million blogs worldwide. Blogger was the biggest blogging platform and yet a work-in-progress for the little company that created it, Pyra. MovableType, Typepad's older sister, was still in beta. Wordpress didn't exist and neither did Flickr, YouTube, MySpace or Facebook. Google was only 3 years old. Wikis were just going into the early adopter mainstream -- Wikipedia had just been launched in January of that year.

It was an exciting time to set foot on the web and publish online from a technological point of view. Historically speaking, it was a tumultuous time as well.

I started blogging in December of 2001, months after the destruction of the World Trade Center. As any other New Yorker, I was still shell-shocked, yet had no time to dwell with a baby and a toddler to take care of. Yet it was the smell of the still-burning debris, magnified by the prospect of our country not just going to war but trampling our constitution in the process, that pushed me out of a writer's block I had been carrying for years and dropped me smack in the middle of the first wave of bloggers.

I did it in search of kindred spirits, in search of other women and men who shared my hopes, my fears and my sense of outrage. And I make the distinction of putting "women" first because back in the day it was rare to find women with their own online domains.
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The Jewish morning prayer service ends with the Psalm of the day. Psalm 82 concludes the service on Tuesdays, which is also Election Day in this Country. I find it an interesting coincidence that the Psalm, written more than two millennia ago and admonishes hypocritical leaders who favor the powerful over the poor, is read on Election Day. When I read it, I always imagine a biblical era prophet chastising contemporary Republicans.

The Birnbaum Siddur or Prayerbook reads right to left with the odd pages written in Hebrew while the even pages contain translations of the Hebrew text in archaic King James style English. I choose to pray with Birnbaum when it's an available option, over books with easier to understand English, because I'm used to its liturgical translation. Although I know how to read Hebrew and recite some prayers in that ancient tongue, I understand little of the language and pray mostly in English. Using other English translations throws me off.

Containing just 8 sentences, Psalm 82 is among the Bible's shortest chapters. Below is the Birnbaum version of the Psalm.
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Long time readers know I have a soft atheist spot for Liberation Theology. I'll come back to discuss this post later, just wanted to give you this awesome discussion of Black Liberation Theology by the man who wrote the book about it, James Cone.

Check it out.

[EDITORS' NOTES: Date changed to reflect promotion to front page./liza

For an earlier diary on this issue, and some broader issues, please see this diary. And help out if you can!/mole333]

Herstories on the issue of violence against women

A Cheyenne proverb states, “A nation is not conquered until the hearts of its women are on the ground. Then it is done, no matter how brave its warriors or how strong its weapons.” Our hearts are not on the ground. Our feet are. And we are moving forward.

A travesty to the true spirit of justice is taking place on the Standing Rock Reservation that covers North and South Dakota. Predominantly white male rapists are sexually assaulting American Indian women and getting away with inadequate consequences or no consequences whatsoever.

Crossposted at Native American Netroots

Show me a rapist of an American Indian woman and I’ll show you an upstanding member of society. That’s what the Major said about a man who plead guilty to raping an American Indian woman. Maybe the thieves and vandals who have caused property damage so severe that Pretty Bird Woman House had to close its doors for now are “upstanding citizens” as well.
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Location

Another good reason to end capital punishment. . . I got this report from the Campaign to End the Death Penalty.

Report: Death Penalty Creates More Victims
Tuesday, December 05 2006 @ 10:01 PM EST

Family members, especially children, suffer in the aftermath of an execution PFADP via BBSNews 2006-12-05 -- Cambridge, Mass. � Families of the executed are victims too, according to a new report that Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights will release on December 10. "Creating More Victims: How Executions Hurt the Families Left Behind" draws upon the stories of three dozen family members of people executed in the United States and demonstrates that their experiences and traumatic symptoms resemble those of others who have suffered a violent loss. "It's something you don't ever get over," said Pam Crawford, one of the family members featured in the report. Crawford, a Charlotte native, is the sister of a man who was executed in Alabama in 1996. She described the nightmares and other difficulties that her teenaged granddaughter still experiences in the aftermath of the execution. Other family members agreed that children, in particular, suffer as they struggle to understand a relative's death at the hands of the state. "What impact does this event have on children's impressionable lives, and what cost does society pay for that impact?" asks Robert Meeropol, another survivor featured in the report.
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