J Street Conference Cancellations: Can We Count on You to Be a Voice for Us?

Hi Friends! I hope you're all staying dry...

I wanted to bring to light a current issue that has affected me deeply. I am attending a conference in Washington DC this weekend about cultivating a strong, left-wing Jewish American voice on the controversial subject of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, hosted by J Street-a political organization that has taken a "Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace" on the subject. If I've lost you already, I beg you to bear with me. Allow me to whore myself out as I supply you with some supplementary readings about the conflict that I've written in the past. I know, I'm sorry. Feel free to skim.

http://colormekelso.blogspot.com/2009/05/human-rights-abuse-and-gaza.html
http://colormekelso.blogspot.com/2009/02/waltzing-working-waiting.html
http://colormekelso.blogspot.com/2009/01/wwwgaza-peacecom.html
And here's one I didn't write: http://www.mideastweb.org/briefhistory.htm

Anyways, this conference I am attending in DC is the first national J Street conference, where members of J Street and others who generally support the motives of the organization can come together for four days to educate themselves about the conflict and learn new, more effective ways to educate others. This will be my 3rd time attending a conference like this one (The other two were through an organization I love called Brit Tzedek V'Shalom) and on the last day of the conference we have the oppurtunity to seperate into delegations divided by state and hold meetings with our repsective Senate members and House representatives. Not only have I had the oppurtunity to see the innerworkings of capital hill, I have met many interesting, talented people who care just as deeply about this conflict as I do. The results of a hard-working group of individuals coming together for a common cause have the potential to be phenomenal, even over such a short period of time.

I am very excited to attend this conference. Those of you who know me, though, know that I am openly not Pro-Israel. This doesn't mean I am anti-Israel, pro-Palestine, whatever. Long ago I decided that the only position I could truly justify to take was Pro-Peace. This doesn't mean you have to agree with me, but hear me out. J Street and BTvS have provided a totally unique environment for ideas to be thrown around that no other organization has succesfully achieved before. Just because I don't always agree with the politics doesn't mean I don't fully support the organization. But recent events have led me to question my support of J Street.

This week the right wing, Pro-Israel movement made a series of attacks against J Street, calling them and some of their panel speakers signed up for the conference "Anti-Israel" and "hateful." J Street, being a much more liberal organization, was destined to run into conflict with the power-hungry right wing movement, and I believe that these petty lies being thrown around should be disregarded. But J Street took the heat and "uninvited" two very presitigous panel members, spoken word artists Kevin Coval and Josh Healey, from the conference, after both had been targeted in this slanderous campaign. You can read Coval and Healey's response here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-coval/searching-for-a-minyan-ou_b_327597.html

I wanted to include an email I seen to J Street this evening. I feel that it is absurd for an organization with such great values and potential to recoil when faced with the big bad media. If they cannot hold their own on a national scale, how can one expect them to represent a large percentage of the population who agree with their message on a global scale? Here's my response:
To Whom It May Concern at J Street:

My name is Kelsey Waxman. I am fifteen years old and an active member
of the Jewish community and the Brit Tzedek V'Shalom chapter in my
hometown of Chicago. I signed up with my mother to attend the first
national J Street conference a few weeks ago and I was looking forward
to participating in all of the different sessions and interacting with
other members of the American Jewish community who share similar views
with me on important issues surrounding a peaceful two-state solution
in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But I am very concerned with
recent developments concerning J Street uninviting some panel members
because of some petty criticism from those who wish to see us fail.

I know that JStreet has been under fire from the right-wing Jewish
movement lately, and I know that many of these sources have falsely
targeted some of the conference's speakers as anti-Israel and
hateful. This is unfortunate, but inevitible. JStreet has taken a
position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that many people are
unfortunately not even willing to consider. The narrow-minded leaders
of the right-wing movement have much more public support than an
organization like J Street does, and this support generates a lot of
wealth and power for them. They have the ability to slander the
message of JStreet, and maybe a lot of people will believe it. I
understand how these false statements can damage the image of a newer
organization such as JStreet, but I feel that the actions that this
organization has taken surrounding the issue, such as dropping
respectable speakers, are disappointing.

In situations such as these the best thing we can do, as citizens of
this world supporting a just cause, is to stand together for what we
know is right. The message that J Street promotes is one of peace,
cooperation, and determination; and by sucummbing to the power of
fiery lies I have begun to question J Street's willingness to support
not only its members but the people in the Middle East whose lives
they are advocating to improve. If J Street cannot defend itself
against a few American nutjobs, can we expect them to stay true to
their message on a global scale?

I will still be attending the conference in Washington DC this Sunday
because I understand the importance of a gathering such as this, and I
fully support the grassroots motives of organizations like J Street
and Brit Tzedek V'Shalom. Even in stressful times such as these we
cannot back down. We cannot lose sight of the vital importance of
organizations like these and how the lives of millions of people
halfway accross the world can be affected by our actions. By standing
up against a few slanderous comments, J Street can show the world that
it will not back down, and with the help of its supporters we will
make a difference in the world.

I hope that this weekend at the conference we are able to revive that
determination and confident mentality that has dimmed in this past
weeks. I am sorry that I will not be able to attend sessions led by
reknowned artists Kevin Coval and Josh Healey because I know they
would've contributed a unique perspective to the issues that could not
be achieved by any other panel member. Hopefully J Street can work
with them and similar artists in the future, for the arts often
communicate a message better than any politician could.

I will see you all this weekend. I know I speak for all of the members
of the conference when I say I am looking forward to all of the new
connections and ideas that we will cultivate in those four days. I
just hope that J Street is ready to hold up their end of the bargain.
We're counting on you.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope that you can take something away from this whether you agree with me or not. If you'd like, you can contact J Street yourself to voice your opinion on the issue at info@jstreet.org. If you have any questions, comments, anything, please don't hestitate to contact me.

Thank you for your time!

In Peace.

Green Day: Still Something to Believe In?

Color Me Kelso goes “Rolling Stone:” Please enjoy my review of Green Day’s concert last night at the United Center in Chicago. Feedback is appreciated. Were you there? Did you want to be there? What do you think about all of this? Onward…

Last night, as an early birthday present, my father and I went to the United Center to see Green Day perform. This is the second time we've seen the Oakland trio (who will always hold the position of "Most Favoritest Band Ever" in my heart) the first time being in 2005, when the band was on the tour for their widely popular punk rock opera of a protest album, "American Idiot". Green Day, which formed back in 1989 and consists of front man Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool, has released 10 full length albums, the most recent being this year's "Quadrophenia"-esque "21st Century Breakdown", a rock opera of sorts about a young couple battling the threats of propaganda, religion and commercialism in present-day America.

I first got into Green Day's music when 2004's massive hit “American Idiot” came out. I was nine years old and was outgrowing Disney Channel music (thankfully I got out before Hannah Montana and what not) and needed something new. So one day on the radio, I hear the album’s title track, “American Idiot”, a song about the corruption of the Bush Administration, and I fell in love. Green Day's music showed me, that music had so many more purposes than just entertainment. It could promote a message to the world, stronger than words alone ever could.

When the concert rolled around in 2005, I was enamored with Green Day’s latest album and their stage presence as they rocked Rosemont, Illinois’ All State Arena. But I was a new fan, still starstruck and oblivious to the obvious discontent of older Green Day fans, who were quick to call the band “sellouts” and “posers,” because they had moved away from their original sound and message.

As I grew older and listened to more of Green Day's music, I realized why some long-time Green Day fans rolled their eyes when American Idiot came around. Green Day wasn't always a political band. When the band made their debut with the album "Dookie", which came out the year I was born, they were known as a band who wrote traditional punk songs about being young and troubled and positively bored. And though Green Day was initially labeled a punk band, there was something uniquely melodic to their sound that always made them stand out from the rest of the punk genre. This is what propelled them forward, which made them stand out from the rest of the punk rock scene; their uniqueness, and willingness to go against the grain.

Another thing that makes Green Day stand out in the crowded music scene these days is their impeccable live shows. Even touring the largest of arenas these days, which weren't built for punk music, Green Day still pulls of a live show, and they do it well. Cool and Dirnt have, in my opinion, one of the most engaging rhythm sections in music today, and Armstrong has the stage presence and charisma to get 20,000 people of all ages jumping around, pumping their fists into the air within seconds of taking the stage. It's always been like this, even before I was there to witness this.

But it seems that as Green Day has gotten more popular, their image has been moving towards what they despise the most; mainstream and commercial. Last night’s show was chock-full of recycled jokes, overkill pyrotechnics, an overdone lighting set and stage, and supercilious banter that make older fans wonder what the band is thinking anymore. It was surprising for me how little Armstrong, the band’s main songwriter, picked up a guitar last night. It was used more as a prop in his punk rock ringleader shtick than as an instrument. The band now has three back-up musicians to enhance the sound, including a very talented musician who ends up playing Green Day’s most famous riffs, while Armstrong leads the crowd in fist pumping, call-and-response chants, and heaven help me, the wave.

Green Day definitely considers themselves a huge band, which is true, but this egoism was apparent throughout the show, starting with merchandise. I was looking forward to purchasing a tour tee shirt but stopped dead in my tracks to find out that the shirts cost FORTY dollars. Hoodies? 85. Here was the band that had preached through my stereo speakers for years about the dangers of advertising, commercialism, and corporatism selling okayish tee shirts for forty dollars. The jumbo-tron in the arena was displaying text messages that fans were able to post, something I’d expect at a Fall Out Boy concert, but not here. The boiling point for me was when Armstrong finished spraying the crowd with a water gun (a recycled trick), and brought out a tee shirt gun, and started shooting Green Day tour tee shirts into the crowd. Such a little gesture struck me so hard, and I knew at this point my Green Day’s renegade image would never be the same.

Everyone grows in time, and change is difficult. Green Day’s sound has improved exponentially over the last 20 years, and even as the band members approach their forties there is a youthful energy to their music which is hard to recreate. As a very devoted fan, I was incredibly disappointed by the concert in whole. The band played passively, and Armstrong’s spiel was old news. I was looking for something new and unexpected, like their music advertises. But it seems Green Day has settled into a rotation of hits; something characteristic to the biggest of big bands. They have achieved stadium status, whether we’d like to admit it or not. Whether they’d like to admit it or not.

I wish them all the best on the tour (though I believe I should get a free tee shirt in compensation for having to put up with this newfound corporatism they’re married to. FORTY DOLLARS!) And I wish them all of the best in the future. And even though last night made me sad and doubtful, I still put on my Green Day albums with pride and sing along to every word.
K

Rest in Peace

You know it's the beginning of the end when they start selling tickets to a funeral. Rest in peace, Michael. It wasn't until these recent years where I was able to appreciate what he has done for American pop music. He will always be remembered as one of the most succesful American artists of all time. I just hope it was all worthwhile for him. What a tragic story, this has all become. I can't turn on CNN without some repeated news bulletin. Well, I hate to break it to you folks, but now matter how long you talk about it, no matter how close you investigate every little detail, a great man will still be dead. Just give him and his family some peace, please. I can't imagine being in the Jackson family's position. It must be humiliating.

Selling tickets to a funeral. What has this world come to?

K

In the Middle of Summer...

All was golden in the sky.

Sorry I've disspeared. I've been hanging with my family, regaining what's left of my sanity. Sometimes the best thing to do, when life gets ahead of you, is to take a real deep breath, take a few steps back, and surround yourself with the things that make you feel real. For me, this would be roadtripping with my grandparents in Western Kentucky; eating three hearty meals a day, immersing myself in all of Kentucky's southern splendor. Today, I'm in Bloomington, Indiana with my aunt, uncle, and crazy cousins. We chased for a family member's hot air balloon, tonight. That's an experience!


I hope you all are finding renewal of your own spirits. I get home from my vacation next week, and soon after it's time to get to work. But for now, I'm just going to lay back and appreciate all of the wonderful people and wonderful things in my life.

Stay cool.
K

Shostakovich, Shakespeare, and Summer Rains

Hey Y'all.

Sorry it's been a while, but now I am OFFICIALLY out of school. Finals have been taken, grades have been given, all that jazz. I'm now a sophomore! This will take some getting used to! (Especially the spelling of the word sophomore, I always forget that second O. It'd be really bad to be a sophomore who can't spell that word right.)

Summer is already very, very busy. I've had nearly 15 hours of choir rehearsal this week, because a few of us participated in a special concert at the Pritzker Pavillion in Millenium Park (for those of you who have been to/hail from the Chi, that's the crazy structure at Randolph and Michigan.) We sang a piece by Russian Composer Dimitri Shostokovich called "Songs of the Forest." It has a really interesting history, as do a lot of Shostokovich's pieces, since he was a composer in the Soviet era, under Stalin. A lot of his pieces "glorify Stalin," but actually have subliminal messages that mock and ridicule him. The only way to have music widely performed in the Soviet Union at that time was to write music the way Stalin wanted it, so Shostokovich catered to his needs. This piece tells about the reforestation of the USSR. It's a beautiful piece, acutally! And despite it being so darn cold this week, it was a wonderful concert. We had 15000 people out there, I heard.

I also wanted to share with you a documentary that I watched today, called "Shakespeare Behind Bars."


This was a most excellent story about a theatre group at a large prison in LaGrange, Kentucky. Every year this group of inmates-whose crimes and sentences vary widely-get together and perform a Shakespeare play; in this documentary, The Tempest. It gives you an insight on just the beginning of the trials and tribulations that one endures in prison; and learning about ultimate forgiveness. (which is an apparent theme in the Tempest) Each man seems to grow from what he has learned in his theatre experience and it is really a heartwarming story about the kind of people who are portrayed in this world as threatening and heartless. It offers a lot of perspective on the American prison system as well, something that those of us who have never experienced it, thankfully, have very little knowledge of. Check this out, it was really great. You can even borrow my copy!

And lastly, tonight my mother and I went to the Old Town School of Folk Music to see the lovely ladies they call the Ditty Bops. So cute, so talented. Enjoy this song from their newest release, Summer Rains.


Good night!
K

Sometimes, Nothing Makes Me Happier...

...than a finely tuned piano.



I'm about to endure a five day long journey to the utter depths of hell (finals.) So expect a rousing update on how rad our fair president Barack Obama is soon after. And for now, you can watch one of the greatest speeches in history right here. This is just the first part, but it should lead you to the second half when it's done.

Have a good weekend. Hopefully it'll warm up for us Chicagoans.

K

Talkin' 'Bout My Generation.

Hey hey--

It’s been an interesting week, friends. The picture above is of some of my good friends an I hanging out like any old day, and I deicded to use it as a segway into the topic du jour. I’ve come across a lot of discussion-criticism, mainly-of my generation. Those of us born from the late 80’s on; the children of the Internet.

It’s been an interesting week full of really interesting things to talk about. And I could I get any more vague? Sorry, but I will start off with an issue that’s been bugging me for a while. I’ve come across a lot of criticism about my generation lately. Kids and adults alike look at kids born from the late 80s on as the Internet generation—a clan of desensitized, sheltered, good-for-nothing punks who fail tests and waste away in front of whatever the latest technology may be. American kids especially, a good portion of the world sees us as naïve, stupid, blasphemous. The world is in a sticky situation now, to say the least, and all of this cynicism an pessimism about our generation being the ones to end the modern world has surfaced.
This all makes me sick.

Kids are kids. I believe that all human beings are born with some instincts that date back to the very beginning of mankind, but the rest of a child’s brain is a clean slate (Tabula Rasa for my Latin geeks) that will be molded and imprinted on by the world around them. The young years of a child’s life are essentially one large game of “Monkey See, Monkey Do.” These are the most influential years of a person’s life and will have a prominent role (whether we like to think it or not) in the way a person develops and grows into an adult. It’s all just science, really. I don’t know much about science except for it’s sometimes correct.

My generation, we’ll say born in the mid 1980s and up, started out like any other generation-our parents, our grandparents. Unlike those who’ve come before us, though, we were born into an age of major technological development and advancement. The internet was invented when we were in diapers, and since then we’ve had access to a resource that no other young generation has had before; computers. And here we are, growing up, trying to figure out our own ways in this chaotic world. We’re kids; we screw up, and we choose whether or not to learn from our mistakes. It’s all science.

Yet, people tell me that my generation is selfish, self-absorbed, sheltered, stupid, dumbed down by the blessing and curse of the Internet, HD television, Twitter, Facebook, Limewire, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. People tell me if my generation, if all of the fifteen year olds don’t get their act together soon that the world is going to be a very, very mucked up place in a few years, and that we all need to wake up, put the PlayStations down, and do something about it.

This may all very well be true. American children are sheltered. We have electricity and water with fluoride, indoor plumbing, an generally enough food to eat. But don’t ever tell me that my generation is going to muck up the world. Because I hate to break it to you but it was all mucked up before we even got here. We were born into an era of deception and prejudice, fallacy and façade, war and hatred. Images of terrorism, racism, sexism, stereotypes galore have been embedded in our minds since day one. We turn on our computers, our radios, our television sets every morning and evening to stories of violence and terror, injustice and corruption. If I’m talking to an adult these days it usually has to do with something about money, or the recession.

I want every adult out there to know that I wake up every morning and wonder where I will be in five years. I wonder if I will have enough money to go to college, I wonder if I will be able to find a job, to afford a house. I wonder if I will have good friends who I can depend on and I wonder what I will be doing to help fix the mess that we are living in, in 2009. I wonder if Israel will still exist. If Africa will survive. If gay marriage will be accepted. If separation of race, gender, and ethnicity will still be so widespread. If we will be bound to technology forever. And it’s scary. I am going to safely assume that my parents growing up in the 70s and 80s did not think about these things every day. This goes for my grandparents as well. In this day and age we are facing problems that have never been seen before. But alas, I know I am not every American kid. My friends tell me this quite often. I get teased a lot for being overly passionate about certain issues that “don’t really matter”, “aren’t very important”, or just for being plain old stubborn and grumpy about everything. Some days I am insulted to be a part of my teenage generation. All of the profanity, sexuality, resistance to structured rules an general lack of respect can turn one off from our generation completely. But I think what a lot of people forget is that we are just kids. We are just kids and we take whatever is given to us by the ones who’ve come before us. I recently read an article about the extreme promiscuity of the teenage population of Argentina. Kids were quoted saying that they were exhibiting their rights as free individuals. Argentina hadn’t ever seen a real revolution until recently and that they were the daughters and sons of this new age, and that they were going to live it up while it lasts. I think that every teenager has adopted this mindset at some point or another. Though general disrespect can never be rightfully excused, we are just kids, and someday, we’ll eventually figure things out that hey—we can’t be kids anymore. As for what happens after that?

I asked a few of my friends to sum up what they thought the future held for our generation. I got responses like this:
• “I think our generation is technology obsessed. We are also say-ers, and not so much do-ers.”
• “Our generation is living in its own little bubble, and someday we’ll have to come out and face the real world.”
• “That is a big question.”
• “I think that once we grow up, we will solve a lot of big problems in the world. But not yet, it’ll take time, I guess.”
• “I think they're crazy individual and informed, and they feel pretty empowered. More than that of any generation before us. “
• “I think that our generation will never really get old. Although we will age, we have sort of a youthful vibrancy that isn’t in any other generation.”

A wide variety of answers, yeah? Some are hopeful, some not-so hopeful. But if there is one thing in common that all of the people I spoke to said, it was that our generation was like no other generation that has ever been, an probably that ever will be. We are unique in a way that no others are, which can be taken as a blessing or a curse. Our generation is faced with the huge responsibility of repairing the world. We were born with gifts and graces that we can use for good or evil. In the end, it’s all up to the decisions we make and how we go about executing them.
We have time. We don’t need to go all Chicken Little on the world because the sky isn’t falling quite yet. But it’s best to start repairing the cracks instead of making them deeper, because then when the whole thing caves in we’ll be lost forever.

Have a little faith, world. Stick up for us.
Oh, and listen to Green Day’s new album, 21st Century Breakdown. It’ll help you understand what I’m getting at.
Peace,
K.