I find my aging brain is slow in thinking through a number of issues connected with the barrage of new facts awaiting us every day.  I need my own kind of time.

So while I think, permit me to offer two other voices who have something interesting to say. For one I have a link https://medium.com/@…/trial-balloon-for-a-coup-e024990891d5…  and hope you find something in there that helps understand what is going on.

The other is a short post by Heather Cox Richardson, educated at Harvard, now teaching history at BU; she posted it on FB and gave permission to share it. I just copied the whole thing below.

“What Bannon is doing, most dramatically with last night’s ban on immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries– is creating what is known as a “shock event.” Such an event is unexpected and confusing and throws a society into chaos. People scramble to react to the event, usually along some fault line that those responsible for the event can widen by claiming that they alone know how to restore order. When opponents speak out, the authors of the shock event call them enemies. As society reels and tempers run high, those responsible for the shock event perform a sleight of hand to achieve their real goal, a goal they know to be hugely unpopular, but fromwhich everyone has been distracted as they fight over the initial event. There is no longer concerted opposition to the real goal; opposition divides along the partisan lines established by the shock event.

Last night’s Executive Order has all the hallmarks of a shock event. It was not reviewed by any governmental agencies or lawyers before it was released, and counterterrorism experts insist they did not ask for it. People charged with enforcing it got no instructions about how to do so. Courts immediately have declared parts of it unconstitutional, but border police in some airports are refusing to stop enforcing it.

Predictably, chaos has followed and tempers are hot.

My point today is this: unless you are the person setting it up, it is in no one’s interest to play the shock event game. It is designed explicitly to divide people who might otherwise come together so they cannot stand against something its authors think they won’t like. I don’t know what Bannon is up to– although I have some guesses– but because I know Bannon’s ideas well, I am positive that there is not a single person whom I consider a friend on either side of the aisle– and my friends range pretty widely– who will benefit from whatever it is. If the shock event strategy works, though, many of you will blame each other, rather than Bannon, for the fallout. And the country will have been tricked into accepting their real goal.

But because shock events destabilize a society, they can also be used positively. We do not have to respond along old fault lines. We could just as easily reorganize into a different pattern that threatens the people who sparked the event. A successful shock event depends on speed and chaos because it requires knee-jerk reactions so that people divide along established lines. This, for example, is how Confederate leaders railroaded the initial southern states out of the Union. If people realize they are being played, though, they can reach across old lines and reorganize to challenge the leaders who are pulling the strings. This was Lincoln’s strategy when he joined together Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, anti-Nebraska voters, and nativists into the new Republican Party to stand against the Slave Power. Five years before, such a coalition would have been unimaginable. Members of those groups agreed on very little other than that they wanted all Americans to have equal economic opportunity. Once they began to work together to promote a fair economic system, though, they found much common ground. They ended up rededicating the nation to a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

Confederate leaders and Lincoln both knew about the political potential of a shock event. As we are in the midst of one, it seems worth noting that Lincoln seemed to have the better idea about how to use it.”

When I tried to summarize her argument in conversation with someone who is politically astute and passionate, I was reminded by him that calls for unity have a place, are important, will lead to effective outcomes, BUT – they are too often one sided. Blacks and Native Americans have called and weren’t headed in the history of our nation, only co-opted when it fit; now they are scolded if they don’t help with the cause (the women’s march, for example.) For one, they DO come out and join in a united outcry against what has been happening in the last week. Secondly, if individuals pass on any particular march due to personal fatigue, having for so long shouldered the burden of resistance without general support, it is perfectly justified.

I hope that the division along established lines will crumble, as they seemingly did yesterday at the demonstrations against the muslim ban. I hope that marching together will open the eyes and brains of us privileged ones when coming in contact with the historically oppressed. The focus on current emergencies could then be expanded to a joint focus on restorative justice. I hope that the historical lessons of divide et impera can be undermined by solidarity freely given and reciprocated after this wake up call.

Calling all Opas und Omas…. with the appropriate attitude…. 

One of the (many) things I adore in my husband is the fact that when I get downstairs at 6 in the morning, the coffee is already made. (He also cooks, he is the best father on earth, he keeps my brain sharp with his requests for editing manuscripts, and anyhow the guy rocks. Just saying.)

6:30 So I tumble back upstairs, coffee in hand, grab the computer, fire up spotify and read the news and do the tasks left over from the day before. Yesterday that meant editing the 300 photographs taken at a fund raiser for Boom Arts, a local political theater company, putting them into drop box and posting a blurb about the event on FB. I have volunteered for this group for a number of years and continue to be impressed by what they pull off, bringing so many different directors to town. Check out their upcoming events here: http://www.boomarts.org

Ruth Wikler-Luker, the force of nature behind Boom Arts, talking to Tim du Roche

They always have the best drinks…

8:30 drag myself to the shower, make some phone calls to Germany where it is approaching supper time; do the laundry, clean the kitchen (he cooks, I clean, perfect arrangement for coming up on 35 years).

10:00 Walk the dog. Some person in the neighborhood had the glorious idea of tying little teddy bears to lamp posts at a height where dogs can get to them but not take off with them…. I prefer my daily wildlife less teasing. Saw a harrier hawk during that walks as well, right here in SW PDX.

12:00 Get my equipment together for another photoshoot. Planned parenthood has its annual luncheon at the Hilton downtown. Key note speaker is Dr. Willie Parker, the sole abortion provider in the state of Mississippi. Get ready for a role model. Modest, courageous, deeply committed to his faith. He had graciously agreed to be interviewed by my friend Jan Haaken who is working on a documentary about abortion providers here in the U.S. and in Africa. I am dying of heat in the small hotel room where we set up, spotlights blazing. That is forgotten in his presence and absolut ease with my being in his face, making multiple portraits, trying to talk to him to get more natural expressions after the initial awkwardness is over. Not forgotten is my double take when I see the police guarding him all the way up to his hotel room where we meet, as if the pro-life protesters might be lurking in some corner of the Hilton elevators.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a23771/abortion-ministry-of-dr-willie-parker-0914/

Apparently the Planned Parenthood fundraiser was a huge success – I wonder how one could slice the pie so that some lesser known, political, LGBT-oriented clinics in town would also get donations. With the big organization under political attack, the donors are flocking to it. The daily struggle for survival of the smaller community-based reproductive health care providers sort of falls by the way side.

3:00 pm Write my blog, infuriated by the news of the day; tears come when I go through the archives of my camp memorial photographs.  I once had this project, long abandoned because it was too hard, to photograph the views that inmates would have seen as their last glimpse of the outside, and then the first view of what awaited them in the compound. Given where the camps were built, in open spaces in nature, the outside was often incredibly beautiful, woods filled with bluebells and wild primroses (Buchenwald,) pastoral lake and village roofs glowing golden from the sunset (Ravensbrueck), fragrant pine forest and purple heather (Bergen Belsen,) to name a few.

4:00 Walk the dog. The dog walks me, strong, determined little fellow.

5:30 Dinner with friends at a new Mexican restaurant in the neighborhood, our second visit, the food fabulous. I try to be adventurous (everyone who knows me and my history of always eating the same dish once I found one I like: don’t laugh) and end up with something that burns my esophagus on first bite. Husband to the rescue, we switch dishes, everyone is happy. Told you, he is the best.

8:00 Fall asleep before my head hits the pillow.

Not accomplished: ironing, making art, finishing writing the talk for the exhibit opening, writing emails to my sister who is wondering why I am not responding to her questions.  And sending out this appeal:

https://www.sisterdistrict.com   These folks get the help of blue states citizens to support races in red states.

“We are thrilled to announce that the Sister District Project is officially supporting Stephanie Hansen for Delaware’s State Senate seat in District 10.

Off-cycle state legislative races don’t often get much attention, but we love this race for a few reasons. First, it is strategic—it will determine whether the Delaware State Senate flips red or stays blue. Second, it is winnable—this seat was won in 2014 by just 267 votes. And finally, it is happening right now—the special election is on February 25.

We’re asking all Sister District volunteers to support this race. While Sister District will be assigning different Sister Races to different local teams for future races that we support, this Delaware election is happening in just a few weeks, and we need all hands on deck.”

Well, there is always Saturday.

The man cannot even bring himself to say the word JEW.

In a platitudinous statement to commemorate  the Holocaust on this very date of 1/27/2017 – also the date of the liberation of Auschwitz – Jews or anti-semitism are not mentioned. I guess the popular vote loser is not just a germaphobe….

Words: camp inmates developed their own. A language expressing the despair and yet the strength to create a living, breathing universe, as long as one could still take a breath.

Here are some that I learned about at the Buchenwald memorial.  Photos are from Buchenwald, Bergen Belsen, Ravensbrueck and wherever else I traveled.

Schwarze Amsel – Blackbird – someone confined to solitary punishment

Tonnenadler – Garbage can eagle – those searching for food in the garbage cans

Zaunkönig – wren (literally the words mean king of the fence – those who committed suicide by clinging to the electric fence.

Totenvogel – skull bird – those having to announce the daily death statistics

Singende Pferde – singing horses – the Jews forced to drag the carts out of the mines

Wolga Schlepper – Volga Boatmen – inmates who had to drag the carts

Singender Wald – singing forest – referring to torture on inmates tied to the trees of Buchenwald.

Erdkunde – geography – punishment roll call

Rosen Garten – rose garden – barbed wire cage holding Jews or political prioners

Alm – alpine meadow – the isolation ward for inmates with tuberculosis and site of killing after medical experiments

UFA Palast – UFA Palace – camp kitchen

Maybe we should all write letter to son-in-law Kushner’s Rabbi to suggest he should offer some serious spiritual advice to be passed on to the pr*sident.

A day where I was floored by a documentary exhibit on the judicial fates of Nazi perpetrators, prepared by folks from the commemorative site of the concentration camp Neuen Gamme and displayed at the Hamburg town hall. I will report on this in more depth later; suffice it to say that many of the death sentences for camp SS wo/men were never enacted, many of the prison sentences commuted, and those in prison released in 1955/56 as a condition to join NATO.

A day where I watched the inaugural address live on TV, shivering over the anti-semitic word choice of America First and, more generally, nauseated by the nationalism and populism.

A day where I’ll spend the night in some ritzy hotel near the airport to fly home tomorrow – wondering if I will have the strength to join the women’s march in PDX shortly after my arrival, having to get up at 3:30 am.

A day where I am thinking how an artist can contribute to fight normalization of the unspeakable.

I’ve learned about several exemplary women artists during this trip, all of whom defied convention and pursued change. I had reported on Paula Becker Modersohn already, but also encountered Dorothea Tanning again (wife of Max Ernst) a truly innovate Dadaist, Leonor Fini who I fell in love with, and Leonora Carrington (I had never heard of the latter two.) They were part of a terrific exhibition on surrealism in the Hamburger Kunsthalle, with large parts of the exhibition displaying works from private collections, true discoveries.

And then there was Leonore Mau, exhibited at the Museum im Jenisch Park, a first rate woman photographer, fearless as they come, traveling in pursuit of honest documentation of the world until the age of 97.

Someone else has better words than I for why we need to have these artists, support these artists, be these artists in the years to come. I admire him as a friend, as a journalist, as a learned, thoughtful man and am glad that his writing below can lift the darkness hanging over all of us on this January 20th, 2017.

http://www.orartswatch.org/the-poisoned-art-of-donald-trump/

I’ve been on the road so much that regular blogging has fallen behind. Part of that was access to the net, but part of it was also the need to work through the many impressions and emotions triggered by being here.

Yesterday the highest court in the country ruled NOT to prohibit the NPD, the neo-Nazi party called national democratic party. In a 298 page long verdict the court declared that all of the accusations against the party where true – its closeness to the NS philosophy, its attempts to destroy democratic processes and structures, its disrespect for human rights and its active attempts to pursue its national socialistic goals. However, the party was deemed ineffective, not likely to succeed in its pursuits of NS goals, its membership too sparse to be a true danger. Thus it can continue to exist – as can now multiple neonazi smaller organizations that have not  – yet – succeeded in undermining the republic.

Also yesterday, a major figure of a rising populist party, the Alternative for Deutschland or AfD, criticized the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin with the words that Germans were the “only people in the world who planted a memorial of disgrace in the heart of their capital”. People reacted with dismay, disgust and multiple editorials to Hoecke’s speech, worried about the use of Nazi language and attempts to minimize the suffering the Nazi’s had wrought.

Also yesterday, Maier, a German judge from Saxony, declared that the “guilt cult”  (Schuldkult) had to end, arguing for an end to commemorating the holocaust. “I declare it done with, as of now.” Requests for commentary were not answered by his employer, the German ministers for Justice. Luckily, you find lots of opposing public voices, and tons of street art from the other side of the spectrum.

Memory is preserved with markers, memorials, and the stumbling stones that are ubiquitous – naming those killed and deported in front of the buildings that used to be their homes.

Long before the Nazis, Jews were given tiny plots in public cemeteries to bury their dead. When you come to these plots you find grave after grave narrowly spaced, as here in the town of Giessen.

Here is a memorial (and empty lot) for the largest synagogue in Northern Germany, defiled and destroyed by the Nazis.

Here is a marker for the last functioning medical office that still tended to Jews in the Third Reich in Hamburg until it, too, was closed.

And here is a Jewish school in Hamburg – under permanent police protection – they sit in the little barrack in front of it. (About 3000 Jews live in Hamburg, the school has some 160 students. There were 17.000 in 1933 according to the census.)