Sacred Convergence

Unfortunately, I won’t be back in the U.S. from Australia in time for tomorrow’s big “Hands Off!” National Day of Action. In fact, I don’t arrive back until Tuesday.

I’m sending good energy, however, to my many friends who I know will be participating. Some of these friends are seasoned activists, while others, like thousands of people across the country, will be taking their first steps into a protest setting. My hope and prayer is that tomorrow’s nationwide event will be a “sacred convergence,” one that facilitates a positive transformation both within all who gather and within the political life of the United States and beyond; a transformation that is deep and lasting.

Last night I drew the Sacred Convergence card when prayerfully centering with Alana Fairchild’s beautiful Rumi Oracle: An Invitation into the Heart of the Divine.

Following is an excerpt from the guidebook message for this card.

Sacred convergence indicates a coming together of souls in alignment with a greater cause. . . . This oracle has come to you because you are part of a great sacred convergence happening now. . . . Turn towards those connections that feel nourishing to your soul, and learn to share yourself without fear. Just be. You do not have to force the planets to spin, nor the great cycles of the soul to happen. All that is required is that you show up for what is offered to you now. Do your part. Take your steps. Dance. . . . [A]llow the gifts of sacred connection to change your world [and thus the world].

Related Off-site Links:
“There’s a Movement Bubbling Up”: Anti-Trump Protests Planned Nationwide Saturday – Sarah D. Wire (USA Today, April 4, 2025).
What to Know About Saturday’s Nationwide “Hands Off!” Anti-Trump Protests – April Rubin (Axios, April 3, 2025).
Before You Protest: A Nationwide Guide to Staying Safe, Smart, and Unshakable on April 5 – Closer to the Edge (April 3, 2025).
Resistance Rises – Dan Rather (Steady, March 31, 2025).


UPDATES: Millions March Against Trump-Musk in Nationwide “Hands Off” Protests – Common Dreams (April 5, 2025).
Huge Crowds Gather in “Hands Off” Rallies Nationwide in Protest of Trump Administration – Ivan Pereira, Christiane Cordero and Noah Minnie (ABC News, April 5, 2025).
“Hands Off!” Rally Draws Thousands to Minnesota Capitol to Protest Trump – Nicole Neri (Minnesota Reformer, April 5, 2025).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Trusting the Flow
• Surrendering in Sacred Trust
• The Guidance of Higher Forces
• Trust and Surrender
• Our Dance
• Love’s the Only Dance
• Move Us, Loving God
• In Istanbul, Protests of Both Stillness and Motion
• Sufism: A Call to Awaken
• Don’t Go Back to Sleep
• Called to the Field of Compassion to Be Both Prophet and Mystic
• Mysticism and Revolution
• Protesting Trump’s “Dystopian” Immigration Policies
• Timothy Snyder on Resisting the Oligarchs’ “Logic of Destruction”
• “This Is Essentially Viktor Orbán’s Playbook”
• “An Extremely Clever Ruse”
• “To Be a Rib in This Body of Our Country”
• “This Isn’t Politics Anymore. This Is Treason”
• Robert Reich’s Ten Reasons for “Modest Optimism” During the Trump-Vance-Musk Regime
• Today’s Economic Blackout
• Building Solidarity on the Left
• “The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly
• Ralph Nader: “We’re Heading Into the Most Serious Crisis in American History. There’s No Comparison”
• Progressive Perspectives on Bernie Sanders’ “Fighting Oligarchy” Tour

Image: Card #11 (“Sacred Convergence”) in Rumi Oracle: An Invitation into the Heart of the Divine by Alana Fairchild. (Llewellyn Publications, 2016). Artwork by Rassouli.

Progressive Perspectives on Cory Booker’s Marathon Speech

In 25 hours of performance nonsense, lobby-paid shill of the Israeli regime Senator Cory Booker did not have a single word to say about the genocide in Palestine, one funded and defended by the very body he was addressing.

Outside the chamber, the slaughter continued throughout his speech.

Booker is not a voice of reason or decency. He is a supporter of genocide and a symbol of the corruption, deception, and decadence of the Congress – on both sides of the aisle.

– Craig Mokhiber
via social media
April 2, 2025

Folks, I know we are desperate for heroes, fot people who recognize the urgency of the moment, and are willing to take even a symbolic stand. We need to work with just about anyone in order to stop Trump. At the same time, I have a hard time getting excited about Sen. Cory Booker, given his support for the likes of Yoav Gallant, indicted by the International Criminal Court for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”

– Stephen Zunes
via social media
April 2, 2025

How do you speak for 25 hours straight without mentioning the genocide we are funding? Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been killed with our bombs and our tax dollars.

How can you claim to defend democracy here while supporting fascism elsewhere? Genocide is always the red line.

– Crystal Reina
via social media
April 1, 2025

Related Off-site Links:
“It Can’t Be Business as Usual”: Cory Booker Praised for Historic Stand Against Trump-Musk – Jessica Corbett (Common Dreams, April 2, 2025).
Cory Booker Is Playing You – Sabrina Salvati (Sabby Sabs, April 5, 2025).
Cory Booker’s 25-Hour Speech Was a Stunt. It Worked – Nia-Malika Henderson (Bloomberg, April 2, 2025).
Senate – Again – Rejects Bernie Sanders’ Effort to Block U.S. Arms to Israel – Jessica Corbett (Common Dreams, April 3, 2025).
“Every Atrocity Imaginable”: Litany of Israeli War Crimes Continues – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, March 31, 2025).
“This Is Not a War – It’s a Genocide”: The Brutal Truth No One Wants to Admit – Ahmed Shihab-Eldin (Ahmed’s Perspective, March 22, 2025).


See also the following chronologically-ordered Wild Reed posts:
• October 7, 2023: “Nothing About Today is ‘Unprovoked’”
• Phyllis Bennis: “If We Are Serious About Ending This Spiraling Violence, We Need to Look at Root Causes”
• In the Midst of the “Great Unraveling,” a Visit to the Prayer Tree
• Eric Levitz: Quote of the Day – October 11, 2023
• Something to Think About – October 12, 2023
• Prayer of the Week – October 16, 2023
• Voices of Reason and Compassion on the Crisis in Israel and Gaza
• More Voices of Reason and Compassion on the Crisis in Israel and Gaza
• Ta-Nehisi Coates: Quote of the Day – November 2, 2023
• Jehad Abusalim: Quote of the Day – December 8, 2023
• Christmas 2023 – Reflections, Activism, Art, and Celebrations
• Sabrina Salvati: Quote of the Day – January 2, 2024
• Michael Fakhri: Quote of the Day – February 27, 2024
• Phyllis Bennis: Quote of the Day – March 28, 2024
• Josh Paul: Quote of the Day – March 28, 2024
• “A Genocide Has Been Normalized”
• “This Is a Genocidal Project”
• Outrage and Despair
• Naomi Klein’s Powerful Words on Israel’s and the West’s Ongoing Gaza Genocide
• Judith Butler on the Ongoing Student Protests Against the Gaza Genocide
• Kyle Kulinski: Quote of the Day – May 23, 2024
• Something to Think About – June 28, 2024
• Nina Turner: Quote of the Day – July 24, 2024
• Phyllis Bennis: “We Can Never Give Up Hope”
• John Cusack: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2024
• Progressive Perspectives on the Presidential Nomination of Kamala Harris
• Breaking Down Kamala Harris’s DNC Speech on Gaza
• Yousef Munayyer: Quote of the Day – August 30, 2024
• “It’s a Systematic Slaughter That We’re Funding”
• Protesting Weapons Manufacturer and Genocide Enabler General Dynamics
• Something to Think About – September 26, 2024
• “A Year of War Against Children”
• Anti-Genocide Presidential Candidate Jill Stein Reflects on the First Anniversary of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza
• Liam Cosgrove Confronts U.S. State Department Spin Doctor Matthew Miller: “People Are Sick of the Bullshit”
• “This Is a Tragic, Heartbreaking Moment in the History of Humanity”
• Progressive Perspectives on Kamala Harris’ Faltering Presidential Campaign
• Progressive Perspectives on Where Democrats Went Wrong in the 2024 Presidential Election
• Hope and Courage – Christmas 2024
• Chris Hedges: “Israel Has No Intention of Halting Its Merry-Go-Round of Death”
• The Lamentable Legacy of the Biden Administration
• Caitlin Johnstone: Quote of the Day – January 22, 2025
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – January 30, 2025
• The Only Difference


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “The Mistreatment and Discrimination Against Palestinians Is Not Unprecedented. It’s Baked Into the Foundation of the Political System in Israel”
• Progressive Perspectives on the Ongoing Israeli-Palestinian “Nightmare” (2021)
• Something to Think About – July 29, 2018
• Noura Erakat: Quote of the Day – May 15, 2018
• For Some Jews, Israel’s Treatment of Palestinians is Yet Another Jewish Tragedy
• Remembering the Six-Day War and Its Ongoing Aftermath
• David Norris: Quote of the Day – August 12, 2014

The Only Difference

In writing about the Trump State Department’s response to the murder by Israeli forces of 15 medical workers from the Red Cross, Civil Defense, and the U.N., Caitlin Johnstone highlights the “only difference” between Democrats and Republicans in relation to Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Following is an excerpt.

_________________

It’s plain as day that there’s absolutely no crime Israel could possibly commit that Trump’s State Department wouldn’t defend. Netanyahu could live stream himself kicking a baby Palestinian off a cliff and telling the camera he did it because he wants to commit genocide, and the next day [State Department spokesperson] Tammy Bruce would respond to all questions about the incident by yelling the word “Hamas!” with her fingers in her ears.

Bruce has a much easier job than her predecessor Matthew Miller, who under Biden was obligated to facilitate the Democratic Party’s role as the nice guy face of the U.S. empire. When the press would ask Miller about Israeli atrocities, he’d have to put on a whole show about how the Biden administration is in conversation with Israel and waiting for more information about these very serious allegations, all while fighting to keep his notorious smirk off his face.

To be clear, these two positions are not meaningfully different from one another. Pretending to care about very serious atrocity allegations while continuing to sponsor those atrocities is exactly the same as not pretending to care about very serious atrocity allegations while continuing to sponsor those atrocities. One is a pile of dead children with a smiley face sticker on it, the other is a pile of dead children with a frowny face sticker on it. The children are just as dead either way.

And you really couldn’t ask for a better illustration of the difference between Democrats and Republicans than this. The Democrats are just the polite, photogenic face of the bloodthirsty U.S. empire, while the Republicans are the empire unmasked. The Democrats commit genocide and ethnic cleansing while denying they’re committing genocide and ethnic cleansing, while Republicans commit genocide and ethnic cleansing without bothering to disguise what they’re doing as something else. One’s prettier, one’s uglier. That’s the only difference.

– Caitlin Johnstone
Excerpted from “Trump’s State Department
Would Support Literally Any Israeli Atrocity”
Caitlin’s Newsletter
April 1, 2025

Related Off-site Links:
Israel Killed 15 Palestinian Paramedics and Rescue Workers One by One, Says U.N. – Lorenzo Tondo, Malak A Tantes and Julian Borger (The Guardian, April 1, 2025).
Red Cross Outraged Over Killing of Medics by Israeli Forces in Gaza – Jaroslav Lukiv and David Gritten (BBC World News, April 1, 2025).
Israel Orders Palestinians to Leave Rafah or Face Further Violence – Ash Sarkar (Novara Media, April 1, 2025).
“Every Atrocity Imaginable”: Litany of Israeli War Crimes Continues – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, March 31, 2025).
The Last Chapter of the Genocide – Chris Hedges (The Chris Hedges Report, March 22, 2025).
“This Is Not a War – It’s a Genocide”: The Brutal Truth No One Wants to Admit – Ahmed Shihab-Eldin (Ahmed’s Perspective, March 22, 2025).


See also the following chronologically-ordered Wild Reed posts:
• October 7, 2023: “Nothing About Today is ‘Unprovoked’”
• Phyllis Bennis: “If We Are Serious About Ending This Spiraling Violence, We Need to Look at Root Causes”
• In the Midst of the “Great Unraveling,” a Visit to the Prayer Tree
• Eric Levitz: Quote of the Day – October 11, 2023
• Something to Think About – October 12, 2023
• Prayer of the Week – October 16, 2023
• Voices of Reason and Compassion on the Crisis in Israel and Gaza
• More Voices of Reason and Compassion on the Crisis in Israel and Gaza
• Ta-Nehisi Coates: Quote of the Day – November 2, 2023
• Jehad Abusalim: Quote of the Day – December 8, 2023
• Christmas 2023 – Reflections, Activism, Art, and Celebrations
• Sabrina Salvati: Quote of the Day – January 2, 2024
• Michael Fakhri: Quote of the Day – February 27, 2024
• Phyllis Bennis: Quote of the Day – March 28, 2024
• Josh Paul: Quote of the Day – March 28, 2024
• “A Genocide Has Been Normalized”
• “This Is a Genocidal Project”
• Outrage and Despair
• Naomi Klein’s Powerful Words on Israel’s and the West’s Ongoing Gaza Genocide
• Judith Butler on the Ongoing Student Protests Against the Gaza Genocide
• Kyle Kulinski: Quote of the Day – May 23, 2024
• Something to Think About – June 28, 2024
• Nina Turner: Quote of the Day – July 24, 2024
• Phyllis Bennis: “We Can Never Give Up Hope”
• John Cusack: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2024
• Progressive Perspectives on the Presidential Nomination of Kamala Harris
• Breaking Down Kamala Harris’s DNC Speech on Gaza
• Yousef Munayyer: Quote of the Day – August 30, 2024
• “It’s a Systematic Slaughter That We’re Funding”
• Protesting Weapons Manufacturer and Genocide Enabler General Dynamics
• Something to Think About – September 26, 2024
• “A Year of War Against Children”
• Anti-Genocide Presidential Candidate Jill Stein Reflects on the First Anniversary of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza
• Liam Cosgrove Confronts U.S. State Department Spin Doctor Matthew Miller: “People Are Sick of the Bullshit”
• “This Is a Tragic, Heartbreaking Moment in the History of Humanity”
• Progressive Perspectives on Kamala Harris’ Faltering Presidential Campaign
• Progressive Perspectives on Where Democrats Went Wrong in the 2024 Presidential Election
• Hope and Courage – Christmas 2024
• Chris Hedges: “Israel Has No Intention of Halting Its Merry-Go-Round of Death”
• The Lamentable Legacy of the Biden Administration
• Caitlin Johnstone: Quote of the Day – January 22, 2025
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – January 30, 2025
• Ahmed Shihab-Eldin: Quote of the Day – March 23, 2025


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “The Mistreatment and Discrimination Against Palestinians Is Not Unprecedented. It’s Baked Into the Foundation of the Political System in Israel”
• Progressive Perspectives on the Ongoing Israeli-Palestinian “Nightmare” (2021)
• Something to Think About – July 29, 2018
• Noura Erakat: Quote of the Day – May 15, 2018
• For Some Jews, Israel’s Treatment of Palestinians is Yet Another Jewish Tragedy
• Remembering the Six-Day War and Its Ongoing Aftermath
• David Norris: Quote of the Day – August 12, 2014