eileen fleming

"His voice and lyrics haven't always been easy on the ear, but throughout his career Bob Dylan has never aimed to please. He's disturbed the peace and discomforted the powerful. President Kennedy could easily have been talking about Bob Dylan when he said that, "if sometimes great artists have been most critical of our society, it is because their concern for justice makes them aware that our nation falls short of its highest potential."-President Bill Clinton, 1997 [1]

On THAT DAY we call 9/11, after my initial shock and awe passed, in my inner ear I did hear America's Master Poet, Musician extraordinaire and caustic social critic with from his 1981 "Shot of Love" Album:

See the massacre of the innocent
She was walking down the hallway while the walls deteriorated
West of the Jordan, east of the Rock of Gibraltar
I see the turning of the page
Curtain rising on a new age
See the Groom still waiting at the altar...
Try to be pure of heart; they arrest you for robbery…
Got the message this morning, the one that was sent to me:
About the madness of the comin'…
I see the burning of the stage
Curtain rising on a new age
See the Groom still waiting at the altar
But I know God has mercy on them who are slandered and humiliated
West of the Jordan, east of the Rock of Gibraltar…
I see people who are supposed to know better standin' around like furniture.
There's a wall…
West of the Jordan, east of the Rock of Gibraltar…
Cities on fire, phones out of order
They're killing nuns and soldiers, there's fighting on the border…
West of the Jordan, east of the Rock of Gibraltar
I see the turning of the page
Curtain rising on a new age
See the Groom still waiting at the altar.

In Christian lingo The Groom is understood to be Jesus.

"Years ago they ... said I was a prophet. I used to say, "No I'm not a prophet" they say "Yes you are, you're a prophet." I said, "No it's not me." They used to say "You sure are a prophet." They used to convince me I was a prophet. Now I come out and say Jesus Christ is the answer. They say, "Bob Dylan's no prophet." [2]

Robert Allen Zimmerman was born in St. Mary's Hospital in 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota, and at six, he moved to Hibbing. In 1954-the year of my birth and Catholic baptism at St. Teresa's Catholic church on the lower east side of Manhattan, Bob had his Bar Mitzvah.

As I reflect back to THAT DAY, eight years ago, when the world stood still, I first recalled a trip I took in 1966 in the back seat of a 1964 gold Ford Galaxy with two of my three brothers and both folks up front.

We were on our way through the Holland Tunnel to a lake side vacation, when the radio announcer announced that John Lennon had admitted that The Beatles, "We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first-rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."

My pop nearly had a stroke at the wheel, when I blurted out, "He is so right! My friends and I know every lyric to every Beatle song there is, but nobody ever quotes Jesus. And if Jesus is suppose to be on the side of the poor, why doesn't the church sell all their art work and pope jewelry and go and feed them?"

It was also in 1966, during the last week of 6th grade, by a "Simple Twist Of Fate" in Mr. Friedman's music class at Island Trees Elementary School in Levittown, Long Island, that I was first introduced to "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" and "The Times They Are A-Changin."

I "felt a spark tingle to my bones" which I now know was my first spiritual experience.

Normally, Mr. F would make us sing lame tunes such as B-I-N-G-O, and I would spend the weekly hour day dreaming out the window. But, on that particular day in '66, Bob became one of my gods; for there was something in his voice, lyrics and that harmonica that lit up my brain and every fiber of my being:

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, n how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, n how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, n how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, n how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
How many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, n how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?

Yes, n how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind,
The answer is blowin in the wind…

Come gather round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin
Then you better start swimmin
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin.

It has been said, that 9/11 changed everything: except how we think. THAT DAY we call 9/11 changed my way of thinking, and ever since I have never relied on the established media or my government to tell the whole truth.

On THAT DAY we call 9/11, the media assumed the role of secretaries taking down dictation from Big Brother who manipulated we the people with FEAR of the other. Corporate media failed miserably by not asking the questions and searching for the truth, such as WHY did a few [and back then it was just a few] people in the world hate US so much that they could target and murder innocent people?

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official." -Theodore Roosevelt

In December 2001, FOX News began a four part series [that has since been removed from their website] regarding Israel's spying on America. However, Information Clearing House preserved those insights.
In Part One, Part I, host Brit Hume stated,

"It has been more than 16 years since a civilian working for the Navy was charged with passing secrets to Israel. Jonathan Pollard pled guilty to conspiracy to commit espionage and is serving a life sentence. At first, Israeli leaders claimed Pollard was part of a rogue operation, but later took responsibility for his work. Now Fox News has learned some U.S. investigators believe that there are Israelis again very much engaged in spying in and on the U.S., who may have known things they didn't tell us before September 11. Fox News correspondent Carl Cameron has details in the first of a four-part series." [3]

Carl Cameron reported, "Since September 11, more than 60 Israelis have been arrested or detained, either under the new patriot anti-terrorism law, or for immigration violations. A handful of active Israeli military were among those detained, according to investigators, who say some of the detainees also failed polygraph questions when asked about alleged surveillance activities against and in the United States. There is no indication that the Israelis were involved in the 9-11 attacks, but investigators suspect that they Israelis may have gathered intelligence about the attacks in advance, and not shared it. A highly placed investigator said there are "tie-ins." But when asked for details, he flatly refused to describe them, saying, "evidence linking these Israelis to 9-11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information." [Ibid]

Numerous classified documents obtained by Fox News indicated that even prior to September 11; as many as 140 other Israelis had been detained or arrested in a secretive and sprawling investigation into suspected espionage by Israelis in the United States. Investigators from numerous government agencies are part of a working group that's been compiling evidence since the mid '90s. These documents detail hundreds of incidents in cities and towns across the country that investigators say, "May well be an organized intelligence gathering activity." [Ibid]

"Why would Israelis spy in and on the U.S.? A general accounting office investigation referred to Israel as country A and said, 'According to a U.S. intelligence agency, the government of country A conducts the most aggressive espionage operations against the U.S. of any U.S. ally.' [Ibid]

"A defense intelligence report said Israel has a voracious appetite for information and said, 'the Israelis are motivated by strong survival instincts which dictate every possible facet of their political and economical policies. It aggressively collects military and industrial technology and the U.S. is a high priority target…Israel possesses the resources and technical capability to achieve its collection objectives.' "[Ibid]

After the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, Israel's economy was devastated, but then came 9/11, and "suddenly new profit vistas opened up for any company that claimed it could spot terrorists in crowds, seal borders from attack and extract confessions from closed-mouthed prisoners…Many of the country's most successful entrepreneurs are using Israel's status as a fortressed state, surrounded by furious enemies, as a kind of twenty-four-hour-a-day showroom--a living example of how to enjoy relative safety amid constant war…Israel now sends $1.2 billion in "defense" products to the United States—up dramatically from $270 million in 1999…That makes Israel the fourth-largest arms dealer in the world…Much of this growth has been in the so-called "homeland security" sector. Before 9/11 homeland security barely existed as an industry. By the end of this year, Israeli exports in the sector will reach $1.2 billion--an increase of 20 percent. The key products and services are …precisely the tools and technologies Israel has used to lock in the occupied territories. Israel has learned to turn endless war into a brand asset, pitching its uprooting, occupation and containment of the Palestinian people as a half-century head start in the "global war on terror." [4]

"The only person you have to think twice about lying to is either yourself or to God."-Bob Dylan

All governments lie and politicians get addicted to gaining and keeping power and religion has been misused for eons to divide people.

On THAT DAY we call 9/11, the last thing I wanted to do was shop, but it was also the day that Dylan's "Love and Theft" came out. I was the only customer in the record shop when I arrived to purchase it, shortly after I learned at 12:45 PM that the Twin Towers had fallen and the Pentagon was tattered.

I had spent three hours that morning on my circular drive rollerblading and upon emerging from the shower, my daughter phoned me from her high school. She told me to put the TV on and wanted to know if it was the end of the world.

I wondered the same too, and I cringed at all the politicians and pundits calling for revenge. As I viewed the images of smoke and despair, while hearing Bob singing in my inner ear about The Groom still waiting at the altar, my heart then welled up with a verse from II Chronicles 6:1:

"The Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness."

I also wondered about how Abraham Lincoln had always reflected upon if he were on Gods side and I prayed that NOW that we all knew that our nuclear arsenal is no protection against the rage of a few mad men; would this president lead in the way of the NONVIOLENT Jesus?

But hawks were already circling and FEAR ran through the heartland blinding eyes and hardening hearts.

On this eve of the eighth anniversary of that day we call 9/11, I wonder what our founding fathers would say to this president and Tom Paine's words of wisdom are ripe for these modern times:

"Soon after I had published the pamphlet "Common Sense" [on Feb. 14, 1776] in America, I saw the exceeding probability that a revolution in the system of government would be followed by a revolution in the system of religion…The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion."

I also recalled the parable [short story] that Jesus told about a Bridegroom and ten Virgins.

In ancient times, weddings went on for days [if not weeks] and anyone who accepted an invitation to a wedding understood it was a commitment of time and money, for jobs were abandoned in order to be at the happening.

The custom was for the Bridegroom to decide when the wedding would take place; it could be on the first day of the festivities or even the ninth! No one knew when the Groom would appear, and Jesus related how five out of the ten brides were unprepared for their man. Some were out shopping when he came, and so they were left out of the Bridal Chamber and you can imagine how frustrated they were.

Parables are stories that invite the reader to decide who they relate to and what it means to them on the heart level. Jesus didn't hit his listeners over the head with his message; he led by example not lectures and encouraged people to allow their imaginations to lead them.

"Imagination is evidence of The Divine."-William Blake

"Reality leaves a lot to the imagination." -John Lennon

Jesus was always on about trying to wake up his audience, to stay alert and read the signs of the times. No one knows when the end of time will come, and "even if the end of the world comes tomorrow. I would plant an olive tree today."-St. Francis of Assisi

Jesus was also never a Christian; the term was not even coined until three decades after he walked the earth as a man.

Jesus was a radical, social justice revolutionary Palestinian devout Jewish Road Warrior who told his followers to go out and make disciples-and all a disciple is- is one who does what the Master teaches.
Jesus had very few friends inside the Temple Authority for he challenged their job security by teaching the people they didn't have to pay the priests for ritual baths or sacrificing livestock to be OK with God-for God was already within them and loved them just as they were; poor, oppressed, diseased, outcasts, widows, orphans and refugees all enduring under a brutal military occupation.

The authority of God, up until 2,000 years ago, was understood to be external. What got Christ crucified was that he placed God in the very hearts of his hearers and elevated them to the same level Caesar claimed to hold.

Jesus was a story teller that presupposed that his listener already knew it all and they didn’t need any outside authority to tell them what was wrong or right. His message was that the Divine authority is already in the heart of every human being; and this remains a most revolutionary concept.

The Roman Occupying Forces crucified Christ because he disturbed the status quo of the Empire which ruled by oppression. Jesus taught liberation.

The immanence of God and the Divine within the human heart throughout the ages has always inspired poets, musicians, writers, artists and prophets, even in modern times.

"If it keeps on raining, the levee's gonna break, If it keeps on raining, the levee's gonna break, some people are still sleeping, some people ARE WIDE AWAKE"- Bob Dylan, 2006 "Modern Times"

On October 13, 2009 Dylan's 47th album, "Christmas In The Heart" will be released.

All royalties will go to benefit millions in need through Feeding America, guaranteeing that more than four million meals will be provided to more than 1.4 million people in need in this country during this year’s holiday season. Dylan is also donating all of his future U.S. royalties from this album to Feeding America in perpetuity.

“It’s a tragedy that more than 35 million people in this country alone -- 12 million of those children – often go to bed hungry and wake up each morning unsure of where their next meal is coming from. I join the good people of Feeding America in the hope that our efforts can bring some food security to people in need during this holiday season.”-Bob Dylan

1. http://clinton4.nara.gov/textonly/WH/New/html/19971208-2814.html

2. http://www.bjorner.com/DSN05347%201980%20Second%20Gospel%20Tour.htm#DSN05410

3. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7545.htm

4. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070702/klein

-###-

Only in Solidarity do "we have it in our power to begin the world again."-Tom Paine

Eileen Fleming, A Feature Correspondent for The Palestine Telegraph and Arabisto.com
Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org
Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"
Producer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu"