As the writer of the Argentum Post, and as the person I am, it has become obvious that my background and my passions, particularly as regards to Zionism and its role in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, have had the effect to move me to literally “come out of the closet” in terms of my activism in support of progressive causes.

I have also, in this process, unavoidably made a few people feel uncomfortable and even less than a few people feel offended by the expression of my views and, prior to August of 2013, how I have expressed said views.

Well, I have tried to refine my “marksmanship” whereby I express my views by creating my own forum for it, namely the Argentum Post, but at times I must admit, I still have used the IT medium to network and express views outside of said forum.

To those who have been put off or worse, those very few who were offended, I can only say that I am sorry since that is not my intention of course, but I cannot apologize.    I can ask those few however to be frank about it and to please notify me if you wish that I delete you from all of my diverse mailing lists.  This will in no way offend me.

With this preamble I wish to proceed to the announcement, but prior to that, I wish to reiterate that through whatever medium I proceed in the expression of my activism, it is fundamentally based on my background, my lives’s experiences, and by irreversible commitment to secular/humanist values, and the “humanist” qualifier controls the “secular” dimension of this characterization.    This means the obvious, namely that I do not in any way am out to offend those who I consider religionist/humanist, nor do I want to offend anyone who is purely and simply human.

My focus is in doing my humble part in support of authentically representative democracy, transparency in the governance and in the corporate sectors, in support of social and economical justice, and in support of human rights and peaceful conflict resolution.

I also endeavor myself to do my humble part in support of the two pillars of our democracy which have been eroded and remain in disrepair, and those are, oureducational system which is woefully inadequate when it comes to the teaching of humanist based ethics and well as to the teachings of US and world history which is tainted by special interests or simply culturally ingrained bias, and our mainstream media , which is so toxically corporatized and otherwise under the influence of lobbies of undue influence, that it is no longer trustworthy and functional when it comes to tending to the need and right of “We the People” to be objectively informed via all media and without the distraction and dilution of “infotainment”.  This is no criticism of the journalists who notwithstanding their literal censure, have the heroic and principled and professional ethic motivation to do their job and do it at a very high risk, nationally and internationally.

Finally, but not least, I feel compelled to do my humble part in support of electoral reform, which by extension should lead to reforms in our dysfunctional Congress, as well as in  the Executive branch of our government, and therefore in the many agencies of our government agencies, particularly in the Department of State, in the health care agencies, and in the intelligence agencies, and in the Defense Department.

I feel that once we follow President Eisenhower’s advice in his farewell speech when he said “beware of foreign entanglements” and “beware of the industrial military complex” then we will have made a quantum leap forward.   I equally feel that once we amend our Constitution to allow us to be all we can be electorally on the federal level by creating the instant run-off system (IRV) whereby we can have a third party which will allow us to vote for a third party candidate such as Ralph Nader was, but which will simultaneously allow us to designate one of the other two party’s as the vote recipients if said third party candidate does not reach a majority vote,  such as Gore Vidal was, so that our vote for a Nader would not have been wasted to benefit a recipient such as Bush was, then we are home free.    Of course in such a state of advanced democracy there will be no room anymore for that historical relic called the Electoral College.

Now to the announcement re: “Tomorrow’s NYTimes Ad – 08/23/14).

Said NYTimes ad will be historical.

For the first time, 40 living survivors of the Nazi massacres and 287 direct descendants of Nazi atrocity survivors will be protesting the Israel massacres in Gaza.  This will also be a direct response to the egregious statements Elie Wiesel made in one page ad recently, wherein he disparages against those of us who do not support Israel’s criminal behavior.

It so happens that I also contributed to this ad and it is my understanding that my name will be among those 287 which could be reached and qualified to be in that list, however there are undoubtedly millions world wide who support this cause, and that includes the Orthodox Jews International (aka Neturei Karta) who have been to every protest against the barbaric killings and the international law violating occupation and blockade of Gaza by Israel, which lies at the root cause of all of the violence in this conflict which must and will be ended by the world community via the UN, the International Criminal Court, and hopefully by a fundamental reappraisal of the US unacceptable policy towards Israel which has isolated us and has increased vulnerabilities to our national physical and financial security.

With the fine work done by such Jewish organizations as Peace Now, Jewish Voices for Peace, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network and via the Boycott, Divest, Sanction pressures, incrementally progress in the direction of a lasting and sustainable peace is being made daily.

Most sincerely.

Fred

PS What follows is a redacted for discretion version of a notification which we who supported the NYTimes ad have received about the NYTimes ad.