Charles van Heck's Woodhull Journal

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  • THE SALT OF INDIVIDUAL ACTION:

    THE POSSIBILITY OF ANSWERS But what can one person do? I will not pretend to have all the answers to how to respond to the totalitarian regime that, in a few short months, has blatantly disregarded the law of our… Continue reading

  • THE SALT OF INDIVIDUAL ACTION

    PART ONE: THE QUESTION BEFORE US On the morning of 12 March 1930, Mahatma Gandhi began walking from his ashram in Ahmedabad towards the coastal town of Dandi on the Arabian Sea. The distance of 240 miles required walking twelve… Continue reading

  • ONE VOICE IN A CHORUS OF VOICES

    “A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:9). What are my obligations in these times of the emergence of a dictatorship, political discord, and economic chaos? I am merely one voice in a chorus of… Continue reading

  • THE TIME HAS COME FOR AN AMERICAN SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT

    April 5th marks the beginning of a Solidarity Movement here in the States. Those of us who are older remember the nonviolent struggle against the Polish authoritarian communist government. The movement was a coalition of union workers, students, intellectuals, farmers,… Continue reading

  • DEMOCRATS AND THE MORAL MOMENT

    To an independent outsider, the quarrel and discord between oppositional wings have made the Democratic Party appear obsolete. Neither the DNC leadership nor the operatives, those attached to the traditional role of polity, appear capable of recognizing who their constituencies… Continue reading

  • ART AND THE LET GO POINT

    There is a strangeness to the mornings. This is partly due to my inability to adjust to the time change these past few weeks. But there is more to the peculiarity. Spring’s arrival. The transition from winter, which was mild… Continue reading

  • Why Civil Resistance Works

    The other day I received permission from Canada Resist to republish this from their blog on Substack. There are lessons to learn from history. The question is whether or not we are willing to learn and apply those in this… Continue reading

  • SKATING ON A RAZOR’S EDGE

    This morning, I awoke feeling as if I were skating on a razor’s edge to the Rolling Stone’s “Sympathy for the Devil.” I distinctly recall one of the last conversations with my father. This took place on an April afternoon… Continue reading

  • RANDOM THOUGHTS ON FRIENDSHIP: A REFLECTION IN A TIME OF UNCERTAINTY

    A friend recently suggested to my wife that I post blogs regularly or risk losing readership. His advice is sound. Three blogs have been researched and roughly drafted. My thoughts, however, have been with mi amiga de combate. We have… Continue reading

  • PURIM: ESTHER IN TRUMPLAND

    Purim is a holiday of joy and remembrance. There is a carnival spirit to the holiday celebration of the triumph of Mordecai and Esther in thwarting King Ahasuerus’s advisor Haman’s scheme to exterminate all the Jews in the Persian empire.… Continue reading