As I sit here in East Jerusalem, reading about the Arab reaction to the possibility of 100,000 of the Jewish Holocaust survivors coming to Palestine, there is gunfire to the east.  From the West Bank.  Judea.  The Territories.  The Arab village down the hill.  Two separate worlds.  Every evening, gunfire from the east.  The sporadic popping of rifles as the sun sets in a blaze of glory that lights up the the Dome of the Rock like a beacon, and remains in the green neon that marks the minarets.  As I read about the partition plan, first suggested in the Peel Commission, and more recently by George W. Bush, the gunfire starts up again, louder this time, at the base of French Hill, which was named after a British officer, and not a Frenchman.  The French were in Syria and Lebanon.  They were the smart ones; they got out before a civil war forced them to, like the British, like the Americans.  A young man, a teenager, who might have been in school, decided his textbooks were right, and tried to cross into Nablus, on his way to Israeli targets over the Green Line, wearing an explosive-laden belt.  A young Israeli soldier, a woman my age, who might have been in school, had her country not called her, like thousands before and thousands after, to protect her country, saw the wires trailing from his shirt, and shot him dead.
Gunfire from the east.  Israelis and Arabs?  No.  Not tonight, not on the outskirts of the Holy City, al-Quds, Yirushalaim, Jerusalem.  Tonight, they are shooting at each other.  And the cresecent moon leaps off its daytime perch atop the golden dome into the sky, and lights up the separation wall, a gray headland, that keeps the city peaceful, that holds back the tide of jihad.  At least for now.  But there are trickles from the inside of the wall; a man who destroyed a night of religious study in West Jerusalem.  There was blood on the books, and on the other side of town, gunfire from the east.  There are two enemies to peace.  And they're on opposite sides of the wall.  Jihad from one side to the other.  And blood feuds from one side against itself.

עוד יבוא שלום אלינו ועל כולם.  שלאאם אלינו ועל כל העולם שלאאם שלאאם.  לילה טוב good night.

After three weeks of fighting the system--and getting absolutely trounced, but at least giving as good as I got--I managed to convince the bureaucracy at the international school to let me hold a Day of Silence event there.  I figured since it's a national day of action in the US, and most of the school is made up of Americans anyway, why not have a bit of social justice from home?  Activism is so American, after all.  And despite the religious organization putting their posters up over mine (or just taking them down), I managed to get about 12 people involved.  We're breaking our silence in about half an hour.
For those of you who don't know, Day of Silence is an event "run" by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network.  This was the twelfth year of the event, and according to their website, over 8500 middle schools, high schools, colleges, and universities were involved this year.  Participants are purposefully silent all day to bring attention to the silence, discrimination, hate, and prejudice faced by LGBTQIA people and their allies (yeah, I'm from California, I use the whole acronym). 
And so, people of Gaia, we are reminded that we can make a difference in the world around us, and even a small change can be magnified.  If we touch the people around us, they may in turn reach out to others, and create an expanding island of change that may one day encompass the world entire.
Naive, perhaps.  Optimistic, certainly.  Giving up...never.

Shalom Gaia Community!  I only found out about you this morning, as I was looking for scholarships for my last year of university, but I'm glad to be here and I'm looking forward to learning more about the community.
So, I'm Kate.  I'm a university student from Southern California, but I'm writing from Jerusalem, in Israel, where I am studying for a semester at Hebrew University. 
I'm a musician, a feminist, an environmentalist.  I plan on changing the world. 
One of the great things about being an international student is being forced to take public transportation everywhere...it's not scary, it's really easy, it's inexpensive, and the people watching is amazing.  I'd recommend it. 
Living green, I realized, is not as imposing as it seems.  It's just about moderation, which is really the best strategy for every aspect of our lives (eating, religion, exercise, buying...).  It's about buying less, consuming less, recycling or reusing...it's small changes that add up, and it's about making your own life a model of what an impact ordinary people can have.
Shabbat Shalom